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The Cosmos DB ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Cosmos DB document databases, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Cosmos DB like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

How to Use a Microsoft Access Database to Update Cosmos DB Data in Real Time



Update Cosmos DB data by creating a linked table in Microsoft Access with the CData Cosmos DB ODBC Driver.

CData ODBC drivers connect your data to any database management tool that supports Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). This includes many of the most popular productivity tools, adding new capabilities for document sharing and collaboration. Using the CData ODBC driver for Cosmos DB, you can update live Cosmos DB data in Microsoft Access; for example, you can make updates that can be immediately seen by other users.

Connect to Cosmos DB as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

  • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
  • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.

Create a Linked Table to Customers Data

Follow the steps below to create a linked table, which enables you to access live Customers data.

  1. On the External Data tab in Access, click ODBC Database.
  2. Select the option to link to the data source. A linked table will enable you to read from and write data to the Customers table.
  3. Select the CData Cosmos DB data source from the Machine Data Source tab.

  4. Select the Customers table. For more information on this table, see the "Data Model" chapter in the help documentation.
  5. Double-click the linked table to make edits. The linked table will always have up-to-date data and any changes will be reflected back to the underlying table.