Use the Connect Server to Access Printify Data in Microsoft Power Pivot

This article will explain how to use the Connect Server to provide Printify data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's Power Pivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve Printify data in Power Pivot.

Connect to Printify from Power Pivot

To work with live Printify data in Power Pivot, we need to connect to Printify from Connect Server, provide user access to the new virtual database, and create OData endpoints for the Printify data.

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to Printify from Power Pivot through Connect Server.

1. Click Users -> Add
2. Configure a User
3. Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user

Connect to Printify from Connect Server

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

1. Open Connect Server and click Connections
2. Select "Printify" from Available Data Sources
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Printify.

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

   Printify API Profile Settings

   In order to authenticate to Printify, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key navigate to My Profile, then Connections. In the Connections section you will be able to generate your Personal Access Token (API Key) and set your Token Access Scopes. Personal Access Tokens are valid for one year. An expired Personal Access Token can be re-generated using the same steps after it expires. Set the API Key to your Personal Access Token in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for Reveal).

Add Printify OData Endpoints in Connect Server

After connecting to Printify, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
2. Select the Printify database
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple domains from an application, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Import Printify Tables in Power Pivot

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

1. In Excel, click Data -> Get Data -> From Other Sources -> From OData Feed
2. Fill out the OData feed URL (e.g. http://localhost:8080/odata.rsc)
3. On the next screen, select Basic and configure the username and password. Password should be your auth token.

4. Select the tables that you would like to import into Excel

5. After selecting your table(s) and clicking Load, you should see the data appear in an Excel spreadsheet

6. Now, click the Power Pivot tab on the ribbon, and then select Add to Data Model. This can now work with your Printify data in Power Pivot.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Printify data (or data from any of our other supported data sources) from Power Pivot, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect Server today! For more information on Connect Server and to see what other data sources we support, refer to our CData Connect page.