Access Live xBase 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 xBase data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to xBase in your Connect AI instance and access live xBase data in Excel spreadsheets.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for xBase, allowing you to easily access live xBase 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 xBase, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return xBase data.

Configure xBase Connectivity for Excel

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

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

2. Select "xBase" from the Add Connection panel

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

   The DataSource property must be set to the name of the folder that contains the .dbf files. Specify the IncludeFiles property to work with xBase table files having extensions that differ from .dbf. Specify multiple extensions in a comma-separated list.

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

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

Access Live xBase Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live xBase 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. xBase1), Table (e.g. Invoices), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Live Access to xBase Data from Cloud Applications

Now, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live xBase 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.