Microsoft Excel Online Connection Details¶

Introduction¶

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8803 of the connector.

Get Started¶

Microsoft Excel Online Version Support

The connector models spreadsheets and ranges as bidirectional tables that can be queried with SQL.

Establish a Connection¶

Connect to Microsoft Excel Online¶

There are two authentication methods available for connecting to Microsoft Excel Online data source:

• OAuth 2.0-based methods: Microsoft Excel Online provides OAuth 2.0-based authentication via both Azure AD and Azure Service Principal.
  • For Azure AD authentication, set AuthScheme to AzureAD.
  • For Azure Service Principal authentication, set AuthScheme to AzureServicePrincipal.
• Managed Service Identity (MSI) authentication. To use this method, set AuthScheme to AzureMSI.

Azure AD¶

Azure AD is user-based authentication. Credentials are supplied to connect AzureAD to Microsoft Excel Online via a Desktop application. To use the embedded credentials for authentication, leave the OAuth credentials (OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret) blank.

For connecting via a Web application, you must create a custom OAuth Azure AD application. The creation of a Custom Azure AD application establishes the OAuth credentials OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret. For a discussion of how to create a custom Azure AD application, and reasons why that might be advantageous even if you are not connecting via a Web application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Azure Service Principal¶

The authentication as an Azure Service Principal is handled via the OAuth Client Credentials flow. It does not involve direct user authentication. Instead, credentials are created for just the application itself. All tasks taken by the app are done without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

Create an AzureAD App and an Azure Service Principal

When authenticating using an Azure Service Principal, you must create and register an Azure AD application with an Azure AD tenant. See Creating a Custom OAuth Application for more details.

In your App Registration in portal.azure.com, navigate to API Permissions and select the Microsoft Graph permissions. There are two distinct sets of permissions: Delegated permissions and Application permissions. The permissions used during client credential authentication are under Application Permissions.

Assign a role to the application

To access resources in your subscription, you must assign a role to the application.

1. Open the Subscriptions page by searching and selecting the Subscriptions service from the search bar.
2. Select the subscription to assign the application to.
3. Open the Access control (IAM) and select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.
4. Select Owner as the role to assign to your created Azure AD app.

Complete the Authentication

Choose whether to use a client secret or a certificate and follow the relevant steps below.

Client Secret

Set these connection properties:

• AuthScheme: AzureServicePrincipal to use a client secret.
• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• AzureTenant: The tenant you want to connect to.
• OAuthClientId: The client ID in your application settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.

Certificate

Set these connection properties:

• AuthScheme: AzureServicePrincipalCert to use a certificate.
• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• AzureTenant: The tenant you want to connect to.
• OAuthJWTCert: The JWT Certificate store.
• OAuthJWTCertType: The type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert.

You are now ready to connect. Authentication with client credentials takes place automatically like any other connection, except there is no window opened prompting the user. Because there is no user context, there is no need for a browser popup. Connections take place and are handled internally.

Managed Service Identity (MSI)¶

If you are running Microsoft Excel Online on an Azure VM and want to leverage MSI to connect, set AuthScheme to AzureMSI.

User-Managed Identities¶

To obtain a token for a managed identity, use the OAuthClientId property to specify the managed identity's "client_id".

When your VM has multiple user-assigned managed identities, you must also specify OAuthClientId.

Connect to a Workbook¶

The connector exposes workbooks and worksheets from drives you specify in your Microsoft account. You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and setting any of the following properties.

To control which drives are discovered:

• Drive: The ID of a specific drive. You can use the Drives and SharePointSites views to view all the sites and drives you have access to.
• SharepointURL: The browser URL of a SharePoint site. The driver will expose all drives under the site.
• OAuthClientId: If AuthScheme is set to AzureServicePrincipal or if OAuthGrantType is set to CLIENT, the drive associated with your OAuth app will be exposed.

If none of the above are specified, access is restricted to the authenticated user's personal drive.

To control which workbooks and worksheets are exposed OR which drives are exposed:

• Workbook: The name or ID of the workbook. An authenticate user can view a list of information about the available workbooks by executing a query to the Workbooks view.
• UseSandbox: True to connect to a workbook in a sandbox account; otherwise, leave blank.
• BrowsableSchemas: A list of drive names to expose.
• Tables: A list of table names to expose.

Execute SQL Against Worksheet Data¶

For information on how to execute data manipulation SQL against worksheets and ranges, see:

• Selecting ExcelOnline Data
• Inserting ExcelOnline Data
• Updating ExcelOnline Data
• Deleting ExcelOnline Data
• Using Formulas

For details on how the connector models worksheets and cells as tables and columns, See Data Model.

Retrieve Data from SharePoint Excel Files¶

To retrieve data from Sharepoint Excel files, set the SharepointURL connection property to the URL of your Sharepoint site. For example,

SharepointURL=https://mysite.sharepoint.com/

The driver automatically looks up each document library you have in SharePoint and lists it as a schema. Individual Excel workbooks and worksheets are listed as tables in the format Workbook_Worksheet under their corresponding document library. This works in the same manner as listing your own personal Excel documents when SharepointURL is not set.

Create a Custom OAuth Application¶

Create a Custom OAuth Application¶

Microsoft Excel Online supports authentication using Azure AD and Azure Service Principal, both of which are OAuth-based.

