Programming Microsoft Office 2000 Web Components第一章

譯者說明：

《Programming Microsoft Office 2000 Web Components》是我從網上下載下傳的一本講述OWC技術的英文電子書，之是以要翻譯這本書，是基于以下幾個想法：

1、閱讀英文資料時常常會不求甚解，忽略很多細節和不容易閱讀的句子，如果強迫自己逐句的翻譯出來，則會對原來的英文資料有更加全面、詳細和深刻的了解。

2、可以鍛煉自己在英語方面的能力。

3、能夠給其他需要這方面的資料的朋友提供一定的幫助。

    這是本人初次進行這方面的工作，本人的技術和英文能力都很一般，是以希望朋友們能夠對我的文章中的錯誤和缺陷提出寶貴的意見和建議，謝謝大家！

     歡迎大家通路我的Blog: http://daidaoke.donews.net/daidaoke/

第一章 Office Web Components 介紹

微軟Office 2000中包含了一組名為Office Web Components(OWC) 的新控件。使用這些元件，你能在web浏覽器環境和傳統的程式設計環境中開發許多有用的資料分析和報表解決方案。

在這一章，我将解釋為什麼Office Web Components會被開發出來，它們是什麼，以及您可以在什麼地方使用它們。我也将會向您提供關于在商業解決方案中使用這些元件的一些初步的意見，本書第二部分會提供這些元件的一些常用的，基于實踐的使用方法，并帶您一步一步地了解在這些解決方案中所使用的各種技術。

如果您一點兒也不了解這些控件，請繼續閱讀吧，因為本章會提供本書其它部分所需要的基礎知識。如果您已經熟悉這些控件了，隻是希望了解如何在商業解決方案中使用它們，那麼請直接跳到第六章吧。

第一節  為什麼Office Web Components會被建立出來？

面向World Wide Web所開發的技術象一場風暴一樣吸引了大大小小的商業機構，各公司現在意識到Internet和Web是發現客戶和在客戶，供貨商，以及銷售商之間傳遞資訊的關鍵機制。各公司也意識到如果将同樣的技術運用到公司的區域網路或者廣域網（就是我們所知的intranets）内部的話，能夠為他們商業運作中共享資訊以及開發和部署工具提供可伸縮的，靈活的，易于使用的機制。

在不久以前，建立和管理企業内部網際網路的内容的工作是僅屬于WEB站點管理者的魔法。随着站點管理和内容建立工具的出現，例如Microsoft FrontPage，普通人也能夠建立可以在Web上發表的文檔，并且幾乎象管理他們本地計算機上的文檔一樣管理這些文檔了。這樣的工具使得非專業的技術人員建立Web站點，并且在他們的同僚之間共享資訊這樣的事情成為可能。

純文字的文檔能夠很好的相容于HTML和Web浏覽器技術，但不是所有文檔在僅使用靜态文本浏覽時都能很有效地發揮它的作用。那些建立了電子表格，資料庫以及資料報表的作者當在公司内部的網際網路上共享這些東西時遇到了特殊的問題和機會。共享電子表格或者資料報表的主要價值在于讓其它的使用者和它進行互動并能根據他們自己的需要來調整這個模型。例如，如果您建立了一個能根據各種輸入的價格來分析産品利潤率的電子表格，共享這個電子表格的一個重要方面就是使得其它使用者能夠改變或者輸入新的假設值并檢視重新計算後的結果。

同樣的，如果您建立了一個Microsoft Excel的資料透視表(通常被稱為交叉表)，那麼允許其它人排序，過濾，分組，重新組織，或者鑽取更多的詳細資訊是共享這些文檔的一個基本目的。換句話說，在Web上釋出一個電子表格或者資料文檔僅僅是故事的一半。故事的另一半是使得其它使用者能夠與這些釋出的文檔進行互動，并能存儲那些對他們來說有用的資訊，而不僅僅是釋出者才能這麼做。

