We are proud to share our inclusion in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. We believe this recognition reflects the differentiated business outcomes CData delivers to our customers.
Get the Report →Integrate OData Services into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
CData Connect for OData Services enables you to integrate OData services into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.
CData Connect enables you to access live OData services in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate OData services into a simple workflow, saving OData services into a CSV file.
CData Connect provides a live interface for OData, allowing you to integrate with live OData services in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to OData, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return OData services.
About OData Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live OData services data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Access OData versions 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, working with legacy services and the latest features and capabilities.
- Leverage advanced query options, including $filter, $select, and $expand, enhancing data retrieval from 3rd party tools.
- Use Server-side execution of aggregation and grouping to minimize data transfer and boost performance.
- Authenticate securely using a variety of schemes, including Azure AD, digest, negotiate, NTLM, OAuth, and more means secure authentication with every connection.
- Use SQL stored procedures to manage OData service entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.
Customers use CData's solutions to regularly integrate their OData services with preferred tools, such as Power BI, MicroStrategy, or Tableau, and to replicate data from OData services to their databases or data warehouses.
Getting Started
Configure OData Connectivity for Power Automate
Connectivity to OData from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with OData services from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a OData connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "OData" from the Add Connection panel
-
Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to OData.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add OData Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
Add a Personal Access Token
If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to OData services from Power Automate Desktop.
Integrate OData Services into Power Automate Workflows
After configuring CData Connect with OData, you are ready to integrate OData 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 options to connect to OData, query OData using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.
Add an Open SQL Connection Action
Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Action -> 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 tds.cdata.com,14333
- Enter information to lag onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password"
- Set User name to your CData Connect Cloud user name (e.g. [email protected])
- Set Password to your PAT
- Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. OData1)
- 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 (Action -> 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 Orders
After configuring the properties, save the action.
Add a Write to CSV File Action
Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Action -> 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 (Action -> 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 options 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 save OData services into a CSV file.
With CData Connect Cloud, you get live connectivity to OData services within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.
SQL Access to OData Services from Cloud Applications
Now you have a direct connection to live OData services from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating OData services.
To get SQL data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Cloud.
Related Power Automate Articles
This article walks through using CData Connect Cloud with Power Automate Desktop. Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate (Desktop & Online):