This topic describes how to:

• create and register custom OAuth application for Azure AD or Azure Service Principal
• provide Admin Consent to a custom OAuth application
• create a custom OAuth application for use with client credentials

Azure AD¶

In portal.azure.com:

1. Log in to https://portal.azure.com.
2. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory, then applicationRegistrations.
3. Click New registration.
4. Enter a name for the application.
5. Select the desired tenant setup: single- or multi-tenant, and public or private use.
   • If you select the default option, "Accounts in this organizational directory only", you must set the AzureTenant connection property to the ID of the Azure AD Tenant when establishing a connection with the Microsoft Excel Online connector. Otherwise, the authentication attempt fails with an error.
   • If your application is for private use only, specify Accounts in this organization directory only.
   • If you want to distribute your application, choose one of the multi-tenant options.
6. Set the redirect URL to http://localhost:33333 (the connector's default) OR specify a different port and set CallbackURL to the exact reply URL you defined.
7. Click Register to register the new application. An application management screen displays.
   Note the value in Application (client) ID as the OAuthClientId and the Directory (tenant) ID as the AzureTenant.
8. Navigate to Certificates & Secrets and define the application authentication type. There are two types of authentication available: certificate (recommended) or client secret.
   • For certificate authentication: In Certificates & Secrets, select Upload certificate, then upload the certificate from your local machine.
   • For creating a new client secret: In Certificates & Secrets, select New Client Secret for the application and specify its duration. After the client secret is saved, Microsoft Excel Online displays the key value. Copy this value, as it is displayed only once. This value becomes the OAuthClientSecret.
9. Select API Permissions > Add > Delegated permissions.
10. Add the following application permissions: Sites.Read.All, Files.Read, Files.Read.All, Files.Read.Selected, Files.ReadWrite, Files.ReadWrite.All, Files.ReadWrite.AppFolder, Files.ReadWrite.Selected, and offline_access.
11. Save your changes.
12. If you have specified the use of permissions that require admin consent (such as the Application Permissions), you can grant them from the current tenant on the API Permissions page.

Azure Service Principal¶

To use Azure Service Principal authentication, you must set up the ability to assign a role to the authentication application, then register an application with the Azure AD tenant to create a new Service Principal. That new Service Principal can then leverage the assigned role-based access

control to access resources in your subscription.

In portal.azure.com:

1. Create a custom OAuth AD application, as described above.
2. Use the search bar to search for the Subscriptions service.
3. Open the Subscriptions page.
4. Select the subscription to which to assign the application.
5. Open the Access control (IAM).
6. Select Add > Add role assignment. Microsoft Excel Online opens the Add role assignment page.
7. Assign your custom Azure AD application the role of Owner.

Admin Consent¶

Some custom applications require administrative permissions to operate within an Azure Active Directory tenant. Admin consent can be granted when creating a new custom OAuth application, by adding relevant permissions that are already marked with "Admin Consent Required". Admin consent is also required to use Client Credentials in the OAuth flow.

To grant admin consent:

1. Have an admin log in to portal.azure.com.
2. Navigate to App Registrations and find the custom OAuth application you created.
3. Under API Permissions, click Grant Consent.

This gives your application permissions on the tenant under which it was created.

Consent for Client Credentials¶

OAuth supports the use of client credentials to authenticate. In a client credentials OAuth flow, credentials are created for the authenticating application itself. The auth flow acts just like the usual auth flow except that there is no prompt for an associated user to provide credentials.

All tasks accepted by the application are executed outside of the context of a default user.

use them in a client OAuth flow. You must always create a custom OAuth application to use client credentials.

In portal.azure.com:

1. Create a custom OAuth application, as described above.
2. Navigate to App Registrations.
3. Find the application you just created, and open API Permissions.
4. Select the Microsoft Graph permissions. There are two distinct sets of permissions: Delegated and Application.
5. Under Application Permissions, select the permissions you require for your integration.

Select ExcelOnline Data¶

The following connection properties enable you to execute SELECT queries that closely match how your sheet is organized.

Select Column Headers¶

If your worksheet has column headers, you can set the Header property to use column names defined in a header row. Then you can query like so:

SELECT Id, Name, Item, Quantity, Amount FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1 WHERE Amount = 50

The query above assumes that the first row of the worksheet has the column names Id, Name, Quantity, and Amount. The worksheet may have more columns than were selected and they can be in any order.

Select Alphabetical Columns¶

If a workbook does not have headers, or if you would like to ignore the headers, you can set the Header property to false. In this case each column is represented by alphabetical names. For example:

SELECT A, B, C, D FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1 WHERE D = 50

Select Ranges¶

Instead of working with the spreadsheet as a single table, you can work with ranges as tables. Some examples: In a sparse workbook, you can use ranges to select data without the empty rows. Or, in a worksheet that is not top-left aligned, you can use a range to select data in the middle of the sheet.

To select a range of data on the worksheet, append the range to the table name with the # character. For example, the following command will select the range of cells between A1 and E5:

SELECT * FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1#A1:E5

To assign a table name to a range, and avoid specifying the range repeatedly, see the Tables property.

Insert ExcelOnline Data¶

You can execute INSERT statements when working with worksheets as tables. You can specify the column names detected from a header row or specify the alphabetical column names in Excel Online. You can also configure how the connector parses the input values into Microsoft Excel Online cell formats.

Set the Header property to configure column names. Set ValueInputOption to configure input parsing.

Note that inserting to ranges is not supported. Use Batch Inserts or Temporary Tables instead.

Insert with Headers¶

When the Header property is set to true, you can specify cells in a header row as the column names.

INSERT INTO Test_xlsx_Sheet1 (Name, Amount) VALUES ('Test', 10)

Insert without Headers¶

When the Header property is set to false, provide the alphabetical column names.

INSERT INTO Test_xlsx_Sheet1 (A, B) VALUES ('Test', 10)

Configure Input Parsing¶

By default, the connector parses all values you input in the SQL statement the same as if you entered the input in the Microsoft Excel Online UI. For example, strings may be converted to numbers, dates, etc.

To disable the parsing of input values, set ValueInputOption. Additionally, see Using Formulas to configure formula evaluation.

Example: Bulk Inserts using Temporary Tables¶

If using temporary tables, they must be defined and inserted within the same connection. Closing the connection will clear out any temporary tables in memory.

