Access Live Azure Data Catalog Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Azure Data Catalog data from Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web) with CData Connect AI.

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to Azure Data Catalog 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 Azure Data Catalog within your Connect AI instance and accessing live Azure Data Catalog data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Azure Data Catalog, allowing you to easily access live Azure Data Catalog data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect AI Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Azure Data Catalog, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Azure Data Catalog data.

This setup requires a CData Connect AI instance and the CData Connect AI Add-In for Excel. To get started, sign up a free trial of Connect AI and install the free Connect AI Excel Add-In.


Configure Azure Data Catalog Connectivity for Excel

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Adding a Connection
  3. Select "Azure Data Catalog" from the Add Connection panel
  4. Selecting a data source
  5. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Azure Data Catalog.

    You can optionally set the following to read the different catalog data returned from Azure Data Catalog.

      CatalogName: Set this to the CatalogName associated with your Azure Data Catalog. To get your Catalog name, navigate to your Azure Portal home page > Data Catalog > Catalog Name

    Connect Using OAuth Authentication

    You must use OAuth to authenticate with Azure Data Catalog. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Data Catalog using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the help documentation.

    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  6. Click Save & Test
  7. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Azure Data Catalog Connection page and update the User-based permissions. Updating permissions

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

Access Live Azure Data Catalog Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Azure Data Catalog 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 Spreadsheets Add-In and install the Add-in. Install the Add-In
  4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
  5. In the Add-In panel, click Login or Sign-up to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance Authorizing the Add-In
  6. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import CData Connect AI panel in Excel
  7. Choose a Connection (e.g. AzureDataCatalog1), Table (e.g. Tables), and Columns to import CData Connect AI panel in Excel
  8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
  9. Click Execute to import the data Executing the Query

Live Access to Azure Data Catalog Data from Cloud Applications

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

Imported data (Salesforce is shown)

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.

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