Work with Live Azure Table Data in Power Query

Power Query is a data transformation and data preparation engine. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Azure Table data from Power Query. This article shows how to connect to Connect Cloud from Power Query through Microsoft Excel and get live access to Azure Table data for transformation and preparation.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Azure Table, allowing you to easily integrate with live Azure Table data in Power Query — without replicating the data. CData Connect Cloud looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Query and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Azure Table, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Azure Table data.

Configure Azure Table Connectivity for Power Query

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

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

   Specify your AccessKey and your Account to connect. Set the Account property to the Storage Account Name and set AccessKey to one of the Access Keys. Either the Primary or Secondary Access Keys can be used. To obtain these values, navigate to the Storage Accounts blade in the Azure portal. You can obtain the access key by selecting your account and clicking Access Keys in the Settings section.

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

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Azure Table data from Power Query.

Working with Live Azure Table Data in Power Query

With the connection to Connect Cloud configured, you are ready to work with live Azure Table data in Power Query.

1. In Microsoft Excel, open the Power Query Editor (from the Data ribbon, click Get Data -> Launch Power Query Editor)
2. Click New Source -> SQL Server
3. In the SQL Server database modal:
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • (Optional) Set Database to the name of the Azure Table connection (e.g. AzureTables1 )
4. In the SQL Server credentials modal, select "Database" and
   • Set User to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com )
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
5. Click Connect
6. Select the table(s) you wish to work with in the Navigator and click "OK"

At this point, you have live access to Azure Table data from Power Query for transformation and preparation.

SQL Access to Azure Table Data

Now you have a direct connection to live Azure Table data from Microsoft Power Query. You can create more connections and transform and preparte your data to better drive business — all without replicating Azure Table data.

To get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Cloud.