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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/sharepoint-spreadsheets-excel-desktop.rst

⇱ Access Live SharePoint Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets

Access Live SharePoint Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets

👁 Cameron Leblanc
Cameron Leblanc
Senior Technology Evangelist
Use Connect Spreadsheets by CData to gain access to live SharePoint data from your Excel spreadsheets.

Looking for Connect AI instructions?

Your Connect AI account includes Connect Spreadsheets, so you can use the instructions below. You can expect minor differences when referencing the Connect Spreadsheet platform, but the principles still apply!


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

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

This setup requires a Connect Spreadsheets account and the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In for Excel. To get started, sign up a free trial of Connect Spreadsheets and install the free Connect Spreadsheets Excel Add-In.


About SharePoint Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from SharePoint has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access data from a wide range of SharePoint versions, including Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and above, and SharePoint Online.
  • Access all of SharePoint thanks to support for Hidden and Lookup columns.
  • Recursively scan folders to create a relational model of all SharePoint data.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to upload and download documents and attachments.

Most customers rely on CData solutions to integrate SharePoint data into their database or data warehouse, while others integrate their SharePoint data with preferred data tools, like Power BI, Tableau, or Excel.

For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's SharePoint solutions, refer to our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.


Getting Started


Configure SharePoint Connectivity for Excel

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

  1. Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "SharePoint" from the Add Connection panel 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint.

    Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

    The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

    If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SharePoint Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

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

Access Live SharePoint Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live SharePoint 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 Connect Spreadsheets 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 "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
  6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
  7. Choose a Connection (e.g. SharePoint1), Table (e.g. MyCustomList), and Columns to import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
  8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
  9. Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one. 👁 Executing the Query

Update SharePoint Data from Excel

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

  1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to SharePoint (your changes will be in red)
  2. In the 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") 👁 Executing the update (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Click Execute to push the updates to SharePoint

A notification will appear when the update is complete

👁 Update complete (Salesforce is shown).

Live Access to SharePoint Data from Spreadsheet Apps

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

👁 Imported data (Salesforce is shown)

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.