Work with Live Salesforce Data in Power Query



Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to Salesforce data and work with live Salesforce data in Microsoft Power Query.

Power Query is a data transformation and data preparation engine. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Salesforce data from Power Query. This article shows how to connect to Connect Cloud from Power Query through Microsoft Excel and get live access to Salesforce data for transformation and preparation.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Salesforce, allowing you to easily integrate with live Salesforce data in Power Query — without replicating the data. CData Connect Cloud looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Query and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Salesforce, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Salesforce data.

About Salesforce Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
  • Create atomic and batch update operations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
  • Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
  • See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.

Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:

  • other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
  • preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
  • databases and data warehouses.

For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.


Getting Started


Configure Salesforce Connectivity for Power Query

Connectivity to Salesforce from Power Query is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Salesforce data from Power Query, 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.

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.

  1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
  2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
  4. 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 Salesforce data from Power Query.

Working with Live Salesforce Data in Power Query

With the connection to Connect Cloud configured, you are ready to work with live Salesforce data in Power Query.

  1. In Microsoft Excel, open the Power Query Editor (from the Data ribbon, click Get Data -> Launch Power Query Editor)
  2. Click New Source -> SQL Server
  3. In the SQL Server database modal:
    • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333
    • (Optional) Set Database to the name of the Salesforce connection (e.g. Salesforce1 )
  4. In the SQL Server credentials modal, select "Database" and
    • Set User to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected] )
    • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
  5. Click Connect
  6. Select the table(s) you wish to work with in the Navigator and click "OK"

At this point, you have live access to Salesforce data from Power Query for transformation and preparation.

SQL Access to Salesforce Data

Now you have a direct connection to live Salesforce data from Microsoft Power Query. You can create more connections and transform and preparte your data to better drive business — all without replicating Salesforce data.

To get real-time 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.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

Free Trial