Feed Excel Online Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for Excel Online fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide Excel Online data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set Excel Online data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view Excel Online data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Excel Online Data

Follow the instruction below to set Excel Online data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.excelonline.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Excel Online installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.excelonline.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.
👁 FineReport Server Tab (Salesforce is shown.)

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.excelonline.ExcelOnlineDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   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.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.excelonline.jar
   

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

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

    jdbc:excelonline:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
    

👁 FineReport data connection definition window (Salesforce is shown.)

4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.
👁 FineReport connection pool (Salesforce is shown.)

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to Excel Online set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Excel Online Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
👁 Adding a new DB query.

2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The Excel Online entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the Excel Online data tables and columns that you want to load.
👁 FineReport database query (Salesforce is shown.)

5. Click preview and data is shown as table.
👁 FineReport database query preview (Salesforce is shown.)

With these simple steps, Excel Online can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.