Time Travel
Time Travel is Sheetloom's ability to inject previously generated historic data directly into a woven sheet at runtime, allowing side-by-side comparisons of current versus past data.
To set up the Time Travel feature:
1. Save selected results to Time Travel
Select the range in the template to save as a Time Travel snapshot and name it in the following format:
chosen_range_name.timetravel.save
For example, a range in the template shows cost of sales by job order ID. To save the results of this range only to Time Travel, create a named range for it called:
costofsales.timetravel.save
The first time a snapshot is created at runtime, it is saved to a folder that is automatically generated. The path to the snapshot, from the Time Travel page, is:
Timetravel/Name_of_template/name_of_snapsot/
e.g. Timetravel/coolcargo/costofsales/
The snapshot is now available for use in the template.
2. Incorporate a Time Travel snapshot into a template.
With Time Travel setup to generate and save the snapshot, another named range that pulls in the snapshot in future refreshes is added into the Excel template.
Sheetloom can be configured to pull in a specific snapshot to give a fixed point in time reference, or from a relative point in time (e.g., from 2 days ago, three weeks ago) using a Time Travel lagging feature
2.1 Incorporate a fixed point in time Time Travel snapshot into a template.
Navigate to Time Travel on the left panel and click through to the folder containing the snapshot to be referenced in the template.
A list of historic snapshots from previous refreshes displays.
Copy the required snapshot name. Paste it as the name for the Time Travel named range in Excel.
The image shows the name of the named range in the template matching the name of the Time Travel object name.
When a new template is generated, the data from the selected snapshot is injected into the named range, cell B4 in the example shown
2.2 Incorporate a relative point in time snapshot into a template.
More commonly, relative point in time referencing will be used in a template.
Sheetloom can display a historic snapshot relative to different time periods, e.g., from one day ago, two weeks ago, three quarters ago, etc.
Create a new named range for the snapshot data. The name for the range comprises of the initial range name supplied, the Time Travel instruction, and the time lagging instruction in this format:
chosen_range_name.timetravel.lag.lag_time_interval_type.intervals_elapsed
For example, cost of sales data from one day ago, three days ago, one week ago, one year ago etc.
Using the previous example, the cost of sales snapshot from five days ago is written as:
costofsales.timetravel.lag.day.5
Time Travel currently supports the following lag periods: day, week, month, quarter, year, as well as the first and last created snapshots.
Time Travel objects are stored in the Time Travel folder under the name of the template in which they appear.
Time Travel is a method to enable historic snapshots to be injected directly into a sheet at runtime, avoiding the need for manual copy and paste to blend data after each iteration.
A Time Travel reference only works in a named ranges. It will not work in a worksheet tab.
A Time Travel object must be added to the template it was originally generated in. It will not function if it is added into a different Template.