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Analyze Excel Online Data in Infragistics Reveal
Use the CData API Server to create an OData API on top of Excel Online data and visualize live Excel Online data in Ingragistics Reveal.
Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server and Excel Online ADO.NET Provider to build dynamic dashboards from live Excel Online data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for Excel Online, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to Excel Online in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.
Connect to Excel Online from API Server
CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection
- Select "Excel Online"
- Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Excel Online.
You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:
-
Workbook: Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.
If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.
- UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.
You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.
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Add Excel Online Resource Definitions in API Server
After connecting to Excel Online, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for Excel Online data.
- Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
- Select the Excel Online connection
- Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next
- (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
- Save the settings
Add an API Server User
Create a User to connect to Excel Online from Reveal through API Server.
- Click Settings -> Users
- Click Add
- Configure a User with access to the Excel Online Connection and Resource(s)
(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.
- Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
- Allow all domains without '*': ON
- Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
- Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization
Save the changes to the settings.
Create a Dashboard in Reveal
With the API Server configured, we can visualize Excel Online data in Reveal.
- Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
- Click Data Source -> OData Feed
- Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc
- Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token
- Select the entity you wish to visualize
- Select fields and choose a chart type
More Information & Free Trial
At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live Excel Online data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Excel Online (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Excel Online data in tools that consume OData APIs.