Create Temporary Tables¶

Insert the rows you need in a temporary table. Then insert all the rows from that temporary table into the actual table.

Code Example¶

Below is the complete code to insert 2 rows into Test_xlsx_Sheet1:

Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:excelonline:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
Statement stat = conn.createStatement();

stat.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO [Test_xlsx_Sheet1#TEMP] (Column1, Column2) VALUES ('value1', 'value2')");
stat.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO [Test_xlsx_Sheet1#TEMP] (Column1, Column2) VALUES ('value3', 'value4')");

stat.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO [Test_xlsx_Sheet1] (Column1, Column2) SELECT Column1, Column2 FROM [Test_xlsx_Sheet1#TEMP]");

stat.close();

Update ExcelOnline Data¶

In UPDATE statements, you can specify the column names detected from a header row or specify the alphabetical column names in Microsoft Excel Online. You can also configure how the connector parses the input values into Microsoft Excel Online cell formats.

Set the Header property to configure column names. The primary key is the row number; specify the primary key with the ID column. Set ValueInputOption to configure input parsing.

Update with Headers¶

When the Header property is set to true, you update columns by specifying the detected column names.

UPDATE Customers SET Col1='value' WHERE Id=7

Update without Headers¶

When the Header is set to false, provide the alphabetical column names:

UPDATE Customers SET H='value' WHERE Id=7

Update Ranges¶

Set the columns corresponding to the range and specify the row number as the Id:

UPDATE [Customers#A15:C15] SET A='Ana Trujilo', B='Northwind, Inc.', C='100,000' WHERE Id='15'

Configure Input Parsing¶

By default, the connector parses all values you input in the SQL statement the same as if you entered the input in the Microsoft Excel Online UI. For example, strings may be converted to numbers, dates, etc.

To disable the parsing of input values, set ValueInputOption. Additionally, see Using Formulas to configure formula evaluation.

Delete ExcelOnline Data¶

When deleting an entire row of data, you will need to be sure to refresh the table data. This is because Ids are assigned based on the row. For example, if there are five rows, with Ids 1 through 5, and you delete row 3 then row 4 will become 3 and 5 will become 4.

Use Formulas¶

Set the following properties to configure formula evaluation when executing SELECT, INSERT, and UPDATE statements.

Select Formulas¶

The connector can return either the result of the formula or the formula itself; configure this behavior with the ValueRenderOption connection property.

Insert and Updating Formulas¶

Set AllowFormula to true to insert formulas (the default). Otherwise, all values used in inserts and updates are inserted as string literals.

For example, with AllowFormula set to true, the following will insert a formula into the B column that will sum cells B1:B5:

INSERT INTO Excel_Sheet (A, B) VALUES ('Bill', '=SUM(B1:B5)')

Important Notes¶

Configuration Files and Their Paths¶

• All references to adding configuration files and their paths refer to files and locations on the Harmony Agent where the connector is installed. These paths are to be adjusted as appropriate depending on the agent and the operating system. If multiple agents are used in an agent group, identical files will be required on each agent.

Advanced Features¶

This section details a selection of advanced features of the Microsoft Excel Online connector.

User Defined Views

The connector allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how connector handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Proxy

To configure the connector using Private Agent proxy settings, select the Use Proxy Settings checkbox on the connection configuration screen.

Query Processing

The connector offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to Microsoft Excel Online and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

User Defined Views¶

The Microsoft Excel Online connector allows you to define a virtual table whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These are called User Defined Views, which are useful in situations where you cannot directly control the query being issued to the driver, e.g. when using the driver from Jitterbit. The User Defined Views can be used to define predicates that are always applied. If you specify additional predicates in the query to the view, they are combined with the query already defined as part of the view.

There are two ways to create user defined views:

• Create a JSON-formatted configuration file defining the views you want.
• DDL statements.

Define Views Using a Configuration File¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1 WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json"

Define Views Using DDL Statements¶

The connector is also capable of creating and altering the schema via DDL Statements such as CREATE LOCAL VIEW, ALTER LOCAL VIEW, and DROP LOCAL VIEW.

Create a View¶

To create a new view using DDL statements, provide the view name and query as follows:

CREATE LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 20;

If no JSON file exists, the above code creates one. The view is then created in the JSON configuration file and is now discoverable. The JSON file location is specified by the UserDefinedViews connection property.

Alter a View¶

To alter an existing view, provide the name of an existing view alongside the new query you would like to use instead:

ALTER LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE TimeModified > '3/1/2020';

The view is then updated in the JSON configuration file.

Drop a View¶

To drop an existing view, provide the name of an existing schema alongside the new query you would like to use instead.

DROP LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName]

This removes the view from the JSON configuration file. It can no longer be queried.

Schema for User Defined Views¶

User Defined Views are exposed in the UserViews schema by default. This is done to avoid the view's name clashing with an actual entity in the data model. You can change the name of the schema used for UserViews by setting the UserViewsSchemaName property.

Work with User Defined Views¶

For example, a SQL statement with a User Defined View called UserViews.RCustomers only lists customers in Raleigh:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh';

An example of a query to the driver:

SELECT * FROM UserViews.RCustomers WHERE Status = 'Active';

Resulting in the effective query to the source:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh' AND Status = 'Active';

That is a very simple example of a query to a User Defined View that is effectively a combination of the view query and the view definition. It is possible to compose these queries in much more complex patterns. All SQL operations are allowed in both queries and are combined when appropriate.

SSL Configuration¶

Customize the SSL Configuration¶

By default, the connector attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Data Model¶

Workbooks as Tables

The connector models the worksheets and ranges in your workbooks as bidirectional tables. When you connect, the connector retrieves the metadata from Microsoft Excel Online and reflects any changes to the table schemas.

See the Getting Started section for quickstarts to executing SQL to the tables. This section provides additional details on the connector behavior.

Tables

This section provides more detail about how the connector models the Tables. See Columns for details about column discovery.

Stored Procedures

In addition to working with the data in the workbook, you can use the available stored procedures to access functionality in the Microsoft Excel Online API that is not modeled as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements; for example, the AddWorksheet stored procedure.

System Tables

Query the available System Tables to access the available connector metadata, including schema information.

Best Practices

1) If you currently have many workbooks or sheets in your account, it may take a long time to initially retrieve all the data. You may shorten this time by adding the Workbook connection property to your connection string.

2) If you will be running a SELECT operation after INSERT or BATCH INSERT then make sure to wait 3-5 seconds before running it. The API takes a few seconds to register all the data you're adding to the database, so waiting is required to avoid partial results.

Schemas¶

The connector exposes worksheets from workbooks as tables. To do so, it exposes the drives containing these workbooks and worksheets as schemas for these tables. How drives are exposed as schemas is dependent on the connection propeties for the connector.

The following connection properties determine what drives are exposed as schemas by the driver. They are listed in order of precedence, where only the most precedent property is used to expose schemas:

• Drive: Set this to the ID of a specific drive. Only this drive is exposed as schema.
• SharepointURL: Set this to the browser URL of a SharePoint site. The driver will expose all drives under the site. All of these drives are exposed as schemas.
• OAuthClientId: If AuthScheme is set to AzureServicePrincipal or if OAuthGrantType is set to CLIENT, the drive associated with your OAuth app will be exposed. Only this drive is exposed as schema.
• If none of the above are specified, the personal drive for the authenticated user will be used. Only this drive is exposed as schema.

You can use the Drives and SharePointSites views to view all the sites and drives you have access to.

If you would like to filter the schemas the driver exposes, you can use, the BrowsableSchemas connection property. Supply a list of drive names to this property. The filtering is done client-side, so this means that the names supplied should be the names that would normally be returned by the connector for the drives.

Tables¶

The connector enables you to represent a top-left-oriented worksheet or a user-specified range as a database table.

Top-Left Oriented Worksheets¶

You can use the connector to start working right away with top-left-oriented worksheets:

• The table name for a top-left-oriented worksheet is the name of the worksheet.
• By default the connector will return all rows until the first empty row. Note: an empty row between data will prevent further data from being returned.
• The first row of data in the worksheet can contain the column names. See Columns for more information.

User-Specified Ranges¶

Range notation is only available in a SELECT or UPDATE statement. Ranges are not supported for DELETE and INSERT commands.

You can execute SELECT or UPDATE commands against a given range with a reference in the following format: WORKSHEET#RANGE. You can also set the Tables property to assign a table name to a range.

For example, the following command will select the range of cells between A1 and E5:

SELECT * FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1#A1:E5

Accessing shared documents as a database table¶

You can use the connection property ShowSharedDocuments to list shared excel workbooks as database tables. The tables will be listed along-side user owned workbooks.

Executing SQL to Worksheet Data¶

See the following to execute data manipulation SQL to worksheets and ranges:

• Selecting ExcelOnline Data
• Inserting ExcelOnline Data
• Updating ExcelOnline Data
• Deleting ExcelOnline Data
• Using Formulas

Columns¶

When you connect, the connector discovers the available columns and reflects both changes in Microsoft Excel Online and configuration changes you make with the following connection properties. See the following sections to configure aspects of column discovery specific to Microsoft Excel Online.

Configuring Column Name Detection¶

You can set Header to detect column names in a header row or you can reference columns alphabetically.

Header=True (Default)¶

Below are more specifics on how the connector detects column names from a header row when Header is set to true.

• The connector determines columns from the first row of the worksheet. If no values are provided for the first row of the worksheet, the connector creates unique, alphabetized column names that are available only within the scope of that request.
• Headers should not contain special characters.
• Due to a limitation of the Excel Online API, all column headers must be nonempty.

Header=False¶

When Header is set to false, alphabetical column names will be dynamically assigned.

Primary Key¶

The connector reports the row number as the primary key. The ID column for each row represents the row number from the top of the sheet.

For example, if you specify a range A3:E6, rows 3, 4, 5, and 6 will be returned.

Configuring Column Value Parsing¶

The ValueRenderOption and ValueInputOption connection properties can be used to configure how the connector parses the Microsoft Excel Online cell formats in SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE operations.

Value render options for SELECT operations¶

Set the ValueRenderOption to configure how the connector renders values in the output of a SELECT operation. The available value render options are as below.

• FormattedValue: Values will be calculated and formatted in the output according to the cell's formatting. Formatting is based on the workbook's locale, not the requesting user's locale. This is the default ValueRenderOption.
• UnformattedValue: Values will be calculated but not formatted in the output.
• Formula: Values will not be calculated and instead the output will include the formulas. For this reason, every column containing a formula will be exposed as String type regardless of the set TypeDetectionScheme.

Value input options for INSERT and UPDATE operations¶

Set the ValueInputOption to configure how the connector parses values the user submits to the Microsoft Excel Online source for INSERT and UPDATE operations. The available value input options are as below.

• UserEntered: The values will be parsed as if the user typed them into the UI. Numbers will stay as numbers, but strings may be converted to numbers, dates, etc., following the same rules that are applied when entering text into a cell via the Microsoft Excel Online UI. This is the default ValueInputOption.
• Raw: The values the user has entered will not be parsed and will be stored as-is.

Configuring Data Type Detection¶

Set the TypeDetectionScheme to configure the data type detection method. The available type detection schemes are as below.

