Access Live Excel Online Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to Excel Online data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to Excel Online within your Connect Cloud instance and accessing live Excel Online data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Excel Online, allowing you to easily access live Excel Online data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect Cloud Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Excel Online, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Excel Online data.

Configure Excel Online Connectivity for Excel

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

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

   You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:

   • Workbook: Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.

     If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.

   You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Excel Online data from Excel for the web.

Access Live Excel Online Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live Excel Online data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Cloud Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Cloud Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
6. In the CData Connect Cloud panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. ExcelOnline1), Table (e.g. Test_xlsx_Sheet1), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update Excel Online Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Excel Online (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Cloud 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 Excel Online

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Excel Online Data from Cloud Applications

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

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.