Access Live Harvest 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 AI, you gain immediate access to Harvest 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 Harvest within your Connect AI instance and accessing live Harvest data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

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

Configure Harvest Connectivity for Excel

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

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

2. Select "Harvest" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Harvest.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Harvest Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Harvest.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Harvest (see below).

   Harvest API Profile Settings

   To authenticate to Harvest, you can use either Token authentication or the OAuth standard. Use Basic authentication to connect to your own data. Use OAuth to allow other users to connect to their data.

   Using Token Authentication

   To use Token Authentication, set the APIKey to your Harvest Personal Access Token in the ProfileSettings connection property. In addition to APIKey, set your AccountId in ProfileSettings to connect.

   Using OAuth Authentication

   First, register an OAuth2 application with Harvest. The application can be created from the "Developers" section of Harvest ID.

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • ProfileSettings: Set your AccountId in ProfileSettings.
   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client ID that you specified in your app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret that you specified in your app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that you specified in your app settings.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage how the driver obtains and refreshes the OAuthAccessToken.
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Harvest Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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

Access Live Harvest Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Harvest 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 Spreadsheets Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Login or Sign-up to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
6. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. API1), Table (e.g. Invoices), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Live Access to Harvest Data from Cloud Applications

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

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.