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Get the Report →Integrate Excel Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate
Use CData Connect Server to create a virtual SQL Server database for Excel data and integrate live Excel data into your Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) tasks.
Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Excel data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect Server from Power Automate and integrate live Excel data into your workflows and tasks.
CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL interface for Excel, allowing you to easily integrate with live Excel data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect Server looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Excel, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Excel data.
Create a Virtual SQL Database for Excel Data
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
- Select "Excel" from Available Data Sources.
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Excel.
The ExcelFile, under the Authentication section, must be set to a valid Excel File.
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.
Connecting to CData Connect Server
To use Connect Server to integrate Excel data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:
- Log in to Power Automate
- Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
- Select SQL Server
- In the connection wizard:
- Set Authentication Type to "SQL Server Authentication"
- Set SQL server name to the address of your Connect Server instance (connect_server_url)
- Set SQL database name to the name of the virtual Excel database you created earlier (like exceldb)
- Set the Username and Password and click Create
Integrating Excel Data into Power Automate Tasks
With the connection to Connect Server configured, you are ready to integrate live Excel data into your Power Automate tasks.
- Log in to Power Automate
- Click My flows -> New and choose to create the flow from blank or template
- Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect Server connection
- Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc)
- Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow
SQL Access to Excel Data from Applications
Now you have a direct connection to live Excel data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Excel data.
To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect Server.
Related Power Automate Articles
This article walks through using CData Connect Server with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop: