Access Live SAP ByDesign Data in Excel (Desktop) via Connect AI

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to SAP ByDesign data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to SAP ByDesign in your Connect AI instance and access live SAP ByDesign data in Excel spreadsheets.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP ByDesign, allowing you to easily access live SAP ByDesign 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 SAP ByDesign, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAP ByDesign data.

Configure SAP ByDesign Connectivity for Excel

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

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

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

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

   Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

   • Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
   • User: Set this to the username of your account.
   • Password: Set this to the password of your account.
   • CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
     If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP ByDesign Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAP ByDesign data from Excel.

Access Live SAP ByDesign Data in Excel

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

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect AI Add-In and install the Add-in. 👁 Install the Add-In
   
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect AI Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
   
6. In the CData Connect AI panel in Excel, click Import 👁 CData Connect AI panel in Excel
   
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. SAPByDesign1), Table (e.g. [Inventory Balance]), 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
   

Live Access to SAP ByDesign Data from Cloud Applications

Now, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP ByDesign 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.