Using XML data

We can use XML data to populate our dashboard with data. To do this, we first need to display the Developer tab in Excel. This is because we will call the XML URL from the Excel Developer tab.

Go to the Excel options and show the Developer tab, as marked in the following screenshot:

Now, let's follow the steps to establish an XML connection:

1. Open a new dashboard file, or you can open XML Maps.XL from the side examples folder under the example code.

2. Navigate to the Excel model and click on the Developer ribbon.

3. Click on Source and then on XML Maps….

4. Click on Add… and enter the following URL in the open field: https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/timezone/xml?location=39.6034810,-119.6822510&timestamp=1331161200. This is a link to a public XML service that will ask for a location and respond with the time zone of that location.

5. Click on Ok.

   You can see these steps in this screenshot:

   

Now, we need to use the XML source in our Excel model. Then, we can bind this information with any...