Integrate Microsoft Project Data into Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

CData Connect for Microsoft Project Data enables you to integrate Microsoft Project data into workflows built using Microsoft Power Automate Desktop.

CData Connect enables you to access live Microsoft Project data in workflow automation tools like Power Automate. This article shows how to integrate Microsoft Project data into a simple workflow, saving Microsoft Project data into a CSV file.

CData Connect provides a live interface for Microsoft Project, allowing you to integrate with live Microsoft Project data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. Connect uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Microsoft Project, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Microsoft Project data.

Configure Microsoft Project Connectivity for Power Automate

Connectivity to Microsoft Project from Power Automate is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Microsoft Project data from Power Automate, we start by creating and configuring a Microsoft Project connection.

Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

👁 Adding a Connection

Select "Microsoft Project" from the Add Connection panel

👁 Selecting a data source

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Project.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Microsoft Project user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid Microsoft Project server organization root or Microsoft Project services file.
👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
Click Save & Test
Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Microsoft Project 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.

Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
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 Microsoft Project data from Power Automate Desktop.

Integrate Microsoft Project Data into Power Automate Workflows

After configuring CData Connect with Microsoft Project, you are ready to integrate Microsoft Project data into your Power Automate workflows. Open Microsoft Power Automate, add a new flow, and name the flow.

👁 A new flow in Power Automate

In the flow editor, you can add the options to connect to Microsoft Project, query Microsoft Project using SQL, and write the query results to a CSV document.

Add an Open SQL Connection Action

Add an "Open SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and click the option to build the Connection string. In the Data Link Properties wizard:

On the Provider tab: select Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server
On the Connection tab:
1. Select or enter a server name: set to tds.cdata.com,14333
2. Enter information to lag onto the server: select "Use a specific username and password"
  - Set User name to your CData Connect AI user name (e.g. [email protected])
  - Set Password to your PAT
  - Select the database: use the database configured above (e.g. MicrosoftProject1)
Click "Test Connection" to ensure the connection is configured properly
Click "OK" 👁 A configured connection to CData Connect

After building the connection string in the Data Link Properties wizard, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Open SQL connection' action

Add an Execute SQL Statement Action

Add an "Execute SQL statement" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

Get connection by: SQL connection variable
SQL connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)
SQL statement: SELECT * FROM Projects

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Execute SQL statement' action

Add a Write to CSV File Action

Add a "Write to CSV file" action (Action -> File) and configure the properties.

Variable to write to: %QueryResult% (the variable from the "Execute SQL statement" action above)
File path: set to a file on disk
Configure Advanced settings as needed.

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Write to CSV file' action

Add a Close SQL Connection Action

Add a "Close SQL connection" action (Action -> Database) and configure the properties.

SQL Connection: %SQLConnection% (the variable from the "Open SQL connection" action above)

After configuring the properties, save the action.

👁 A configured 'Close SQL connection' action

Save & Run the Flow

Once you have configured all the options for the flow, click the disk icon to save the flow. Click the play icon to run the flow.

👁 A fully configured workflow

Now you have a workflow to save Microsoft Project data into a CSV file.

👁 Application data in a CSV file (Salesforce is shown)

With CData Connect AI, you get live connectivity to Microsoft Project data within your Microsoft Power Automate workflows.

SQL Access to Microsoft Project Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Microsoft Project data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Microsoft Project data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/msproject-cloud-power-automate-desktop.rst