Access Live Dynamics NAV 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 Dynamics NAV data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to Dynamics NAV in your Connect AI instance and access and update live Dynamics NAV data in Excel spreadsheets.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics NAV, allowing you to easily access live Dynamics NAV 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 Dynamics NAV, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Dynamics NAV data.

Configure Dynamics NAV Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Dynamics NAV from Excel is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Dynamics NAV data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics NAV connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Dynamics NAV" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics NAV.

   Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, set the Company as well.

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics NAV data from Excel.

Access Live Dynamics NAV Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Dynamics NAV 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. DynamicsNAV1), Table (e.g. Customer), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update Dynamics NAV Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Dynamics NAV data in Excel, CData Connect AI also lets you update and delete Dynamics NAV data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Dynamics NAV (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect AI Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Dynamics NAV, and a notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Dynamics NAV Data from Cloud Applications

Now, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Dynamics NAV data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.



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