Use CData Connect Cloud to Access Microsoft Dataverse Data in Microsoft Power Pivot



Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live Microsoft Dataverse data in the Power Pivot business intelligence tool.

This article will explain how to use CData Connect Cloud to present Microsoft Dataverse data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's Power Pivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve and edit Microsoft Dataverse data in Power Pivot.

About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
  • Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Power Pivot

To work with Microsoft Dataverse data from Power Pivot, we need to connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the Microsoft Dataverse data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to Microsoft Dataverse through Connect Cloud.

  1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
  2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
  3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

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.

Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

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

    You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.

    • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
    • Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.

    When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.

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

Configure Microsoft Dataverse Endpoints for Power Pivot

After connecting to Microsoft Dataverse, create a workspace and virtual dataset for your desired table(s).

  1. Navigate to the Virtual Datasets page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the Microsoft Dataverse connection (e.g. CDS1) and click Next.
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
  5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Dataverse data from Power Pivot.

Import Microsoft Dataverse Tables in Power Pivot

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

  1. In Excel, click Data -> Get Data -> From Other Sources -> From OData Feed
  2. Fill out the OData feed URL (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name})
  3. On the next screen, select Basic and configure the username and password. Password will be your PAT.
  4. Select the tables that you would like to import into Excel

  5. After selecting your table(s) and clicking Load, you should see the data appear in an Excel spreadsheet

  6. Now, click the Power Pivot tab on the ribbon, and then select Add to Data Model. This can now work with your Microsoft Dataverse data in Power Pivot.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Microsoft Dataverse data (or data from any of our other supported data sources) from Power Pivot, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Cloud today! For more information on Connect Cloud and to see what other data sources we support, refer to our CData Connect Cloud page.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

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