Query Excel Online Data through ODBC in Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code outside of a browser. With the CData ODBC Driver for Excel Online, you can access live Excel Online data from Node.js apps and scripts. In this article, we walk through installing node-odbc and the required tools to create a simple Node.js app with access to live Excel Online data.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Excel Online data in Node.js. When you issue complex SQL queries from Node.js to Excel Online, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Excel Online and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to Excel Online Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

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.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to Excel Online through the CData ODBC Driver, you need to build node-odbc manually (after installing the required tools).

Installing the Required Tools

The following commands install the tools required to build node-odbc (note the -g parameter, which installs the tools globally).

npm i -g windows-build-tools
npm i -g node-gyp

Building node-odbc

After installing the required tools, create a directory for the Node.js app and install odbc (which builds the binary for us to use in our Node.js script).

mkdir nodeodbc
cd nodeodbc
npm i -g node

Querying Excel Online from Node.js

With the ODBC Driver installed, a DSN Configured, and node-odbc built, we are ready to query live Excel Online data from a Node.js app. The sample code below connects to a specific DSN and queries the Test_xlsx_Sheet1 table.

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryExcelOnline() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData ExcelOnline Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT Id, Column1 FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1');
    console.log(data);
}

queryExcelOnline();

Once you write the app, use node to execute the script:

node myscript.js

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Excel Online and start working with your live Excel Online data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.