• RowScan: The connector will scan rows to heuristically determine the data type. The number of rows the connector will scan can be determinated by the RowScanDepth property. This is the default TypeDetectionScheme.
• ColumnFormat: The connector will report the data type based on the cell format of the column. This option is applicable only for the 'UnformattedValue' and 'Formula' ValueRenderOption-s. If the ValueRenderOption is set to 'FormattedValue', all columns will be exposed as String types.
• None: The connector will return all columns as the string type.

Views¶

Views are similar to tables in the way that data is represented; however, views are read-only.

Queries can be executed against a view as if it were a normal table.

Microsoft Excel Online Connector Views¶

Drives¶

Retrieve a list of drive objects.

Select¶

The example query below will return the Drives with the specified SharePointSite Id.

SELECT * FROM Drives WHERE SiteId = 'rssbus.onmicrosoft.com,988a3-343a-4064-996a-d2a30559f,4233d-dfcd-4910-b7f0-71f1dc03a'

Columns¶

SharedDocuments¶

Retrieve the list of all shared documents. Not every item listed by this view can be used as a workbook since the driver will filter out non excel files. See the Workbook and Worksheets views for more information.

Columns¶

SharePointSites¶

Retrieve the list of all sites in your SharePoint account.

Table Specific Information¶

In contrast to almost every other exposed table and view, this view does not implement any Microsoft Graph endpoint, but rather the '/query/search' endpoint of the SharePoint REST API. For this reason, in most cases you will need to specify the SharepointURL connection property prior to initiating the OAuth flow. During the Authorization flow, the connector will get the necessary permissions to utilize your SharePoint resources.

Select¶

The connector will use the SharePoint REST API to process WHERE clause conditions built with almost every column except for Id, and only for the EQUALS (=) operator. The rest of the filter is executed client side within the connector.

The example query below will return the SharePoint Site with the specified SiteId and WebId.

SELECT SiteId, SiteName, Title, SiteDescription FROM SharePointSites WHERE SiteId = '9839b8a3-343a-4064-996a-d2a300bc559f' AND WebId = '427d733d-dfcd-4910-b7f0-771f1d4cc03a'

Restrictions¶

To query this view using the 'AzureAD' AuthScheme with the 'CLIENT' OAuthGrantType, or using the 'AzureServicePrincipal' AuthScheme, you must specify the OAuthJWTCert instead of the OAuthClientSecret connection property. The restriction is imposed by the SharePoint REST API, which does not accept any OAuthAccessToken retrieved when specifying an OAuthClientSecret for the aforementioned authentication flows.

For a guide on how to authentication using a Certificate for the 'AzureAD' and 'AzureServicePrincipal' AuthSchemes, see "Client Credentials" in "Getting Started".

Columns¶

Workbooks¶

Retrieve a list of workbook objects.

Columns¶

Worksheets¶

Retrieve a list of worksheet objects. If listing sheets in a workbook which do not belong to the user's drive, please specify the drive ID using the Drive connection property.

Columns¶

Stored Procedures¶

Stored procedures are function-like interfaces that extend the functionality of the connector beyond simple SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE operations with Microsoft Excel Online.

Stored procedures accept a list of parameters, perform their intended function, and then return any relevant response data from Microsoft Excel Online, along with an indication of whether the procedure succeeded or failed.

Microsoft Excel Online Connector Stored Procedures¶

AddWorksheet¶

Add a worksheet to an existing Excel Online workbook.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

CreateSchema¶

Creates a schema file for the specified table or view.

CreateSchema¶

Creates a local schema file (.rsd) from an existing table or view in the data model.

The schema file is created in the directory set in the Location connection property when this procedure is executed. You can edit the file to include or exclude columns, rename columns, or adjust column datatypes.

The connector checks the Location to determine if the names of any .rsd files match a table or view in the data model. If there is a duplicate, the schema file will take precedence over the default instance of this table in the data model. If a schema file is present in Location that does not match an existing table or view, a new table or view entry is added to the data model of the connector.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetAdminConsentURL¶

Gets the admin consent URL that must be opened separately by an admin of a given domain to grant access to your application. Only needed when using custom OAuth credentials.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAccessToken¶

Gets the OAuth access token from Excel Online.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAuthorizationURL¶

Gets the Excel Online authorization URL. Access the URL returned in the output in a Web browser. This requests the access token that can be used as part of the connection string to Excel Online.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

RefreshOAuthAccessToken¶

Refreshes the OAuth access token used for authentication with Excel Online.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

System Tables¶

You can query the system tables described in this section to access schema information, information on data source functionality, and batch operation statistics.

Schema Tables¶

The following tables return database metadata for Microsoft Excel Online:

• sys_catalogs: Lists the available databases.
• sys_schemas: Lists the available schemas.
• sys_tables: Lists the available tables and views.
• sys_tablecolumns: Describes the columns of the available tables and views.
• sys_procedures: Describes the available stored procedures.
• sys_procedureparameters: Describes stored procedure parameters.
• sys_keycolumns: Describes the primary and foreign keys.
• sys_indexes: Describes the available indexes.

Data Source Tables¶

The following tables return information about how to connect to and query the data source:

• sys_connection_props: Returns information on the available connection properties.
• sys_sqlinfo: Describes the SELECT queries that the connector can offload to the data source.

Query Information Tables¶

The following table returns query statistics for data modification queries, including batch operations:

• sys_identity: Returns information about batch operations or single updates.

sys_catalogs¶

Lists the available databases.

The following query retrieves all databases determined by the connection string:

SELECT * FROM sys_catalogs

Columns¶

sys_schemas¶

Lists the available schemas.

The following query retrieves all available schemas:

SELECT * FROM sys_schemas

Columns¶

sys_tables¶

Lists the available tables.

The following query retrieves the available tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_tables

Columns¶

sys_tablecolumns¶

Describes the columns of the available tables and views.

