How to update Act-On from Excel

The CData Excel Add-In for Act-On enables you to edit and save Act-On data directly from Excel. This article explains how to transfer data from Excel to Act-On. This technique is useful if you want to work on Act-On data in Excel and update changes, or if you have a whole spreadsheet you want to import into Act-On. In this example, you will use the Images table; however, the same process will work for any table that can be retrieved by the CData Excel Add-In.

Establish a Connection

If you have not already done so, create a new Act-On connection by clicking From Act-On on the ribbon.

ActOn uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

Retrieve Data from Act-On

To insert data into Act-On, you will first need to retrieve data from the Act-On table you want to add to. This links the Excel spreadsheet to the Act-On table selected: After you retrieve data, any changes you make to the data are highlighted in red.

1. Click the From Act-On button on the CData ribbon. The Data Selection wizard is displayed.
2. In the Table or View menu, select the Images table.
3. In the Maximum Rows menu, select the number of rows you want to retrieve. If you want to insert rows, you need to retrieve only one row. The Query box will then display the SQL query that corresponds to your request.
4. In the Sheet Name box, enter the name for the sheet that will be populated. By default the add-in will create a new sheet with the name of the table.

Insert Rows to Act-On

After retrieving data, you can add data from an existing spreadsheet in Excel.

1. In a cell after the last row, enter a formula referencing the corresponding cell from the other spreadsheet; for example, =MyImagesSheetInExcel!A1.
2. After using a formula to reference the cells you want to add to Act-On, select the cells that you are inserting data into and drag the formula down as far as needed. The referenced values you want to add will be displayed on the Images sheet.
3. Highlight the rows you want to insert and click the Update Rows button.

As each row is inserted, the Id value will appear in the Id column and the row's text will change to black, indicating that the record has been inserted.