Keep Excel in sync with model with MDG for Office?

[Gusztav]

Hi,

I'm pleased to meeet the MDG Integration for Microsoft Office extension, yet it looks a bit under-documented (or the organization of the documentation is not that logical), and so I could not figure out if this extensions makes it possible for me to keep, say, an Excel file listing requirements and a corresponding model package in sync. Under sync I mean changes can be propagated to both direction: changes in the Excel file are reflected in the model, and changes in the model are reflected in the Excel file.

So far I only could perform the Excel -> model synchronization, yet it is not straightforward. I imported an Excel file, made changes to the Excel file and then performed another import, but it's not a good idea that I carefully need to specify all import options and parameters, including to manually type package name, to have my model updated. Isn't there a Sync button in Excel or EA which could perform the synchronization of the worksheet and the model?

Lack of such features would greatly decrease the value of this extension, since it potentially requires me to not work on requirements in my model until I may expect business users to made changes to the Excel file listing requirements, otherwise I risk my work to be rewritten by the Excel version, into which I can not propagate my model changes...

[Guillaume]

Hi Gusztav,

You may want to try an alternative MDG: eaDocX supports both Word and Excel (ref : www.eadocx.com).
eaDocX Excel module provides an import + export + comparison feature to help synchronisation model data with Excel files.

I published a quick comparison chart here: http://bit.ly/1WecX4u

[Gusztav]

Thanks for the idea. Actually I've tried eaDocx a couple of times, and I'd be the happiest user if it would not give errors for any operations just because my language uses UTF-8 and accented characters. I think there's a great potential it, even if it is little bit expensive for our economic conditions, but it really did not work for Hungarian.

[Pegasus]

Hello Gusztav,

I do have similar use case an do also have some problem. For some of them please see topic http://sparxsystems.com/forums/smf/index.php/topic,30327.0.html.
Also based on an BUG Report mentioned MDG Integration for MS Office (Excel Export/Importer) and the description of the use case (like yours) with the bidirectional synchronising data (e.g. Requirements) in the excel-file and the model, I do get following Info from Sparx

" ... Regarding the Import vs. Export Profiles we will be looking into amalgamating these. ...

1. Why is column A (GUID) added - The ‘GUID’ is added in column A to allow synchronization,  the user is expected to skip column A (Hidden by the exporter) and start configuring Headers from Column B.
2. We have just exported a sample model with this settings and noticed that, when ‘Generate Headers’ is off, the Exporter is expected to retain the header definitions, and just introduce a column to the right, but looks like its been overwritten (BUG). We will get this investigated immediately.
..."

Pegasus

[Gusztav]

Hi,

Thanks for posting your case, and I hope the fixes will get incorporated into a release soon. I also got a feedback from Sparx with regards to similar problems, stating fixes are to be released to this feature. I just can't wait it.