How can Excel 2007 / 2010 consume a REST web service?

Question

What options exist to consume a REST web service from within Excel 2007 / 2010? I can use XML Maps to consume a basic XML list, but that doesn't let me build a dynamic URL (so I could include parameters).

For example, I can add an XML Map to Excel for http://machine/service/level/5 and display the values in the workbook just fine - no problem there. The real question is, how can I dynamically change the /5 part of the URL to come from another cell in excel?

That way I can have a couple of cells that have the options (what ID, what name, etc.) and whenever those values change (ideally) a new dynamic URL would be constructed and the XML map would be refreshed.

Is such a thing possible? Does anyone else have a better way to take some parameters, call a web service (REST or SOAP, I'm not picky) and shove the results back into excel for further manipulation?

Answer 1

XLLoop (http://xlloop.sourceforge.net/) can be used to call make Json of HTTP calls.