Connect to Live Excel Online Data in MicroStrategy through CData Connect AI

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with CData Connect AI, you gain database-like access to live Excel Online data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through connecting to Excel Online in Connect AI and connecting to Connect AI in MicroStrategy to create a simple visualization of Excel Online data.

As a cloud-based integration platform, Connect AI is ideal for working with cloud-based BI and analytics tools. With no servers to configure or data proxies to set up, you can simply use the web-based UI to create a live connection to Excel Online and connect from MicroStrategy to start performing analytics based on live Excel Online data.

Configure Excel Online Connectivity for Microstrategy

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

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

2. Select "Excel Online" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Excel Online.

   You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:

   • : Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.

     If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.

   • : Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.

   You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Excel Online 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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Excel Online data from MicroStrategy.

Connect to and Visualize Excel Online Data Using MicroStrategy

You can connect to Excel Online in MicroStrategy by adding a data source based on the native SQL Server functionality. Once you have created a data source, you can build dynamic visualizations of Excel Online data in MicroStrategy.

1. Open MicroStrategy and select your account.
2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and use Select Tables as the Import Option. 👁 Adding External Data
   
3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new Data Source.
4. Select "SQL Server" in the Database menu and select "SQL Server 2017" in the Version menu.
5. Sat the connection properties as follows:
   • Server Name: tds.cdata.com
   • Port Number: 14333
   • Database Name: the name of your Excel Online connection (e.g. ExcelOnline1)
   • User: a Connect AI user
   • Password: the PAT for your Connect AI user
   • Data Source Name: a name for the new external data source, like "CData Cloud Excel Online"
6. Expand the menu for the new data source and choose "Edit Catalog Options"👁 Edit the catalog options.
   
7. Edit the "SQL statement retrieve columns ..." query to include TABLE_SCHEMA = '#?Schema_Name?#' in the WHERE clause, and click Apply and then OK (the complete query is below).
   
   

   SELECT DISTINCT 
    TABLE_SCHEMA NAME_SPACE, 
    TABLE_NAME TAB_NAME, 
    COLUMN_NAME COL_NAME, 
    (CASE 
    WHEN 
    (DATA_TYPE LIKE '%char' AND (CHARACTER_SET_NAME='utf8' OR CHARACTER_SET_NAME='usc2')) 
    THEN 
    CONCAT('a',DATA_TYPE) 
    ELSE 
    DATA_TYPE 
    END) DATA_TYPE, 
    CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH DATA_LEN, 
    NUMERIC_PRECISION DATA_PREC, 
    NUMERIC_SCALE DATA_SCALE 
   FROM 
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
   WHERE 
    TABLE_NAME 
   IN 
    (#TABLE_LIST#) AND TABLE_SCHEMA='#?Schema_Name?#' 
   ORDER BY 
    1,2,3
   

8. Select the new data source and select the Namespace that corresponds to your virtual Excel Online database (like ExcelOnline1).
9. Drag tables into the pane to insert then. 👁 Select tables to insert.
   Note: Since we create a live connection, we can insert whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products to customize our datasets.
10. Click Finish, choose the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to high-performance data processing native to CData Connect AI. 👁 Save the query and create a new dossier.
    
11. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display, and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Excel Online data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Excel Online, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed by the CData SQL engine embedded in Connect AI. 👁 Visualize Excel Online data.
    
12. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using CData Connect AI with MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Excel Online data. For more information on connecting to Excel Online (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Excel Online data in MicroStrategy.