If you are lucky, Excel files to be loaded into a data platform contain named ranges or defined tables that allow you to only load data required. I.e. a certain range of cells could be given a name or defined as a table, avoiding all sorts of setting complexity to parse the Excel data.
In the TimeXtender Excel connection you can currently restrict data loading to ‘defined tables only’, but this refers to table definitions you need to input yourself. If you are loading statistics (like the recently disappeared US Census data), those typically have table definitions which avoid all the textual context meant for human consumption. The current process is to open the Excel (requiring an M365/Office install or license), find the definition of the named range or table, copy-paste that as a table definition in the portal and load that.
I would like to have an option where the TimeXtender connector recognizes the named ranges and tables contained within the Excel and presents those. I.e. ‘Only use defined tables from the Excel file’, ‘Only use defined tables from the Data Source settings’ as toggle options. This way I never need to open the Excel imanually f it is properly defined and future changes to the ranges won't require manual intervention like they would now.
