This document is for older OpenL Studio 3.1.0.7. To get the latest documentation go here

OpenL Tablets Web Studio

One of the major objections we often hear from Business Users and IT guys alike, when pitching OpenL Tablets approach, is that Excel files and tables are not very suitable for enterprise environment due to the lack of good management tools.

We always argued that this concern could be alleviated by rigorous organizational procedures and specialized technical tools. Once these are in a place one starts to rip benefits of using "just Excel" as a Business Knowledge Management Tool.

The first step in this direction was an introduction of OpenL Tablet Eclipse Plugin that treated Excel files as a conventional source code. It "compiled" Excel files and showed errors that could be easily navigated to the source of the problem.

If error happened in runtime, it would produce a console link similar to the Java stack trace that also would point to the actual problem source directly inside Excel file. This functionality is still not available anywhere else⁽¹⁾.

Now the technologies once pioneered in OpenL Eclipse Plugin reach further into project management domain with Technology Preview Release of OpenL Tablets Web Studio. It features simple user-friendly browser-based interface with multi-hierarchical view of project components, full-text search and indexing of Excel and Word files. No matter how many Excel or Word⁽²⁾ files your project has, they will be organized in a hierarchical structured project view that is easy to navigate, search and explore. By leveraging OpenL Click-to-Edit approach Web Studio brings to business users all the advantages that before were only available to OpenL developers.

Here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

Top Web Studio View

Table View With Hidden Technical Information - good for Business Users

The Same Table - Full View

Search Screen

Index Screen

Link-to-Edit explanation. User's Click On Link Starts Excel - you can immediately edit file in Excel, save it and click Refresh icon in Studio. Changes will be reflected on the screen right away

Fine Print

(1) The existential statements like not available anywhere else most probably reflect author's ignorance. There is always something somewhere. Please send me links or info regarding similar products, I will post it here

(2) For now Word files can be used only for search and indexing. Just put them somewhere inside your project and Studio will automatically find and index them. OpenL Tablets already have developed the technology for extraction of tables from Word documents, but it is not integrated yet with OpenL Plugin Project Builder. First things first