Connect to Excel Data in DigitalSuite Studio through RunMyProcess DSEC

The CData JDBC Driver for Excel implements JDBC Standards and enables a applications ranging from BI to IDE to connect with Excel. In this article, we describe how to connect to Excel data from Arkobi Digital RunMyProcess's DSEC and connect to Excel in RunMyProcess.

Setting up EnterpriseConnect Agent

Configure the EnterpriseConnect Agent following the EnterpriseConnect page in the RunMyProcess documentation.

Setting up JDBC Adapter

The JDBC Adapter section describes the steps to connect to RDBMS through JDBC. Follow the steps and open the JDBC.config file.

1. Create a JSON entry for the CData JDBC Driver for Excel, e.g.

   Excel = {
    "sqlDriver" : "...",
    "sqlSource" : "...",
    "sqlDriverPath" : "..."
   }
   

2. Set the "sqlDriver" field to the Class name for the CData JDBC Driver, e.g.
   cdata.jdbc.excel.ExcelDriver
3. Set the "sqlSource" field to a JDBC URL for connecting to Excel, e.g.
   jdbc:excel:URI='C:/MyExcelWorkbooks/SampleWorkbook.xlsx';

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Excel JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.excel.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

   CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

   Setting connection properties for local files

   Set the URI property to local folder path.

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

   • AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
   • AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

   Dropbox

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

   SharePoint Online (SOAP)

   To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

   SharePoint Online REST

   To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

   Google Drive

   To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Set the "sqlDriverPath" field to the name of the CData JDBC Driver JAR file, e.g.
   cdata.jdbc.excel.jar

Sample JDBC.config File

#DBAgent Configuration
Excel = {"sqlDriver" : "cdata.jdbc.excel.ExcelDriver", "sqlSource" = "jdbc:excel:URI='C:/MyExcelWorkbooks/SampleWorkbook.xlsx';","sqlDriverPath" = "cdata.jdbc.excel.jar" }

Put the JDBC driver JAR file (cdata.jdbc.excel.jar) into the same directory as unified-adapter-[version].jar.

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Note: Make sure to put the CData license file (cdata.jdbc.excel.lic) into the same directory. Since the license is generated based on the unique identifier of the machine where the product in installed, you will need an offline activation if you want to put the file on another machine.

Starting DigitalSuite EnterpriseConnect Agent

In Windows, start RunMyProcess DigitalSuite EnterpriseConnect Agent in Windows services. To start the application through command line, see Starting the EnterpriseConnect Agent in the RunMyProcess documents.

Starting the JDBC Adapter

Start the JDBC Adapter from runAdapter.bat. Once the Adapter is running, you can access the application through the agent address (e.g. 127.0.0.1:8080). Below is an example executing the command in Windows.

... > java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=./log.properties -cp lib/* org.runmyprocess.sec2.AdapterHandler :
2021-06-09 14:37:58|INFO|correlationId=|Searching for config file...
2021-06-09 14:37:58|INFO|correlationId=|Adapter Handler started with [JDBC] configuration
2021-06-09 14:37:59|INFO|correlationId=|agent address: 127.0.0.1:8080
2021-06-09 14:38:00.251:INFO::ConnectionThread: Logging initialized @1820ms to org.eclipse.jetty.util.log.StdErrLog
2021-06-09 14:38:00|INFO|correlationId=|onConnect() websocket connection between Agent and Adapter established

Once the DigitalSuite EnterpriseConnect Agent and JDBC Adapter are running, access http://localhost:(specified-port-number)/ through your browser to open the page shown below.

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Check the availability of the JDBC Adapter using tools such as Postman or cURL. Here, we use Postman to send the HTTP POST request.

Configure the RequestHeader as follows:

Content-Type application/json

Configure the RequestBody as follows:

{
	"protocol":"JDBC",
	"data":{
		"DBType":"Excel",
		"sqlUsername":"",
		"sqlPassword":"",
		"sqlStatement":"SELECT * FROM Sheet"
	}
}

If the JDBC.config file contains credential information, sqlUsername and sqlPassword can be left empty. If you are not sure of the table name, you can retrieve the list of tables using the request SELECT * FROM sys_tables

The request is successful if the Status is 200 and the Body contains Excel data in JSON format.

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Connect to Excel through DSEC Agent in DigitalSuite Studio

Create a DigitalSuite Studio project and then create a Provider in the project.

• URL: The URL for accessing JDBC Agent (e.g. http:localhost:8080/)
• Authentication Scheme: Login/password
• Login: The value from agent.user in the application.properties file
• Password: agent.password in the application.properties file
• Secured: Checked
• Use DigitalSuite EnterpriseConnect: Checked
• With domain: The value from agent.domain in application.properties file

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Next, create a Connector in the Provider.

• Connector URL: Leave this empty
• Architecture: REST/XML-RPC
• Method: POST
• Result format: JSON
• Accept media type: application/json
• Character set: Automatic
• Content: Same as the Request body used in the JDBC Adapter
• Content type: application/json

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The JSON data we used as the Request body in JDBC Adapter:

{
	"protocol":"JDBC",
	"data":{
		"DBType":"Excel",
		"sqlUsername":"",
		"sqlPassword":"",
		"sqlStatement":"SELECT * FROM Sheet"
	}
}

Open Launch Test to perform the test. The test is successful if Excel data is shown in Result on the right pane.

👁 runmyprocess

Now you can use Excel data in RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio through DSEC.

For the detailed information on supported SQL commands, refer to the SQL Compliance section in our help documentation. For information on tables, refer to the Data Model section.