I would like to import data from CouchDB into Excel 2013. Specifically, I would like to set up a connection (that can be refreshed) in Excel to CouchDB.
I know CouchDB uses HTTP and JSON, but I was wondering if there was an interface for Excel.
I've tried searching CouchDB documentation and CouchDB: The Definitive Guide for Excel references. No luck.
What would be the best way to set up a connection in Excel to CouchDB?
Seems to be possible by installing Microsoft's addition PowerQuery to Excel and use the Data Explorer: http://www.angelsbiblog.com/2013/04/excel-data-explorer-twitter-search-api.html
This is possible with PowerQuery. Just query the API vía the web function and use the editor to get the data you want.
I actually use CouchDB this way.
Related
I have the following customer scenario:
User clicks on button in Excel and data from certain Excel-Sheet is transferred to Dynamics CRM.
Someone ever did something like this? Possible with VBA or JavaScript?
Thx!
Out of the box CRM provides the ability to import Excel spreadsheets to create or update existing records.
Or you can always build something custom, manipulating CRM data via the web services.
I have done somewhat similar thing with excel, except i wrote vsto addin that used bit modern approach. You can easily use crm sdk ddl when writing add-ins for excel.
But with VBA i think you might hit quite wall there, you would have to write almost all methods over.
My prefer for here would be write vba script that send excel sheet data to webserver (node.js, .net) and there you can make actual data transfer to crm api. One good example would be writing csv file from data and save it to server, trigger server to manipulate that data.
I just recently realise, while using Excel, it lacks on features for being able to update SQL server data through their worksheet.
I have tried using Data-->From other sources--> SQL Server data; that works like a charm but as it has limited ability (View and only get the latest data but not update).
I don’t know if this is done purposely by Microsoft as a money making schemes.
But through my research today, I also came across PowerQuery, and It seems to do pretty much what Data add-in did escape it has few new extra features and sounds pretty advance, therefore, I was wondering if this add-in has the ability to update SQL server data using excel sheet, if so can you guys advise me to the right direction:
I came across lots of commercials products that did the job but frankly speaking, I cannot afford it.
The best solution for in this space that I've seen is the Master Data Services component included in SQL Server (Business Intelligence or Enterprise Edition). This includes an nice Excel Add-In for maintaining data, a Web UI and SQL Views and Staging Tables for data integration.
It doesn't have any direct integration with Power Query, but I would let PQ dump data into Excel Tables, then copy and paste the data into Excel tables using the MDS Add-In.
I've created an IUpdateable ODATA feed using WCF which I can connect to using Excel 2010 Power Query. Excel is able to retrieve data but I cannot find a 'publish' button or anyway to tell Excel to push updates back to the server.
Does Excel / Power Query support ODATA CRUD functions out of the box?
Is there another tool I could use to update data without writting code?
Power Query supports reading from data sources, but we don't support Create/Update/Delete.
I agree with you--it would be awesome to publish data from Excel without having to write any code!
If you think this is something Power Query should have, I'd go to https://ideas.powerbi.com and vote up the feature (you might be the first with the idea).
Edit(2019): Looks like several people have upvoted this one: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/12251397-q-a-can-you-perform-crud-operations-with-powerquer
I need to give power-users of the web application I am working on the ability to create their own reports, analysis, etc. in Excel. Basically they need to create some Excel sheets, read some data from the web app and than mix the result with further data coming from other data sources.
The web application already exposes data in JSON/XML format through a web api (not fully REST but this doens't matter) and I would use this channel to get data in Excel.
At the moment I have these three options in my mind:
In the past I've solved a request like this with some VBA code and a COM object (that talked with the server/database) but I am not sure if today this is still the best solution to do this kind of job.
I have learned that today Excel has PowerPivot that can read data from a web service. I could develop an oData feed for PowerPivot but I am not sure if PowerPivot is what power-users need
Another solution could bean ad-hoc Excel add-in
How would you solve a request like this?
Power Query would be a better option than Power Pivot here. Power Pivot is a dimensional modeling and analytical database (it is exactly a private instance of SSAS Tabular running behind the Excel process).
Power Query is an end-user friendly ETL tool, developed as an add-in for Excel, and available natively as of Office 2016. It allows loading directly to an Excel worksheet or into a Power Pivot model. It will give more flexibility to your end users. It is a GUI-driven interface that is a front-end to the M query language, developed by Microsoft.
Unfortunately, I am not able to help with Power Query too much, but it fits your use case perfectly.
Edit: An additional feature of Power Query, likely not to meet your needs, but I thought I'd throw in.
Power Query can read directly from HTML tables. If you present data in HTML tables, your end users can simply load directly from a URL.
Power Query definitely the "correct" tool for this within Microsoft world. It can also handle JSON and XML (and Odata) directly. How well it manages your data will depend a bit on how nicely formatted it is, but it can work with most things with a little bit of effort.
It is a free Microsoft authored add-in for pre Excel 2016 and built in to Excel 2016.
I want to use the Microsoft.Office.Interop to read an Excel file from a web page.
Do I need to have Office installed on my web server?
I am not doing any manipulation to the excel file, just reading it in and storing the values to another page. I have no issues when I run on my local machine but I have Excel installed on my local machine. Anyone that knows this answer I would greatly appreciate your input.
Thanks
JD
Using Interop requires that you have Office installed on the server. For websites, I would generally recommend using something like the open-source NPOI project. However, if all you ever want to do is read, consider using ADO.NET (see this question for more info).
I would add that if your using Excel as a datasource the ADO approach is much faster and requires less overhead. It restricts you to excel sheets that are pretty much structured as flat tables. But if I can use that method (all restrictions considered) I prefer it.
Ernie