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

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

Configure Cosmos DB Connectivity for Excel

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

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

2. Select "Cosmos DB" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cosmos DB.

   To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

   • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
   • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Cosmos DB Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

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

Access Live Cosmos DB Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Cosmos DB 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. 👁 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 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
   
6. In the CData Connect AI panel in Excel, click Import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
   
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. CosmosDB1), Table (e.g. Customers), and Columns to import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
   
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
   
9. Click Execute to import the data 👁 Executing the Query
   

Update Cosmos DB Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Cosmos DB (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") 👁 Executing the update (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Cosmos DB, and a notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Cosmos DB Data from Cloud Applications

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

👁 Imported data (Salesforce is shown)


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