Build SharePoint Excel Services-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SharePoint Excel Services data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SharePoint Excel Services and build visualizations from SharePoint Excel Services data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SharePoint Excel Services, allowing you to easily build reports from live SharePoint Excel Services data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SharePoint Excel Services, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SharePoint Excel Services data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SharePoint Excel Services Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SharePoint Excel Services" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint Excel Services.

   The URL, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials for SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2010, or SharePoint 2013. Additionally, the Library property must be set to a valid SharePoint Document Library and the File property must be set to a valid .xlsx file in the indicated Library.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to SharePoint Excel Services data from Redash.

Visualize SharePoint Excel Services Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual SharePoint Excel Services database in Connect Server and building a simple visualization from the data.

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. SharePoint Excel Services (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for SharePoint Excel Services (e.g. ExcelServices1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our SharePoint Excel Services data.

Create a SharePoint Excel Services Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT Name, AnnualRevenue FROM Account
4. Click the "Execute" button to load SharePoint Excel Services data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from SharePoint Excel Services data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to SharePoint Excel Services Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to SharePoint Excel Services data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.