Use the API Server and Yahoo! Ads ADO.NET Provider to Access Yahoo! Ads Data in Microsoft PowerPivot

This article will explain how to use the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Yahoo! Ads (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to provide Yahoo! Ads data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's PowerPivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve Yahoo! Ads data in Power Pivot.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Yahoo! Ads OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Yahoo! Ads

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Yahoo! Ads, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Yahoo! Ads by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Authenticating with Yahoo! Ads

Yahoo! Ads supports OAuth authentication. To authenticate with Yahoo! Ads, set the following connection properties:

• (Optional) Enter the Search Ads Account Id. If left blank, this defaults to the Authenticated user's primary account.
• (Optional) Enter the Display Ads Account Id. If left blank, this defaults to the Authenticated user's primary account.

Click Sign in to connect securely through OAuth. This action opens the Yahoo! Ads sign-in page in a new tab.

Log in to your Yahoo! Ads account and provide the requested permissions (if applicable).

You can then choose the Yahoo! Ads entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Excel.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Import Yahoo! Ads Tables in Power Pivot

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

1. In Excel, click the PowerPivot Window icon in the PowerPivot tab to open PowerPivot.
2. Click Home -> Get External Data -> From Data Service -> From OData Data Feed.

3. Add authentication parameters. Click Advanced and set the Integrated Security option to Basic. You will need to enter the User Id and Password of a user who has access to the CData API Server. Set the password to the user's authtoken.

4. In the Base URL box, enter the OData URL of the CData API Server. For example, http://localhost:8032/api.rsc.

   

5. Select which tables you want to import and click Finish.

   

You can now work with Yahoo! Ads data in Power Pivot.