FAQ

Download the Windows Excel Add-in at files.exponam.com/installers/connect/excel/setup.exe  You may use the Exponam.Connect Excel Add-in for free to directly access, import and save data from Delta Sharing (Delta Lake and Databricks).  With a licensed copy of Exponam.Connect, all data size restrictions are lifted and additional functionality is unlocked.

Contact us to inquire about licensing options for the Exponam.Connect Excel Add-in.

Contact your administrator to add a license for Exponam.Connect.  If your organization does not have a license, contact us to inquire about licensing options.

Licensed versions of Exponam.Connect remove all restrictions from Excel imports* and file downloads.  Licensed versions contain additional functionality like ‘Live Table’ views of data.

*Note that Excel imports are limited by Microsoft Excel’s capability to five million rows (spread across five worksheets).  Data saved to files is entirely free from limitation.  .BIG files are specifically designed to efficiently and securely handle hundreds of millions of rows.

Configure your Exponam.Connect Add-in to see your permissioned data by clicking the Read from Delta Sharing button in Excel’s ribbon bar to open the Delta Sharing form.  Click the Delta Sharing Icon at the top left of the form.  Select the .share file provided by your administrator.  Your data tables will now appear.

The data preview pane only displays a limited view of filtered data.  This is both to optimize performance and to minimize data egress fees prior to importing data.  To access the complete set of filtered data, import the data to Excel or save to a file.

Some high resolution monitor settings will distort the appearance of the Delta Sharing form.  In particular, scaling values greater than 350% make the form’s ribbon icons very small.  Try changing your display resolution and scaling to lower values.

You can download and save data directly to a file, bypassing Excel.  You can save to csv or .BIG formats.  The benefits of saving to .BIG are:

• .BIG files can be opened, no matter how large, directly in the free Exponam Explorer (or with any other Exponam .BIG technologies – APIs, CLIs, JDBC)
• .BIG files are highly compressed, may be secured, are immutable, and contain detailed provenance information
• .BIG files are an excellent option for securely storing and distributing data sets to people both within and outside of your organization.

The standard import functionality from Delta Sharing is for a moment-in-time import of data.  The Live Table feature is available for licensed users of Exponam.Connect.  Contact your administrator to add a license for Exponam.Connect.  If your organization does not have a license, contact us to inquire about licensing options.

There are numerous ways to create .BIG files, appropriate for everyone from developers to non-technical users.

Non-technical users can create files by saving to .big within the Exponam.Connect Excel Add-in or with the Exponam Builder, freely available from my.exponam.com.  Developers and more technical users may generate .BIG files via a host of native Java and C# utilities including APIs and command line interfaces.  Data for .BIG files can be extracted directly from databases or come from existing data files.  .BIG file generation can be integrated into common off-the-shelf platforms (accounting systems, CRM systems, BI platforms, etc.).  Creating .BIG files is as quick as creating any other type of data file (CSV, JSON, etc).  .BIG builder applications are available for free from our developer page, or from Maven Central or Nuget (for developer components).

An Exponam License is required to unleash unrestricted builder capabilities, including unlimited data size and data security features. Contact us for more information on the Exponam Builder and licensing. 

.BIG files are secured via AES256 encryption, AES256 is endorsed by the NSA in its Suite B cryptographic algorithms and is published as the FIPS 197 specification.  AES256 is the widely accepted standard for securing data and communications.

Passphrases are protected with SHA256 and a randomly generated salt.  SHA256 is a National Security Agency (NSA) Type 3 encryption product endorsed by NIST and published as the FIPS 180-2 specification. Files may also be protected with security tokens or multi-factor authentication.

Additional file access entitlements may be assigned and dynamically administered by the organization creating the .BIG file. These additional access rights include user specific rights at the column and function levels. These rights may be turned on or off for any file, even once it has been distributed outside of the organization. Contact us for more information.

.BIG files are not only a secure and convenient way to move data, they are also fully optimized for accessing. exploring, and exporting data.  You can use any of your existing data visualization, business intelligence, reporting, or query tools directly with data in .BIG files via a JDBC connection.

Querying data in a .BIG file via JDBC is as fast as querying data within an enterprise database.  Alternately, you can extract the data from a .BIG file via Java or C# Reader APIs.  Data extraction is orders of magnitude faster than with any other form of delimited file.

Currently, the Exponam Explorer is only available as a Windows application. Mac and iOS versions of our spreadsheet viewer are coming soon.  However, you can access data in a .BIG file on a Mac with common visualization, reporting, and query applications via JDBC.