Difference between Excel Service applications and Excel Calculation Services

Excel Services is part of SharePoint Server Enterprise Edition.

A benefit of this edition is that you can publish an Excel workbook to a Web page and end users can view workbook contents without the presence of the Excel client.

The published workbook is effectively a read-only version of the source Excel workbook. This provides a good way to share information while protecting the integrity of the data—a published Excel workbook, such as an annual or fiscal budget, is a centralized, single version accessed by all. Here we will cover the key features of Excel Services.

The three main Excel Services components are detailed here:

The Excel Calculation Services (ECS) component loads the Excel workbook into a Web page, performs server-side calculations, and refreshes external data.

The Excel Web Access (EWA) Web Part displays a workbook or interconnecting parts of a workbook on a Web page or dashboard. It uses DHTML and JavaScript for Web page interaction, thus avoiding the need to download ActiveX controls to the client. EWA Web Parts can be configured to filter on specific values. EWA is unlike the Datasheet view available in SharePoint lists, which is dependent upon ActiveX controls along with the Excel or Access client. And EWA offers additional features, such as the ability to create a snapshot of an Excel workbook.

Excel Web services (EWS) is a Web service API that developers can use to develop custom or add-on applications for Excel Services. The typical address to access these Web services is server_site_name/_vti_bin/excelservice.asmx.