Excel Spreadsheet Automation on DeTrack Data with the QUERY Formula

The CData Excel Add-In for DeTrack provides formulas that can query DeTrack data. The following three steps show how you can automate the following task: Search DeTrack data for a user-specified value and then organize the results into an Excel spreadsheet.

The syntax of the CDATAQUERY formula is the following:

=CDATAQUERY(Query, [Connection], [Parameters], [ResultLocation]);

This formula requires three inputs:

• Query: The declaration of the DeTrack data records you want to retrieve, written in standard SQL.

• Connection: Either the connection name, such as APIConnection1, or a connection string. The connection string consists of the required properties for connecting to DeTrack data, separated by semicolons.

  Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the DeTrack Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\DeTrack.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for DeTrack (see below).

  DeTrack API Profile Settings

  DeTrack uses API Key authentication. Your DeTrack API key is used to authenticate all requests via the X-API-Key header. You can obtain your API key from your DeTrack account settings at app.detrack.com under Settings > API & Webhooks.

  After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
  • APIKey: Set this to your DeTrack API key.
• ResultLocation: The cell that the output of results should start from.

Pass Spreadsheet Cells as Inputs to the Query

The procedure below results in a spreadsheet that organizes all the formula inputs in the first column.

1. Define cells for the formula inputs. In addition to the connection inputs, add another input to define a criterion for a filter to be used to search DeTrack data, such as Date.
2. In another cell, write the formula, referencing the cell values from the user input cells defined above. Single quotes are used to enclose values such as addresses that may contain spaces.

=CDATAQUERY("SELECT * FROM Routes WHERE Date = '"&B5&"'","Profile="&B1&";AuthScheme="&B2&";ProfileSettings="&B3&";Provider=API",B6)


3. Change the filter to change the data.