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

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Salesforce, allowing you to easily access live Salesforce data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect Cloud Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Salesforce, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Salesforce data.

Getting Started

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Configure Salesforce Connectivity for Excel

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Salesforce" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Salesforce.

   There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

   If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.

   SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Salesforce Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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

Access Live Salesforce Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live Salesforce 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 Cloud Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Cloud Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
6. In the CData Connect Cloud panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. Salesforce1), Table (e.g. Account), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update Salesforce Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Salesforce (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Cloud 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 Salesforce

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Salesforce Data from Cloud Applications

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

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.