Integrate PostgreSQL Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to PostgreSQL data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Automate and integrate live PostgreSQL data into your workflows and tasks.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for PostgreSQL, allowing you to easily integrate with live PostgreSQL data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to PostgreSQL, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return PostgreSQL data.

Configure PostgreSQL Connectivity for Power Automate

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

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

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

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to PostgreSQL.

   To connect to PostgreSQL, set the Server, Port (the default port is 5432), and Database connection properties and set the User and Password you wish to use to authenticate to the server. If the Database property is not specified, the data provider connects to the user's default database.

   SSH Connectivity for PostgreSQL

   You can use SSH (Secure Shell) to authenticate with PostgreSQL, whether the instance is hosted on-premises or in supported cloud environments. SSH authentication ensures that access is encrypted (as compared to direct network connections).

   SSH Connections to PostgreSQL in Password Auth Mode

   To connect to PostgreSQL via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:

   • User: PostgreSQL User name
   • Password: PostgreSQL Password
   • Database: PostgreSQL database name
   • Server: PostgreSQL Server name
   • Port: PostgreSQL port number like 3306
   • UserSSH: "true"
   • SSHAuthMode: "Password"
   • SSHPort: SSH Port number
   • SSHServer: SSH Server name
   • SSHUser: SSH User name
   • SSHPassword: SSH Password

   SSH Connections to PostgreSQL in Public Key Auth Mode

   To connect to PostgreSQL via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:

   • User: PostgreSQL User name
   • Password: PostgreSQL Password
   • Database: PostgreSQL database name
   • Server: PostgreSQL Server name
   • Port: PostgreSQL port number like 3306
   • UserSSH: "true"
   • SSHAuthMode: "Public_Key"
   • SSHPort: SSH Port number
   • SSHServer: SSH Server name
   • SSHUser: SSH User name
   • SSHClientCret: the path for the public key certificate file
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PostgreSQL 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 PostgreSQL data from Power Automate.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate PostgreSQL data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the PostgreSQL connection (e.g. PostgreSQL1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Integrating PostgreSQL Data into Power Automate Tasks

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live PostgreSQL data into your Power Automate tasks.

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click My flows -> New flow and choose to create the flow from blank or template
3. Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect AI connection
4. Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc) 👁 Getting PostgreSQL "Rows"
   
5. Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow

SQL Access to PostgreSQL Data from Cloud Applications

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

Related Power Automate Articles

This article explains how to use CData Connect AI with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop:

• PostgreSQL Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
• PostgreSQL Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC