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The Quickbase ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Quickbase, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Quickbase data like you would a database - read, write, and update Quickbase Applications, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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How to connect to Quickbase Data from MS Excel on Mac OS X


Create a Data Source Name in iODBC with the CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase and work with Quickbase data in Microsoft Excel on Mac OS X.

Microsoft Excel features calculations, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language that allows users to work with data in many of the ways that suit their needs, whether on a Windows machine or a Macintosh machine. This article walks through creating a DSN for Quickbase data in iODBC and accessing Quickbase data in Microsoft Excel, all on a machine running Mac OS X.

Installing the CData ODBC Drivers on Mac OS X

The CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase is preconfigured for the iODBC driver manager, as are many other products like Microsoft Excel. This makes the driver easy to use with these tools.

Licensing the Driver

In a terminal run the following commands to license the driver. To activate a trial license, omit the key input. 

cd "/Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase/bin"
sudo ./install-license <key>

Defining a DSN for iODBC with odbc.ini

You can define ODBC data sources in sections in the odbc.ini file. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. You can find the correct odbc.ini in the following paths:

Privileges  Path
User/Users/myuser/Library/ODBC/odbc.ini
System/Library/ODBC/odbc.ini

Modifying iODBC's system-wide settings requires elevated permissions; to do so, you can use following to open a text editor from the terminal: 

sudo nano /Library/ODBC/odbc.ini

User Authentication Method

To authenticate with user credentials, specify the following connection properties:

  1. Set the User and Password.
  2. If your application requires an ApplicationToken;, you must provide it otherwise an error will be thrown. You can find the ApplicationToken under SpecificApp > Settings > App management > App properties > Advanced settings > Security options > Manage Application Token.

User Token Authentication

To authenticate with a user token, specify the following connection properties:

  1. Set UserToken and you are ready to connect. You can find the UserToken under Quick Base > My Preferences > My User Information > Manage User Tokens.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

In addition to the connection properties required to connect to Quickbase, the Driver property specifies either a driver definition in the odbcinst.ini file or the path to the driver library. Place your connection properties at the beginning of odbc.ini: 

[CData Quickbase Sources]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase
User = user@domain.com
Password = password
Domain = myinstance.quickbase.com
ApplicationToken = bwkxrb5da2wn57bzfh9xn24

If you wish to authenticate using OAuth, you will need to add an additional connection property to ensure that the OAuth flow can execute properly: 

Other = CheckPromptMode=False

Mac OS validates our drivers separately so you need to copy the license file to the appropriate path as well. After you have configured odbc.ini, run the following command. 

sudo cp /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase/lib/CData.ODBC.QuickBase.lic /Users/<YOUR_USER>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/.cdata/

Additionally, in the ODBC Data Sources section, the DSN must be set to a driver defined in the odbcinst.ini file. For example, below is the entry for the DSN created during the driver install: 

[ODBC Data Sources]
CData Quickbase Source = CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase

Registering a DSN for iODBC with odbcinst.ini

You may need to modify the installed driver definition if you change the path to the driver library. To register an ODBC driver, modify the odbcinst.ini file. With iODBC, drivers can be available to only one user account or drivers can be available system wide. You can find the correct odbcinst.ini in the following paths:

Privileges  Path
User/Users/myuser/Library/ODBC/odbcinst.ini
System/Library/ODBC/odbcinst.ini

Drivers are defined in sections in the odbcinst.ini file. The section name specifies the name of the driver. In this section, the Driver property specifies the path to the driver library. The driver library is the .dylib file located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, by default in /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase. 

[CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase]
Driver = /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase/lib/libquickbase.odbc.dylib

The ODBC Drivers section must also contain a property with the driver name, set to "Installed". 

[ODBC Drivers]
CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase = Installed

Testing the Connection

You can test your connection using the iODBC administrator.

  1. Open a terminal and enter the following command to start the iODBC Administrator with the necessary permissions: 
    sudo /Applications/iODBC/iODBC\ Administrator64.app/Contents/MacOS/iODBC\ Administrator64
  2. On the Users tab, select CData Quickbase Source.
  3. Click the Test button.

Accessing Quickbase Data from Microsoft Excel

You can use the DSN configured above to access Quickbase data from Microsoft Excel.

  1. Open Microsoft Excel and open a spreadsheet (new or existing).
  2. Navigate to the data ribbon and select New Database Query From Database
  3. Select the User or System DSN that you previously configured and click OK.
  4. Build your SQL query in the Microsoft Query wizard:
  5. Click Return Data to execute the query and pull data into Excel.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for Quickbase, you can easily pull your Quickbase data directly into Excel. Once there, you can leverage all of the powerful features native to Excel to analyze, report, transform your Quickbase data, and more!