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Get the Report →How to Use CData Connect to Access Live JSON Services in Power Automate
CData Connect for JSON enables you to integrate JSON services into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.
CData Connect enables you to access live JSON services in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate JSON services into a simple workflow, moving JSON services into a CSV file.
CData Connect provides a pure SQL interface for JSON, allowing you to easily integrate with live JSON services in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to JSON, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return JSON services.
Create a Virtual SQL Database for JSON Services
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Log into Connect Server and click Connections.
- Select "JSON" from Available Data Sources.
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to JSON.
See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models JSON APIs as bidirectional database tables and JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.
After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.
The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.
- Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your JSON data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
- FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
- Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.
See the Modeling JSON Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.
How to Integrate JSON Services into Power Automate Workflows
After configuring CData Connect with JSON, you are ready to integrate JSON services into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.
In the flow editor, you can add the actions to connect to JSON, query JSON using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.
Add an Open SQL Connection Action
Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and click the option to build the Connection string. In the Data Link Properties wizard:
- On the Provider tab: select Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server
- On the Connection tab:
- Select or enter a server name: set to the address and port of the SQL (TDS) endpoint of CData Connect, separated by a comma (e.g. localhost,8033)
- Enter information to log onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password" and use CData Connect credentials
- Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. JSON1)
- Click "Test Connection" to ensure the connection is configured properly
- Click "OK"
After building the connection string in the Data Link Properties wizard, save the action.
Add an Execute SQL Statement Action
Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.
- Get connection by: SQL connection variable
- SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
- SQL statement: SELECT * FROM people
After configuring the properties, save the action.
Add a Write to CSV File Action
Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Actions -> File) and configure the properties.
- Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
- File path: set to a file on disk
- Configure Advanced settings as needed.
After configuring the properties, save the action.
Add a Close SQL Connection Action
Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Actions -> Database) and configure the properties.
- SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
After configuring the properties, save the action.
Save & Run the Flow
Once you have configured all the actions for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.
Now you have a workflow to move JSON services into a CSV file.
With CData Connect, you get live connectivity to JSON services within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.
Related Power Automate Articles
This article walks through using CData Connect Server with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):