Proto Software

I am a new proto user...like it so far...but can't find how to get the right arrows together to link up the excel reader/writer and the ODBC data source. I'm trying to follow the examples, but it's not easy. Any advice?

Hi there - can you elaborate on what specifically you're trying to do? By "link up" do you mean to combine them?

It would be helpful if you can be explicit about what the data sources are (Excel, database, etc.) and what you want to do with the data once you read it into Proto? The more specific you can be the better we can help out.

Thanks. I have an excel file with name, age, location fields. I want to be able to do a query on them and then print out the data into an xy graph as name vs age. I am trying to connect the relevant sources, but the arrows are complicated. I don't know what type of arrows to connect, and nothing seems to be able to make a connection fixed. thoughts?

Sure - have you been able to get the data into a Table as a first step to see that you're reading in the data from Excel correctly? To do what you're describing, it sounds like you will want:
1. An Excel Reader to read in the data
2. An Entryset Filter or maybe a filtering component to query the data. By query I assume you mean filter in some way.
3. Some manipulations and possibly other stuff to get the columns in the right order to graph it.
4. etc.

I'm not sure how you would plot the age versus the name in an xy graph... you probably would be better off with a bar graph. Hope this helps.

Thanks. good start, but my question is this: what is the name of the arrows to use when connecting the excel reader to the entryset filter? it's like obdc or excel, and both don't seem to work. I can't drag either arrow to the other component and have it become "fixed". I did try to import the data into a table, but that did not seem to work.

can you please send me the link to teh demo that shows how this is done? I can't seem to find it again easily. thanks

To read data from Excel and get it into a Table:
1. Configure the Excel reader (this is shown in the product demo, thought not covered in detail: http://www.protosw.com/devcenter/introduction-to-pro...)

2. Make a connection from the Excel Reader (Excel Reader Connectors > Defined Range Connectors > *the name of the range you created*) to the Table Connectors > Set Entryset.

If that doesn't work then somethings up with the Excel Reader configuration.

Otherwise, I would suggest working through Lesson 1 and 2 to cover making connections and other basic topics.