Excel Spreadsheet Automation with the QUERY Formula

The CData Excel Add-In for Dynamics CRM provides formulas that can edit, save, and delete Dynamics CRM data. The following three steps show how you can automate the following task: Search Dynamics CRM 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 Dynamics CRM data records you want to retrieve or the modifications to be made, written in standard SQL.

• Connection: Either the connection name, such as DynamicsCRMConnection1, or a connection string. The connection string consists of the required properties for connecting to Dynamics CRM data, separated by semicolons.

  The connection string options meet the authentication and connection requirements of different Dynamics CRM instances. To connect to your instance, set the User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, to valid Dynamics CRM user credentials and set the Url to a valid Dynamics CRM server organization root. Additionally, set the CRMVersion property to 'CRM2011+' or 'CRMOnline'. IFD configurations are supported as well; set InternetFacingDeployment to true.

  Additionally, you can provide the security token service (STS) or AD FS endpoint in the STSURL property. This value can be retrieved with the GetSTSUrl stored procedure. Office 365 users can connect to the default STS URL by simply setting CRMVersion.

• 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 Dynamics CRM data, such as FirstName.
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 Account WHERE FirstName = '"&B5&"'","User="&B1&";Password="&B2&";URL="&B3&";CRM Version="&B4&";Provider=DynamicsCRM",B6)
3. Change the filter to change the data.