Access Live Redshift Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to Redshift data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to Redshift within your Connect AI instance and accessing live Redshift data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Redshift, allowing you to easily access live Redshift data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect AI Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Redshift, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Redshift data.

Configure Redshift Connectivity for Excel

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

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

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

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

   To connect to Redshift, set the following:

   • : Set this to the host name or IP address of the cluster hosting the Database you want to connect to.
   • : Set this to the port of the cluster.
   • : Set this to the name of the database. Or, leave this blank to use the default database of the authenticated user.
   • : Set this to the username you want to use to authenticate to the Server.
   • : Set this to the password you want to use to authenticate to the Server.

   You can obtain the and values in the AWS Management Console:

   1. Open the Amazon Redshift console (http://console.aws.amazon.com/redshift).
   2. On the Clusters page, click the name of the cluster.
   3. On the Configuration tab for the cluster, copy the cluster URL from the connection strings displayed.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Redshift Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Redshift data from Excel for the web.

Access Live Redshift Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live Redshift data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In and install the Add-in. 👁 Install the Add-In
   
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Login or Sign-up to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
   
6. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
   
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. Redshift1), Table (e.g. Orders), and Columns to import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
   
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
   
9. Click Execute to import the data 👁 Executing the Query
   

Update Redshift Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Redshift data in Excel, CData Connect AI also lets you update and delete Redshift data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Redshift (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Redshift 👁 Updating data (Salesforce is shown).
   

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Redshift Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Redshift data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.