Access Live Anaplan Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to Anaplan data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to Anaplan in Connect Spreadsheets and access live Anaplan data in Excel spreadsheets.

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

Configure Anaplan Connectivity for Excel

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

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

   Authenticating to Anaplan

   The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

   Using Basic Authentication

   Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

   Using Certificate Authentication

   Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

   Using OAuth Authentication

   Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

   See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Anaplan data from Excel.

Access Live Anaplan Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live Anaplan data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for Connect Spreadsheets and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account
6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. Anaplan1), Table (e.g. Sales), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one.

Live Access to Anaplan Data from Spreadsheet Apps

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

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.