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0 pointsdgudkov10y ago0 comments

Look at my EasyMorph (http://easymorph.com). It's a visual replacement for scripted data transformations. People use it to replace SAS and Visual Basic scripting. It also allows creating reusable modules. Contact me at <hnusername>@easymorph.com if it looks interesting to you.

0 comments

shaunxcode10y ago

Hey, I clicked through, read the tutorial, got excited about your examples.. tried to download and found out it was windows only! I would have totally evaluated it further if there were an os x/linux option.

dgudkovOP10y ago

Thanks for checking it out! As we're targeting Tableau users so eventually we will release an OS X version.

nycdatasci10y ago

Speaking of Tableau (which was founded on the concept of VizQL), how is this different? Doesn't tableau basically enable knowledge workers to create data-centric web applications?

hbt10y ago

use a virtual machine or install windows as dual boot.

If this software solves a problem you are really having, nothing would stop you.

CognitiveLens10y ago

if solving one problem involves creating another, it's good to be cautious.

mistermann10y ago

Does this have an API that can be called from .Net?

I'm really liking some of the things Microsoft is doing with Power Query, but I don't like how it is (afaik) only callable from Excel or PowerBI online. I'd like similar capability, but more open, and could be called via scripting, from SQLCLR, etc.

Another big hitch: Microsoft has not published proper API's for manipulating PowerPivot models in Excel, and I don't think they intend to - I've heard one 3rd party has reverse engineered the API's (you can decompile the .Net binaries, but I haven't had the time to look at it yet).

tycho0110y ago

Would you perhaps have any info/reference about where I could learn more about this reverse engineered PowerPivot API? This sounds pretty exciting. :D

To expand on my question, I'd heard (from Rob 'PowerPivotPro' Collie, former product manager on the project IIRC) that the core had been written in 'unmanaged code' (probably C++?), so I believe reverse engineering it would be a significantly larger effort than just opening some of its DLLs in say DotPeek, at least from as far as I've been able to tell.

mistermann10y ago

The PowerPivot engine itself I imagine is in unmanaged code, but the code that just writes datasets and whatnot to the model is (from what I've heard)managed code, and indeed you can decmpile the libraries and see all sorts of things, I've only looked around for about 10 minutes or so. And I had just read on some obscure thread that someone had successfully found the undocumented API call to write to the model, which is what I'm wanting to do - but I don't even know what the product name is that supposedly does this, sorry.

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dgudkovOP10y ago

Currently EasyMorph supports integration through command line only. We do not plan having API for the desktop client, but we will definitely make EasyMorph Server API if we reach that point.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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shaunxcode10y ago

dgudkovOP10y ago

Thanks for checking it out! As we're targeting Tableau users so eventually we will release an OS X version.

nycdatasci10y ago

Speaking of Tableau (which was founded on the concept of VizQL), how is this different? Doesn't tableau basically enable knowledge workers to create data-centric web applications?

hbt10y ago

use a virtual machine or install windows as dual boot.

If this software solves a problem you are really having, nothing would stop you.

CognitiveLens10y ago

if solving one problem involves creating another, it's good to be cautious.

mistermann10y ago

Does this have an API that can be called from .Net?

tycho0110y ago

Would you perhaps have any info/reference about where I could learn more about this reverse engineered PowerPivot API? This sounds pretty exciting. :D

mistermann10y ago

1 more reply

dgudkovOP10y ago

Currently EasyMorph supports integration through command line only. We do not plan having API for the desktop client, but we will definitely make EasyMorph Server API if we reach that point.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse