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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/airtable-cloud-power-pivot.rst

⇱ Use CData Connect AI to Access Airtable Data in Microsoft Power Pivot

Use CData Connect AI to Access Airtable Data in Microsoft Power Pivot

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI to connect to live Airtable data in the Power Pivot business intelligence tool.

This article will explain how to use CData Connect AI to present Airtable data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's Power Pivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve and edit Airtable data in Power Pivot.

Connect to Airtable from Power Pivot

To work with Airtable data from Power Pivot, we need to connect to Airtable from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Airtable data.

Connect to Airtable from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Airtable" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Airtable.

    APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

    • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
    • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
    • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
    • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.
    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Airtable Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI 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 AI. 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 AI 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. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure Airtable Endpoints for Power Pivot

After connecting to Airtable, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

  1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
    👁 Adding a new Workspace.
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the Airtable connection (e.g. Airtable1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Airtable data from Power Pivot.

Import Airtable Tables in Power Pivot

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

  1. In Excel, click Data -> Get Data -> From Other Sources -> From OData Feed 👁 Starting the OData connection.
  2. Fill out the OData feed URL (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}) 👁 The URL of the OData endpoint for Connect AI.
  3. On the next screen, select Basic and configure the username and password. Password will be your PAT. 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI

  4. Select the tables that you would like to import into Excel 👁 Selecting tables (Salesforce is shown.)

  5. After selecting your table(s) and clicking Load, you should see the data appear in an Excel spreadsheet 👁 Loading tables (Salesforce is shown.)

  6. Now, click the Power Pivot tab on the ribbon, and then select Add to Data Model. 👁 Loading data into Power Pivot (Salesforce is shown.)
    This can now work with your Airtable data in Power Pivot.

    👁 The Pivot Table that is consuming OData feeds from Connect AI. (Salesforce is shown.)

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Airtable data (or data from any of our other supported data sources) from Power Pivot, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI today! For more information on Connect AI and to see what other data sources we support, refer to our CData Connect AI page.