The following query returns the columns and data types for the Test_xlsx_Sheet1 table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='Test_xlsx_Sheet1'

Columns¶

sys_procedures¶

Lists the available stored procedures.

The following query retrieves the available stored procedures:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedures

Columns¶

sys_procedureparameters¶

Describes stored procedure parameters.

The following query returns information about all of the input parameters for the AddWorksheet stored procedure:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedureparameters WHERE ProcedureName='AddWorksheet' AND Direction=1 OR Direction=2

Columns¶

sys_keycolumns¶

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the Test_xlsx_Sheet1 table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='Test_xlsx_Sheet1'

Columns¶

sys_foreignkeys¶

Describes the foreign keys.

The following query retrieves all foreign keys which refer to other tables:

SELECT * FROM sys_foreignkeys WHERE ForeignKeyType = 'FOREIGNKEY_TYPE_IMPORT'

Columns¶

sys_primarykeys¶

Describes the primary keys.

The following query retrieves the primary keys from all tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_primarykeys

Columns¶

sys_indexes¶

Describes the available indexes. By filtering on indexes, you can write more selective queries with faster query response times.

The following query retrieves all indexes that are not primary keys:

SELECT * FROM sys_indexes WHERE IsPrimary='false'

Columns¶

sys_connection_props¶

Returns information on the available connection properties and those set in the connection string.

When querying this table, the config connection string should be used:

jdbc:cdata:excelonline:config:

This connection string enables you to query this table without a valid connection.

The following query retrieves all connection properties that have been set in the connection string or set through a default value:

SELECT * FROM sys_connection_props WHERE Value <> ''

Columns¶

sys_sqlinfo¶

Describes the SELECT query processing that the connector can offload to the data source.

Discovering the Data Source's SELECT Capabilities¶

Below is an example data set of SQL capabilities. Some aspects of SELECT functionality are returned in a comma-separated list if supported; otherwise, the column contains NO.

The following query retrieves the operators that can be used in the WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM sys_sqlinfo WHERE Name = 'SUPPORTED_OPERATORS'

Note that individual tables may have different limitations or requirements on the WHERE clause; refer to the Data Model section for more information.

Columns¶

sys_identity¶

Returns information about attempted modifications.

The following query retrieves the Ids of the modified rows in a batch operation:

SELECT * FROM sys_identity

Columns¶

Advanced Configurations Properties¶

The advanced configurations properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Connection

Azure Authentication

OAuth

JWT OAuth

SSL

Schema

Miscellaneous

Authentication¶

This section provides a complete list of authentication properties you can configure.

AuthScheme¶

The type of authentication to use when connecting to Microsoft Excel Online.

Possible Values¶

AzureAD, AzureMSI, AzureServicePrincipal, AzureServicePrincipalCert

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

AzureAD

Remarks¶

• AzureAD: Set this to perform Azure Active Directory OAuth authentication.
• AzureMSI: Set this to automatically obtain Managed Service Identity credentials when running on an Azure VM.
• AzureServicePrincipal: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a Client Secret.
• AzureServicePrincipalCert: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a Certificate.

UseSandbox¶

A boolean indicating if you are using a sandbox account. The provider makes requests to the production environment by default.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

If you are using a production account, this property can be left blank. If you are using a developer test account, set this to true.

Connection¶

This section provides a complete list of connection properties you can configure.

DefineTables¶

Assign table names to ranges.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

This property is used to define the ranges within a worksheet that will appear as tables. The value is a semicolon-separated list of name-value pairs in the form [Table Name]=[Catalog].[Schema].[{Workbook Name}_{Worksheet Name}!{Range}]. The value can also be specified in the form [Table Name]=[{Workbook Name}_{Worksheet Name}!{Range}]. Note that in this case, the driver will attempt to push the defined table for each schema it identifies, should the specified workbook and worksheet exist in the schema. For specifications of DefineTables, some characters, like ., are reserved characters. To escape these characters and make sure that the name containing them is parsed properly, surround the containing name with brackets, as in [work.book_work.sheet!A1:Z50]. For this example, the driver would properly search for the workbook and worksheet identified by work.book_work.sheet, despite the specification containing reserved characters.

Here is an example DefineTables value:

DefineTables="Table1=Test_xlsx_Sheet1!A1:N25,Table2=[].[MySchema].[Spreadsheet1_Sheet2!C3:M53],Table4=xIsPcLs2-bF3AavQcSLCfzs3kGc_Sheet4!C20:N60"

After setting DefineTables, you can then issue queries that reference the specified table name. Note that you can also use the range syntax directly in the SQL statement: append the range to the worksheet name with the # character.

For example, the following command will select the range of cells between A1 and E5:

SELECT * FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1#A1:E5

Workbook¶

The name or ID of the workbook.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Specifies the name or ID of the workbook. A list of all workbooks is available from the Workbooks view.

Drive¶

The ID of the drive.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Specifies the ID of the drive. A list of all drives is available from the Drives view. This property takes precedence over SharepointURL. This means that if SharepointURL and Drive are specified, a schema will only be identified for the drive specified by Drive, and tables will only be identified from the worksheets in workbooks in this drive.

IncludeSharePointSites¶

Whether to retrieve drives for all SharePoint sites when querying Drives view. If 'true' the provider will retrieve all Site IDs recursively and for each of them issue a separate call to get their drives. Therefore, be aware that setting this property to 'true' may decrease performance for the Drives view. Note that the SharePointAccessToken or OAuthJWTCert connection property must be specified to query the SharePointSites view and other views if IncludeSharePointSites is set to 'true' when using the CLIENT OAuthGrantType or the AzureServicePrincipal AuthScheme.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

This property affects only Drives views.

Azure Authentication¶

This section provides a complete list of Azure authentication properties you can configure.

