Access Live FTP Data in Excel for the Web (Excel 365/Online) through Connect Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to FTP data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to FTP in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live FTP data in Excel spreadsheets online.

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

Configure FTP Connectivity for Excel

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

1. Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Sources and click Add Connection
2. Select "FTP" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FTP.

   To connect to FTP or SFTP servers, specify at least RemoteHost and FileProtocol. Specify the port with RemotePort.

   Set User and Password to perform Basic authentication. Set SSHAuthMode to use SSH authentication. See the Getting Started section of the data provider help documentation for more information on authenticating via SSH.

   Set SSLMode and SSLServerCert to secure connections with SSL.

   The data provider lists the tables based on the available folders in your FTP server. Set the following connection properties to control the relational view of the file system:

   • RemotePath: Set this to the current working directory.
   • TableDepth: Set this to control the depth of folders to list as views.
   • FileRetrievalDepth: Set this to retrieve and list files recursively from the root table.

   Stored Procedures are available to download files, upload files, and send protocol commands. See the Data Model chapter of the FTP data provider documentation for more information.

   
4. Click Create & Test

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

Access Live FTP Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live FTP 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 Connect Spreadsheets and click "Get it now" to install the Add-in.
4. Back in Excel, open the Data ribbon select and click the CData Connect Spreadsheets "Get Data" button.
5. In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to sign into and authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account
6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. FTP1), Table (e.g. MyDirectory), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update FTP Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to FTP
2. In the Connect Spreadsheets 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 FTP

A notification will appear when the update is complete.

Live Access to FTP Data from Spreadsheets

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

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your spreadsheet apps.