IT公司機構也意識到Web和Internet技術的益處。當在公司的内部網際網路上使用Web技術建立資訊系統時，許多系統變得十分易于開發，分布，使用和維護。有兩種這樣類型的系統：決策支援系統(DSS),也被稱作主管資訊系統(EIS)，最近更多的被稱作線上分析處理系統(OLAP)；和交易系統，這個稱呼很少被使用或僅被大衆所使用。第七章的銷售分析和報表解決方案提供了一個基于Web浏覽器的OLAP的例子，第八章所描述的的Timesheet的解決方案展示了一個大衆常用交易工具的例子。

決策支援系統能夠非常好的利用Web技術和Web使用者體驗。想知道上個月您的産品銷量嗎？打開您的浏覽器，點選一個特殊的連結即可。需要了解您地區的客戶清單嗎？這僅僅是從您的公司内部網際網路首頁上的又一次點選而已。例如CGI和ASP這樣的技術使得IT組織能夠根據需要提供生動的報表，這些報表能夠被檢視，列印，或者被導出到各種分析工具中。

    然而，檢視報表的人常常希望從一個稍微不同的角度來觀看報表，根據一個不同的值來排序，根據一個不同的次序來分組資料，鑽取并獲得關于某一個數字的更詳細的資訊，或者通過圖表的方式來檢視資料。當以上任何一種特定的情況發生時，IT組織們回到了一個他們一直必須要處理的同樣的問題，那就是：他們怎樣才能建立一個滿足每個人的需要的，靈活的，功能豐富的，并且是易于使用的報表系統呢？

    第二類系統—交易系統—也從WEB技術中獲益。需要改變您的401(K)計劃嗎？(美國養老基金體系相關的一個計劃)隻要跟随人力資源首頁上的連結漫遊，輸入新的值，并且點選送出按鈕即可。需要别人幫助修理您的電腦嗎？在熱線支援站點中漫遊，填好表格以描述您的問題，并且點選送出按鈕即可。不需要運作任何安裝程式，不需要執行複雜的應用程式，并且隻需要很少的用戶端磁盤空間，甚至是不需要。

有時這些應用程式需要一個胖用戶端界面，以便提供類似網格的資料輸入界面，重新計算功能，更新圖表以顯示目前資料産生的效果，等等。為了保持分布的優點，一個IT組織會需要在頁面中使用一個這樣的靈活的元件，然而，他們經常缺乏資源來自己開發這樣的元件。

術語解釋

嚴格的說，術語”決策支援系統”,”主管資訊系統”,和”線上分析處理系統”不是完全相同的—每個術語都有各自的側重點，使得它有一點點的獨特。自從資訊系統不再僅僅被主管人員使用，術語”主管資訊系統”現在已經很少使用；然而，從前這個術語描述的是這樣的資訊系統：向監控公司正常營運的主管們提供及時，高水準的商業資訊的系統。術語”決策支援系統”具有很大的泛指性，适用于那些着眼于決策制定和關注特别資料分析的釋出的系統。 “OLAP”是目前的一個熱門詞語，它常常被用來描述一類的技術，而不是圍繞他們所建立起來的解決方案。 唉，我們商業出版領域中的朋友常常混用這些術語。

    那麼，如何在企業内部網上釋出一種互動的使用體驗呢？如何使得電子表格或資料報表在web浏覽器中變得生動呢？如何開發和分布能夠提供豐富的資料分析和資料可視化能力的解決方案呢？如何使用胖用戶端界面建立交易解決方案呢？答案就是Office Web Components。

附錄：

    英文原文：

Chapter 1

Introducing the Office Web Components

Microsoft Office 2000 includes a new set of controls called the Office Web Components (OWC). Using these components, you can build many useful data analysis and reporting solutions, both in the web browser and in traditional programming environments. In this chapter, I will explain why the Office Web Components were created, what they are, and where you can use them. I will also give you a few initial ideas for their use in business solutions. Part II of the book will provide some common, practical uses of the components and will take you on a step-by-step tour of the techniques used in those solutions.

If you don't know anything about these controls, read on, as this chapter will serve as the foundation for the rest of the book. If you are already familiar with the components and just want to see how to use them in business solutions, skip ahead to Chapter 6.

Why Were the Office Web Components Created?

