Web services and Web functions
[this page | pdf | references | back links]
The Nematrian website gives you access to a wide range of
on-line (‘cloud-based’) tools using the medium of web services. To see a
complete list of tools it makes available please go to the list of types of Nematrian
web services or complete
list of functions. Making tools available in this way makes them accessible
to any PC with internet access.
To maximise the usefulness of these tools, they can be
accessed in multiple ways, including:
Interactively, focusing on a
specific function
If you follow links to a specific function then one of the
options available to you is to ‘interactively run the function’. This
takes you to a form where you can see the result of applying the function to
inputs you have entered into the form. To help you get started the page also
includes an example.
Interactively, using the Nematrian
expression evaluator
The Nematrian website’s expression evaluator
is a general purpose on-line calculator into which you can put more complicated
or compound formulae. For example, if you enter 2+3 it will recognise this as
5. Various conventions allow you to manipulate arrays and other more
complicated expressions. Any of the individual functions referred to above can
be accessed within the expression evaluator.
Embedded within hyperlinks
If you need to share your calculations with others then
another helpful way of accessing the Nematrian function library is via
hyperlinks that show the end answer of the calculation but embed within the
hyperlink the inputs that generated that answer. Typically the results of using
either individual function pages or the expression evaluator are returned to
the user in the form of such hyperlinks such as the following:
![[SmartChart]](I/WebServicesIntro_files/image001.gif)
Via spreadsheets
The Nematrian function library can also be accessed via
spreadsheet systems. For those familiar with Microsoft Office, the way in which
the library is accessed through this route is conceptually akin to use of
built-in functions such as SUM or COUNT that can be entered directly into
Microsoft Excel worksheet cells, or akin to the more sophisticated functions or
subroutines that you can create using the ‘macro’ language that comes packaged
with Excel, i.e. Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. Names of Nematrian
web functions accessed in this manner begin with “Mn”.
For example, the Nematrian function library includes a
function Abs which returns
the absolute value of a real number (i.e. 
if
and
if
).
To avoid confusion with Microsoft Excel’s own ABS function (which in this case
Abs replicates), the Nematrian Abs function should be accessed using MnAbs(x)
in the spreadsheet API. The page on the Nematrian website giving further
details of this function is also called MnAbs. Note: when using the tool
interactively or via an embedded hyperlink as above the Nematrian website will
recognise either Abs(x) or MnAbs(x) interchangeably.
To make it easier for you to use of the library in this
manner, each Nematrian function page contains a link to an example spreadsheet
containing an example use of the function as well as example uses of other
related functions. Any other function within the library can be accessed
through the same spreadsheet, but the examples themselves are subdivided into
smaller groups to make the process of illustrating related functions more
manageable.
If you don’t like downloading spreadsheets with embedded
macros then a step-by-step guide to creating a VBA module from scratch that
permits access to the entire Nematrian function library is available here. Instructions
on how to access the functions using the WEBSERVICE function built into Excel
2013 and later are available here.
Via more sophisticated
programming environments
Information for software developers wanting to understand
how to access Nematrian web functions through more sophisticated programming
environments such as Visual Studio is set out here.
NAVIGATION LINKS
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