For more than a year now I am working on a Add-In for Microsoft Excel (Windows only). Now it seems to be in a status were it can be used. What is missing and will follow soon is a documentation about all the buttons etc.
You can either download the source code or the setup or both.
Have fun.
For more than a year now I am working on a Add-In for Microsoft Excel (Windows only). Now it seems to be in a status were it can be used. What is missing and will follow soon is a documentation about all the buttons etc.
What does it do? what is if for?
Stupid me 
I should tell that also. It let you use Excel as a client for CasparCG. You can use it to send datasets to Caspar or use it as a fully interactive client. As Excel can import external data via PowerQuery, you can use it to inquire for instance sport results from the internet, fotmat it, and send it to Caspar. There is also a mechanism to let one or more of these PowerQueries run automatically on loading a template. That can be used to load external data each time you show a graphic. I used it for drone racing, were the time keepers provided the data via a JSON service. Itās a matter of minutes to build such a query, instead of programming a custom client for each application. It can also be used for voting etc. I am currently writing a user manual and hope to finish that by tomorrow.
In the mean time I have written kind of a documentation of the Add-In. You find the PDF here.
Hey Didi, great great tool! The power query is awesome. On which platforms (Win, Office, Caspar) have you done your testing ? Tested local or network connection ? I have some issues Win10, Excel 2016 64bit via network to CCG 2.2.0 on Win7. Preview works for list items but I donāt get any PGM out.
Hi Dirk, I tested it with server 2.0.7 as when I started the project, a year ago, that was the stable version and also what my clients work with. Have you read the documentation? There it should explain how to get output. For the list worksheet there are settings under the little gear icon in the lower, list related, pane of the dashboard.
For the worksheets were one sheet is one graphic the settings are in the dialog-box you access from the CasparCG ribbon āDataā pane.
Hey Didi,
I LOVE this. I am a complete newbie with CaparCG though. How do I get the client side to input the data? Or even create a template that would work with it.
This IS the client. You get the data into Excel in any way you get data into it. By typing, copy / paste or PowerQuery. You can use any templates that you have with it, there is no difference to the way other clients play templates.
Ok List ist working now. Rebooting everything and using 2.0.7 fixed the not working PGM playout. When using 2.2.0 I donāt get any templates in the drop downs. The TLS command arrives at the server and replies but Excel does not show any templates. Now I first need to learn how to program a template for custom worksheet data. Thanks so far.
The latest build corrects this. The format of the TLS return data has changed.
Very nice approach Didi
this is definatly something for in the toolbox !
Thank you for the great job ,Didi.
This is very helpful tool but Iāve got a little problem
Šbviously I do something wrong, because work only Preview function. Buttons play, next, stop and reload doesnāt work.
Any ideas?
That is not so easy to tell, without any further informations. Can you post screenshots of the different tabs in the dialog for the connection?
Ok, thanks, you should set the preview to be on a separate channel, if possible, so, that it does not interfere with the main output.
Then set a channel and layer on the āAuto-Updateā pane of the page property window. Then it should give you a set of working buttons.
I probably need to add better default values to the code.
After restart everything run correct.
Did you tried it with fields from dynamic XML files.
Is it possible to run on LibreOffice or OpenOffice?
As far as I know, they have their own Add On technology, that is not compatible to Excel. So the answer is no.
Nice Tool!
Iāve installed it.
In āListā worksheet everything works as expected.
when I make a new worksheet, I dont get buttons in dashboard for that.
I have set an output rage in the new worksheet, but no buttons in dashboard.
any ideas what Iām doing wrong?
Open the sheet properties via the small button on the bottom right corner of one of the button groups. There you need to set a template and the style of the buttons. See the manual how to do this.