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.