Access Live Azure Data Catalog Data in Excel (Desktop) via Connect AI

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

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.

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. Select "Azure Data Catalog" from the Add Connection panel

3. 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.

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

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

Access Live Azure Data Catalog Data in Excel

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

Live Access to Azure Data Catalog Data from Cloud Applications

Now, 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.

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