Prepare, Blend, and Analyze SharePoint Data in Alteryx Designer (Connect Cloud)

Alteryx is a software platform that allows people to work with data more easily. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, Alteryx provides instant access to SharePoint data from your data automation processes. This article demonstrates how to connect to SharePoint using Connect Cloud and work with SharePoint data in Alteryx.

CData Connect Cloud offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for SharePoint, facilitating data querying without the need for data replication to a native database. With built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, straight to SharePoint. This harnesses server-side processing to rapidly retrieve the desired SharePoint data.

Getting Started

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Configure SharePoint Connectivity for Alteryx

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SharePoint" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint.

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

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

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect Cloud. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect Cloud app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the 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 and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SharePoint data from Alteryx.

Connect to SharePoint from Alteryx

To establish a connection from Alteryx Desktop to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

1. Set up an account in Alteryx.
2. Drag and drop a new Input Data tool onto the workflow.
3. While the Input Data tool is selected, click Set Up a Connection in the navigation panel. A Data connections dialog appears.
4. Click Data sources. Select Microsoft SQL Server > **Quick connect.
5. In the Connection Manager dialog, click New.
6. In the New Data Source dialog, enter the following information:
   • Data Source Name: Microsoft SQL Server ODBC DSN-less.
   • Driver: select ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server from the drop-down list.
   • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, SharePoint1).
   
7. Click Save. Then click Connect Credential.
8. In Connections, enter the following:
   • Authentication Method: select Username and password.
   • Credential: select Create New Credential.
   • Credential Name: enter a name to identify the credential.
   • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
9. Click Test Connection. If successful, click Create and link.
10. Connect with your credentials.
11. In the wizard that opens, drag and drop the table to be queried in the Query Builder box. Select the fields by checking the boxes that you want to include in your query. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to your data source, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the connector.
12. To further customize the dataset, you can open the SQL Editor and modify the query manually, adding clauses, aggregations, and other operations to ensure that you are retrieving exactly the data desired.
    
13. With the query defined, you are ready to work with your data in Alteryx Designer.

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect Cloud today!