Use the API Server and Zoom ADO.NET Provider to Access Zoom Data in Microsoft PowerPivot

This article will explain how to use the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Zoom (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to provide Zoom data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's PowerPivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve Zoom data in Power Pivot.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Zoom OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Zoom

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Zoom, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Zoom by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Zoom Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Zoom.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Zoom (see below).

Zoom API Profile Settings

To authenticate to Zoom, you can use the OAuth standard to connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data.

First create an OAuth app. To do so, navigate to https://marketplace.zoom.us/develop/create and click Create under the OAuth section. Select whether or not the app will be for individual users or for the entire account, and uncheck the box to publish the app. Give the app a name and click Create. You will then be given your Client Secret and Client ID

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientID: Set this to the OAuth Client ID that is specified in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the OAuth Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.

You can then choose the Zoom entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Excel.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Import Zoom Tables in Power Pivot

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

1. In Excel, click the PowerPivot Window icon in the PowerPivot tab to open PowerPivot.
2. Click Home -> Get External Data -> From Data Service -> From OData Data Feed.

3. Add authentication parameters. Click Advanced and set the Integrated Security option to Basic. You will need to enter the User Id and Password of a user who has access to the CData API Server. Set the password to the user's authtoken.

4. In the Base URL box, enter the OData URL of the CData API Server. For example, http://localhost:8032/api.rsc.

   

5. Select which tables you want to import and click Finish.

   

You can now work with Zoom data in Power Pivot.