Introduction

Web Query reports are very useful analytical tools, but you may sometimes encounter problems which prevent you from using them effectively – or at all. This article lists some common problems with web queries as well as how best to deal with them.

Potential problems with web queries

Here are some of the most common problems:
 

• The web query simply does not download the data as requested. This usually results in the web query being blank or not working at all. There may also be an error stating that the information could not be downloaded.
   
• The web query data appears, but it is incorrect.
   
• The data changes after refreshing the data in the web query.

Solutions to common problems

If your web query does not download any data or you see an error message stating as much, you can follow these steps to reconnect the Platform with Excel. This should enable the web query to run successfully:
 

1. Navigate to the Data toolbar within Excel and click Connections.
    
2. Select any connection, then click Properties.
    
3. Go to the Definition tab and click Edit Query.
    
4. In the Windows security box, click the X, then navigate to app.marinsoftware.com in the address bar.
    
5. Once the login screen appears, enter your credentials and click Sign In.
    
6. Once you are logged in, click Cancel.
    

• If the data in your web query appears, but is incorrect, we recommend that you double check you are running the report from the correct account. Additionally, ensure the correct date range is selected.
   

• The data changes after refreshing the data in the web query: This problem is most commonly caused by the Excel date format recognition. Excel recognizes the date format according to your locale setting. Here is a workaround to turn off the date format recognition in Excel. 
   

  1. Go to the Data toolbar in Excel. 
      
  2. Click Connections.
      
  3. Select any connection, then click Properties.
      
  4. Go to the Definition tab. 
      
  5. Click Edit Query.
      
  6. Enter your Platform credentials if the login screen appears and click Sign In, then click the Options button.
      
  7. In the Web Query Options window, check off the option Disable date recognition.
      

If you are still unable to correct the web query, try to create a new web query report (using the same columns, dates, filters, etc.) and use this new link for your data in Excel, since the old report may have gotten corrupted. If this is still an issue with the new web query, please get in touch with our Support team.

Important notes

• Depending on the size of the web query, you may experience performance issues or issues opening the web query. As a general rule, you should keep your row limit at less than 750,000 rows.
   
• There may be rare cases where the web query report does not match the grid because it is not updating. A quick potential solution is to re-generate the report again from MarinOne and re-create a new web query report in Excel.
   
• Though web queries can be created with a row limit of over 100,000 rows, by default, these will be cut down to 100,000 rows when they run. Should you need a web query with greater than 100,000 rows, please reach out to our Customer Support team.