AzureTenant¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. If not specified, your default tenant is used.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. For instance, contoso.onmicrosoft.com. Alternatively, specify the tenant Id. This value is the directory ID in the Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > Properties.

Typically it is not necessary to specify the Tenant. This can be automatically determined by Microsoft when using the OAuthGrantType set to CODE (default). However, it may fail in the case that the user belongs to multiple tenants. For instance, if an Admin of domain A invites a user of domain B to be a guest user. The user will now belong to both tenants. It is a good practice to specify the Tenant, although in general things should normally work without having to specify it.

The AzureTenant is required when setting OAuthGrantType to CLIENT. When using client credentials, there is no user context. The credentials are taken from the context of the app itself. While Microsoft still allows client credentials to be obtained without specifying which Tenant, it has a much lower probability of picking the specific tenant you want to work with. For this reason, we require AzureTenant to be explicitly stated for all client credentials connections to ensure you get credentials that are applicable for the domain you intend to connect to.

AzureEnvironment¶

The Azure Environment to use when establishing a connection.

Possible Values¶

GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

GLOBAL

Remarks¶

In most cases, leaving the environment set to global will work. However, if your Azure Account has been added to a different environment, the AzureEnvironment may be used to specify which environment. The available values are GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD.

OAuth¶

This section provides a complete list of OAuth properties you can configure.

InitiateOAuth¶

Set this property to initiate the process to obtain or refresh the OAuth access token when you connect.

Possible Values¶

OFF, GETANDREFRESH, REFRESH

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

OFF

Remarks¶

The following options are available:

1. OFF: Indicates that the OAuth flow will be handled entirely by the user. An OAuthAccessToken will be required to authenticate.
2. GETANDREFRESH: Indicates that the entire OAuth Flow will be handled by the connector. If no token currently exists, it will be obtained by prompting the user via the browser. If a token exists, it will be refreshed when applicable.
3. REFRESH: Indicates that the connector will only handle refreshing the OAuthAccessToken. The user will never be prompted by the connector to authenticate via the browser. The user must handle obtaining the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthRefreshToken initially.

OAuthClientId¶

The client ID assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId value, sometimes also called a consumer key, and a client secret, the OAuthClientSecret.

OAuthClientSecret¶

The client secret assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId, also called a consumer key. You will also receive a client secret, also called a consumer secret. Set the client secret in the OAuthClientSecret property.

OAuthAccessToken¶

The access token for connecting using OAuth.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthAccessToken property is used to connect using OAuth. The OAuthAccessToken is retrieved from the OAuth server as part of the authentication process. It has a server-dependent timeout and can be reused between requests.

The access token is used in place of your user name and password. The access token protects your credentials by keeping them on the server.

OAuthSettingsLocation¶

The location of the settings file where OAuth values are saved when InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH. Alternatively, you can hold this location in memory by specifying a value starting with 'memory://'.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\CData\Acumatica Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt

Remarks¶

When InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH, the driver saves OAuth values to avoid requiring the user to manually enter OAuth connection properties and to allow the credentials to be shared across connections or processes.

Instead of specifying a file path, you can use memory storage. Memory locations are specified by using a value starting with 'memory://' followed by a unique identifier for that set of credentials (for example, memory://user1). The identifier can be anything you choose but should be unique to the user. Unlike file-based storage, where credentials persist across connections, memory storage loads the credentials into static memory, and the credentials are shared between connections using the same identifier for the life of the process. To persist credentials outside the current process, you must manually store the credentials prior to closing the connection. This enables you to set them in the connection when the process is started again. You can retrieve OAuth property values with a query to the sys_connection_props system table. If there are multiple connections using the same credentials, the properties are read from the previously closed connection.

The default location is "%APPDATA%\CData\Acumatica Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt" with %APPDATA% set to the user's configuration directory. The default values are

• Windows: "register://%DSN"
• Unix: "%AppData%..."

where DSN is the name of the current DSN used in the open connection.

The following table lists the value of %APPDATA% by OS:

CallbackURL¶

The OAuth callback URL to return to when authenticating. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

During the authentication process, the OAuth authorization server redirects the user to this URL. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

State¶

Optional value for representing extra OAuth state information.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Optional value for representing extra OAuth state information.

OAuthGrantType¶

The grant type for the OAuth flow.

Possible Values¶

CODE, CLIENT, PASSWORD

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

CLIENT

Remarks¶

The following options are available: CODE,CLIENT,PASSWORD

OAuthVerifier¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL. This can be used on systems where a browser cannot be launched such as headless systems.

Authentication on Headless Machines¶

See to obtain the OAuthVerifier value.

Set OAuthSettingsLocation along with OAuthVerifier. When you connect, the connector exchanges the OAuthVerifier for the OAuth authentication tokens and saves them, encrypted, to the specified location. Set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH to automate the exchange.

Once the OAuth settings file has been generated, you can remove OAuthVerifier from the connection properties and connect with OAuthSettingsLocation set.

To automatically refresh the OAuth token values, set OAuthSettingsLocation and additionally set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH.

OAuthRefreshToken¶

The OAuth refresh token for the corresponding OAuth access token.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthRefreshToken property is used to refresh the OAuthAccessToken when using OAuth authentication.

OAuthExpiresIn¶

The lifetime in seconds of the OAuth AccessToken.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthTokenTimestamp to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

OAuthTokenTimestamp¶

The Unix epoch timestamp in milliseconds when the current Access Token was created.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthExpiresIn to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

JWT OAuth¶

This section provides a complete list of JWT OAuth properties you can configure.

OAuthJWTCert¶

The JWT Certificate store.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The OAuthJWTCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in OAuthJWTCertPassword.

OAuthJWTCert is used in conjunction with the OAuthJWTCertSubject

field in order to specify client certificates. If OAuthJWTCert has a value, and OAuthJWTCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. Please refer to the OAuthJWTCertSubject field for details.

