Altair® Monarch®

 

The Aspose Engine

Monarch Classic Classic and Monarch Data Prep Studio now feature two Excel engines for reading metadata and tables from XLS, XLSX, XLSB, and XLSM files: the original engine, also called "Legacy," which is based on Microsoft's ACE OleDB provider, and a new one, "Monarch Excel Table," which is based on Aspose.

The Aspose Engine in Classic

In Classic, you can select which engine to use when working with Excel files through any of the following methods:

  • Options > Input > Excel Files

  • Table Design > Database

  • Table Design > External Lookups

When specified in Options > Input, the selected engine becomes the default engine when opening all Excel files. In the case of external lookups, each external table includes its own set of parameters, which means both engines may be used according to the requirements of the spreadsheets to be opened. When an older project or model (i.e., .xprj/.dprj or .xmod/.dmod) is loaded, the Legacy engine is usually used, unless a fallback policy (mode) is specified. This option is also found in Options > Input > Excel Files.

When the Legacy engine is available, Classic will honor the engine as specified in projects/models, and, when opening new spreadsheets, it will honor the default engine choice as specified in Options > Input > Excel Files. In this case, the fallback policy is irrelevant. However, when the Legacy engine is not available, Classic will attempt to honor the engine as specified in projects/models but will fall back to the Aspose engine if the Fallback Mode is enabled. When opening new spreadsheets, it will honor the default engine choice contingent on the specified Fallback Mode.

The Aspose Engine in Monarch Data Prep Studio

In Monarch Data Prep Studio, you can specify the Excel engine (i.e., Monarch Excel Table/Aspose or ACE OLE DB/Legacy) to use via the following methods:

  • Settings > Application Default Settings > Excel

  • Open Data > Microsoft Excel > Excel Explorer

  • Excel Table > Load Options > Edit Load Options

 

Note the following conditions when opening new XLS of XLSX files:

Excel Import Engine

OLE DB Provider Present?

Effect

OLE DB

Yes

Use OLE DB

OLE DB

No

Fallback to Monarch Excel Table engine; confirmation required

Monarch Excel Table

Yes

Use Monarch Excel Table engine

Monarch Excel Table

No

Use Monarch Excel Table engine

 

Another setting, i.e., Upgrade settings for existing workspaces, is also implemented in Monarch Data Prep Studio to handle Excel data sources in existing workspaces and recent and library items. Using this setting, you can specify whether all existing objects should be loaded using the original import connector or the Aspose engine.

Note the following conditions when opening existing workspaces and recent and library items:

Input Metadata Setting

Upgrade Setting

OLE DB Provider Present?

Effect

OLE DB

OLE DB

Yes

Use OLE DB without notification

OLE DB

OLE DB

No

Fallback to Monarch Excel Table engine; confirmation required

OLE DB

Monarch Excel Table

Yes

Use Monarch Excel Table engine with notification

OLE DB

Monarch Excel Table

No

Use Monarch Excel Table engine with notification

Monarch Excel Table

OLE DB

Yes

Use OLE DB with notification

Monarch Excel Table

OLE DB

No

Use OLE DB with notification; fallback to Monarch Excel Table engine (confirmation required)

Monarch Excel Table

Monarch Excel Table

Yes

Use Monarch Excel Table engine

Monarch Excel Table

Monarch Excel Table

No

Use Monarch Excel Table engine

 

Limitations of the Aspose Engine

When the Aspose engine is enabled, both Classic and Monarch Data Prep Studio cannot support Microsoft Excel 95 .XLS files. Excel files in the 97-2003 workbook format are supported in this engine. To continue using the data in a 95 .XLS file in either application, open the file in Excel and then save it to a supported format. Alternatively, use the OLE DB engine when importing such files.