Collaborative Environmental Data Management Framework for Microsoft Excel

Abstract

In many companies Microsoft Excel is often used as a CEMIS for managing environmental data. In collaborative scenarios this single-user application often causes problems. In this article, the multi user framework Quexolver is presented, which supports the simultaneous processing of environmental data in Excel by multiple users. The multi-user capability is provided by introducing a role and rights management concept for Excel users and a client server architecture with a central database. The use of web services provided by the framework (server) enables the communication between the individual Excel applications (client) and the database. First experiences with Quexolver based on a case study from the environmental protection are also described.