Access Live Sybase Data in Excel (Desktop) via Connect AI

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to Sybase data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to Sybase in your Connect AI instance and access and update live Sybase data in Excel spreadsheets.

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

Configure Sybase Connectivity for Excel

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

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

2. Select "Sybase" from the Add Connection panel

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

   To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

   • Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
   • Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

   Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

   Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

   Connect Using Password Authentication

   Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

   • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
   • Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

   Connect using LDAP Authentication

   To connect with LDAP authentication, configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

   After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

   Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

   To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos. See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

   You can find an example connection string below:

   Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Sybase data from Excel.

Access Live Sybase Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Sybase data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect AI Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect AI Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
6. In the CData Connect AI panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. Sybase1), Table (e.g. Products), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update Sybase Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Sybase (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect AI 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 Sybase, and a notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Sybase Data from Cloud Applications

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



Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.