The technologies developed for the World Wide Web are taking both large and small businesses by storm. Companies now see the Internet and the Web as key mechanisms for reaching their customers and for distributing information among customers, suppliers, and vendors. Companies are also realizing that the same technologies used internally on their LANs or WANs (known as intranets) provide scalable, flexible, easy-to-use mechanisms for sharing information and for developing and deploying tools to run their businesses.

Not so long ago, setting up and managing content on an intranet was a black art relegated to "webmasters." With the advent of site management and content creation tools such as Microsoft FrontPage, ordinary mortals could create web-ready documents and manage them much like they managed files on their local computers. Tools such as these made it possible for semitechnical individuals to set up web sites and share information with their coworkers.

Documents full of text lend themselves well to HTML and web browser technologies, but not all documents are useful when viewed as static text only. Authors who create spreadsheets, databases, and database reports encounter special problems and opportunities when sharing these on their corporate intranets. Much of the value of sharing a spreadsheet or database report lies in letting other users interact with it and tailor the model to their own needs. For example, if you create a spreadsheet to analyze a product's profitability given various input costs, an important aspect of sharing that spreadsheet is enabling other users to change or enter new assumptions and view the recalculated results. Likewise, if you create a Microsoft Excel PivotTable report (more commonly known as a crosstab report), allowing other people to sort, filter, group, reorganize, or drill down to more detail is an essential part of sharing these documents. In other words, publishing a spreadsheet or database document on a web is only half the story. The other half is enabling others to interact with the published document and garner information that's meaningful to them, not just to the publisher.

Corporate information technology (IT) groups are also realizing the benefits of web and Internet technologies. Many information systems are much easier to develop, deploy, use, and support when created with web technologies on the corporation's intranet. Two such classes of systems exist: decision support systems (DSS), also known as executive information systems (EIS) or the more recent name online analytical processing (OLAP), and transactional systems, which are used infrequently or by large audiences. The Sales Analysis and Reporting solution in Chapter 7 gives an example of OLAP in a web browser, and the Timesheet solution described in Chapter 8 shows an example of a transactional tool commonly used by a large audience.

Decision support systems lend themselves incredibly well to the technologies and user metaphors of the web. Want to know how many units of your product were sold last month? Open your web browser, and click a particular hyperlink. Need to see a list of customers in your district? Again, it's just a click away from your team's intranet home page. Technologies such as Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) have made it possible for IT groups to deliver live reports on demand in a format that can be viewed, printed, or imported into a variety of analysis tools.

However, often the person viewing the report wants to see it in a slightly different way, sort it by a different value, group the data in a different order, drill down and see more detail about a number, or see the data organized into a chart. When any of these scenarios occurs, IT groups return to the same problem they have always had to deal with: how do they build a flexible, robust, and easy-to-use reporting system that satisfies everyone's needs?

The second class of systems—transactional systems—also benefits from the technologies of the web. Need to change your 401(k) contribution? Just follow a hyperlink on the human resources home page, enter the new value, and click the Submit button. Need help fixing your computer? Navigate to the helpdesk site, fill out the form describing your problem, and click Submit. There's no install program to run, no complex application to execute, and little to no client-side disk space needed.

Sometimes these applications demand a richer client interface, one that will provide gridlike data entry, recalculation, updates to charts showing the impact of the current value, and so on. To keep the deployment benefits, an IT group would need to use an active component in the page; however, they often lack the resources to develop such components themselves.

The Subtler Side of Buzzwords

To be precise, the terms "decision support systems," "executive information systems," and "OLAP" are not quite synonymous—each has a slant that makes it a little unique. The term "executive information systems" is hardly used today since information systems aren't used only by executives anymore; however, once upon a time the phrase described information systems that delivered critical, high-level business information to executives who were monitoring the health of the company. The term "decision support systems" is more encompassing and applies to systems that aid in decision making, often focusing on delivering ad hoc data analysis. "OLAP" is a hot buzzword today, and it's more often used to describe a class of technologies than the solutions built around them. Alas, our friends in the trade press often use all these terms interchangeably.

So how do you deliver an interactive experience on the corporate intranet? How do you make a spreadsheet or database report come to life in the web browser? How can you develop and deploy solutions that provide rich data analysis and data visualization capabilities? How can you build transactional solutions with richer client interfaces? The answer is the Office Web Components.