Role of Excel Services in SharePoint 2010

Excel Services is part of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Excel Services is built on ASP.NET and SharePoint Foundation technologies

Excel Services enables you to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint Server

Core Components are:-

·         Excel Web Access

·         Excel Web Services

·         User-defined functions (UDFs)

·         ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Representational State Transfer (REST) service

·         Excel Calculation Services

An important aspect of Excel Services is that solution developers can use its power programmatically from their applications.

There are five types of development that you can do by using Excel Services:

·         Develop solutions by using Excel Web Services

·         Extend the Microsoft Excel function library in Excel Services by using user-defined functions (UDFs)

·         Customize the Excel Web Access Web Part

·         Develop solutions by using ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Use the REST API to perform operations against Excel workbooks

It supports sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a browser by providing the following:

Global settings for managing workbooks,

·         settings for security

·         load balancing

·         session management

·         memory utilization

·         workbook caches,

·         external data connections

·         Trusted file locations

An extensive list of trusted data providers for connecting to your data, plus the ability to add your own trusted data provider.

·         Trusted data connection libraries, which allow you to define which data connection libraries in your farm are trusted by Excel Services

·         The ability to add your own user-defined function assemblies.