Access Live SharePoint 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 SharePoint 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 SharePoint within your Connect Cloud instance and accessing live SharePoint data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SharePoint, allowing you to easily access live SharePoint 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 SharePoint, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SharePoint data.

Configure SharePoint Connectivity for Excel

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

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

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SharePoint Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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

Access Live SharePoint Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live SharePoint 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. SharePoint1), Table (e.g. MyCustomList), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update SharePoint Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to SharePoint (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 SharePoint

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to SharePoint Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SharePoint 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.