Estimated completion time = 20 minutes.

In this tutorial, you will be creating an application in EASA that searches for stock data within a database and writes the search results to an Excel spreadsheet. In order for your application to be able to complete these tasks, you will need to configure the EASA server to connect to the database and have an active Excel Server for you to use.

Please follow the instructions below to complete this practical session. Detailed information on the tasks completed in this session can be found at Connect to an External Database.

Note: The tasks in this Practical Session require both login access to the computer acting as the EASA Server and an account with Administrator role privileges within EASA.

The EASA Server comes with a running HypersonicSQL database. To configure this database, login into EASA and select:

• EASA→Set Mode→Administrator

Now go to the database configuration page:

• EASA→Configure→Databases

Click the link 'Configure Databases'.

The HypersonicSQL database named StockData should be visible, as in the image below:

Check the check box and click the Edit Database button. A new window appears as below:

If we were configuring EASA to use a database we would need all the configuration information on this page for our application. However the tutorial data, StockData, is already configured. We need to run a test query to confirm that the data we need is available. To the left of the 'Generate Optimal Validation Query' button is an automatically generated SELECT statement that we will run from the EASA→Configure→Databases page. Click Cancel to return to this page.

Click on the 'Run Test' icon for StockData. If the query runs, a 'Test Passed' message should be displayed. Click back button in the browser. Now click the 'Query Tester' icon. This new page allows SQL to be entered and run. Type:

• Select * from Exchange where id=1

and click 'Test Query'.

A results set should appear as below:

We have now confirmed that the StockData database exists and we can connect to it and that there is data in the table Exchange. The next step is to configure the Excel Server in EASA.

Note: To see StockData from a remote EASAP Server, change the URL from localhost to an IP address or hostname.

Note: If the Excel Server software was installed on the EASA Server during installation, then you can skip to Practical Session 2.

In order to complete this tutorial, your EASA system also needs to have an active Excel Server configured for you to use. The Excel Server component must be installed on a Windows computer, which has MS Excel installed on it.

Instructions for installing the Excel Server software are given at Add a new Compute Server or Excel Server.

Once the Excel Server software has been installed, the computer needs to be configured as an Excel Server in EASA using the following procedure:

• Open the Compute Server Configuration Tool using the compute server configuration link on the EASA→Administrator→Configure→Compute Servers page.

• Note: In order to open the Compute Server Configuration Tool, you will need to have the EASA Client software installed on your computer. This software can be installed from the Install Client page under the EASA tab in User mode

• In the Compute Server Configuration Tool, add an EXCEL SERVER to the COMPUTE SERVER LIST branch and then set its parameters:

Note: <your_server_name> is the name of the computer on which EASA Server software was just installed.

• Save and exit the Compute Server Configuration Tool.
• Click on the Update Excel Servers button on the Compute Servers page. You should now see the new Excel Compute Server in the table on this page and its Status should be 'active'.

At this point, the database and the Excel Server required to complete this tutorial are now configured in EASA and you can continue with the next practical session.

Practical Session 2