Analyze SharePoint Excel Services Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server to build dynamic dashboards from live SharePoint Excel Services data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for SharePoint Excel Services, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to SharePoint Excel Services in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Connect to SharePoint Excel Services from API Server

CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection 👁 Adding a connection
   
2. Select "SharePoint Excel Services" 👁 Selecting a Connector (Salesforce is shown).
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint Excel Services.

   The URL, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials for SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2010, or SharePoint 2013. Additionally, the Library property must be set to a valid SharePoint Document Library and the File property must be set to a valid .xlsx file in the indicated Library.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown).
   

Add SharePoint Excel Services Resource Definitions in API Server

After connecting to SharePoint Excel Services, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for SharePoint Excel Services data.

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource 👁 Adding a new resource
   
2. Select the SharePoint Excel Services connection 👁 Selecting a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
3. Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next 👁 Selecting a Table (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

Add an API Server User

Create a User to connect to SharePoint Excel Services from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the SharePoint Excel Services Connection and Resource(s) 👁 Creating a new user
   

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With the API Server configured, we can visualize SharePoint Excel Services data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New 👁 Adding a new dashboard
   
2. Click Data Source -> OData Feed 👁 Adding a new OData data source
   
3. Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc 👁 Configuring the OData URL
   
4. Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token 👁 Configuring the credentials
   
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize 👁 Selecting an entity to visualize (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Select fields and choose a chart type 👁 Visualizing data in Reveal (Salesforce is shown.)
   

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live SharePoint Excel Services data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SharePoint Excel Services (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live SharePoint Excel Services data in tools that consume OData APIs.