Access Live API Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to API data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to your API within your Connect Cloud instance and accessing live API data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for your API, allowing you to easily access live API data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect Cloud Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to your API, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return API data.

Configure your API Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to your API from Excel is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with API data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a your API connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "API" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to your API.

   To connect to your API, configure the following properties on the Global Settings page:

   • In Authentication, select the Type and fill in the required properties
   • In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for your API
   • In Pagination, select the Type and fill in the required properties

   After the configuring the global settings, navigate to the Tables to add tables. For each table you wish to add:

   1. Click "+ Add"
   2. Set the Name for the table
   3. Set Request URL to the API endpoint you wish to work with
   4. (Optional) In Parameters, add the required URL Parameters for your API endpoint
   5. (Optional) In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for the API endpoint
   6. In Table Data click " Configure"
   7. Review the response from the API and click "Next"
   8. Select which element to use as the Repeated Elements and which elements to use as Columns and click "Next"
   9. Preview the tabular model of the API response and click "Confirm"
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add your API Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to API data from Excel for the web.

Access Live API Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live API data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Cloud Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Cloud Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
6. In the CData Connect Cloud panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. API1), Table (e.g. posts), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update API Data from Excel

In addition to viewing API data in Excel, CData Connect Cloud also lets you update and delete API data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to your API (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Cloud Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to your API

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to API Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live API data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.