Infotron PerfectXL Ribbon

Abstract

The focus of the project was to create an Excel Ribbon for the spreadsheet analysis tool PerfectXL. The tool allows users to upload Excel workbooks, have them analyzed for risks, and download the analysis results. The Ribbon would allow users to upload Excel workbooks and retrieve the analysis results from within the Excel environment. First, a two week research phase was conducted. During this research phase, it was established that Visual Studio 2015 would be used for the programming environment, and to use Windows Installer for the deployment of the Ribbon. The design is based on a separation between the functionality of the Ribbon and its presentation. This design decision was made so that the functionality code could easily be reused for new versions of Excel. Only the presentation would have to be modified. The implementation conforms to the design, and relies on background processes. These background processes allow the Ribbon to run in the background without blocking the Excel environment. The testing of the product is based on unit tests, where all classes are tested individually after every new functionality. The performance of the add-in was also tested with Excel workbooks of various sizes, where the upload time and the analysis time were separated. The findings of these performance tests was that the PerfectXL web application is the biggest bottleneck in the performance of the Ribbon. The final product conforms to the client’s needs and requirements.