Access Live ShipStation 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 ShipStation data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more.This article shows how to connect to ShipStation in your Connect AI instance and access live ShipStation data in Excel spreadsheets.

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

Configure ShipStation Connectivity for Excel

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

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

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

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

   Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

   1. Login to your ShipStation account
   2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
   3. Click Account -> API Settings
   4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

   Authenticating to ShipStation

   • APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
   • APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add ShipStation Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

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

Access Live ShipStation Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Excel to access live ShipStation 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. ShipStation1), Table (e.g. Tags), 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 ShipStation Data from Cloud Applications

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