Designations of certificate stores are platform-dependent.

The following are designations of the most common User and Machine certificate stores in Windows:

In Java, the certificate store normally is a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

When the certificate store type is PFXFile, this property must be set to the name of the file. When the type is PFXBlob, the property must be set to the binary contents of a PFX file (i.e. PKCS12 certificate store).

OAuthJWTCertType¶

The type of key store containing the JWT Certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

USER

Remarks¶

This property can take one of the following values:

OAuthJWTCertPassword¶

The password for the OAuth JWT certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password in order to open the certificate store.

OAuthJWTCertSubject¶

The subject of the OAuth JWT certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

*

Remarks¶

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property.

If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For instance "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@jitterbit.com". Common fields and their meanings are displayed below.

If a field value contains a comma it must be quoted.

OAuthJWTIssuer¶

The issuer of the Java Web Token.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The issuer of the Java Web Token. In most cases, this takes the value of the OAuth App ID (Client Id) connection property and does not need to be individually set.

OAuthJWTSubject¶

The user subject for which the application is requesting delegated access.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The user subject for which the application is requesting delegated access. In most cases, this takes the value of the OAuth App ID (Client Id) connection property and does not need to be individually set.

SSL¶

This section provides a complete list of SSL properties you can configure.

SSLServerCert¶

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Certificates are validated as trusted by the machine based on the System's trust store. The trust store used is the 'javax.net.ssl.trustStore' value specified for the system. If no value is specified for this property, Java's default trust store is used (for example, JAVA_HOME\lib\security\cacerts).

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

Schema¶

This section provides a complete list of schema properties you can configure.

Location¶

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\ExcelOnline Data Provider\Schema

Remarks¶

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the connector (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\ExcelOnline Data Provider\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

BrowsableSchemas¶

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

Tables¶

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Views¶

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Miscellaneous¶

This section provides a complete list of miscellaneous properties you can configure.

AllowFormula¶

Whether or not to treat values starting with an equals (=) sign as formulas during inserts and updates.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

Set this value to true to treat values beginning with an equals (=) sign as formulas on inserts and updates. Set the value to false to treat all values used in inserts and updates as strings.

For example, with AllowFormula set to true, the following will insert a formula into the B column that will sum cells B1:B5:

INSERT INTO Excel_Sheet (A, B) VALUES ('Bill', '=SUM(B1:B5)')

Header¶

Indicates whether or not the provider should detect column names from the first row.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

If true, the first row will be used as a column header. Otherwise, the pseudo column names A, B, C, etc. will be used.

The connector will follow the additional specifications below to detect column headers:

• Headers should not contain special characters.
• Due to a limitation of the Excel Online API, all column headers must be nonempty.

MaxRows¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

-1

Remarks¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Other¶

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting¶

Pagesize¶

The maximum number of results to return per page from Microsoft Excel Online when UsePagination is True.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

-1

Remarks¶

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from Microsoft Excel Online. Setting a higher value may result in better performance at the cost of additional memory eaten up per page consumed. A value of -1 indicates the maximum possible page size for the driver.

PseudoColumns¶

This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

This setting is particularly helpful in Entity Framework, which does not allow you to set a value for a pseudo column unless it is a table column. The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3". You can use the "*" character to include all tables and all columns; for example, "*=*".

RowScanDepth¶

The maximum number of rows to scan to look for the columns available in a table.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

50

Remarks¶

The columns in a table must be determined by scanning table rows. This value determines the maximum number of rows that will be scanned.

Setting a high value may decrease performance. Setting a low value may prevent the data type from being determined properly, especially when there is null data.

SharepointURL¶

The base URL of your Sharepoint Server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

To query the SharePointSites, this base URL of your Sharepoint Server must be specified. A protocol prefix, either "http://" or "https://", must be provided in the value supplied for this property.

For example: https://SomeTenantName.sharepoint.com. This property can also be used to control what drives, workbooks, and worksheets are exposed by the connector. If you specify SharepointURL and do not specify Drive, the connector will enumerate drives from the specified site as schemas, and enumerate all the worksheets from all the workbooks in each drive as tables in their respective schema. If this property is specified when using AzureServicePrincipal or AzureServicePrincipalCert authentication, the search endpoint will not be used. This property must be specified if working with a custom application that has Sites.Selected as its highest privilege.

ShowSharedDocuments¶

Whether or not to show shared documents.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

Whether or not to show shared documents. If set to true, shared documents will be listed along-side user owned workbooks as database tables. Ultimately, the specific files should have been granted direct access or explicitly shared with the authenticated user.

Timeout¶

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

60

Remarks¶

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the connector throws an exception.

TypeDetectionScheme¶

Determines how to determine the data types of columns.

Possible Values¶

None, RowScan, ColumnFormat

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

RowScan

Remarks¶

The connector can detect data types with the cell format (number, currency, date, etc.) or by scanning rows.

UsePagination¶

Whether or not the ADO.NET Provider for Microsoft Excel Online should use client side paging.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

Whether or not the Microsoft Excel Online connector should use client side paging. We suggest you set this to true in case of a large dataset.

UserDefinedViews¶

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1 WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json

Note that the specified path is not embedded in quotation marks.

UseSimpleNames¶

Boolean determining if simple names should be used for tables and columns.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

Microsoft Excel Online tables and columns can use special characters in names that are normally not allowed in standard databases. UseSimpleNames makes the connector easier to use with traditional database tools.

Setting UseSimpleNames to true will simplify the names of tables and columns returned. It will enforce a naming scheme such that only alphanumeric characters and the underscore are valid for the displayed table and column names. Any nonalphanumeric characters will be converted to an underscore.

ValueInputOption¶

Determines how the provider parses values the user submits to Microsoft Excel Online.

Possible Values¶

UserEntered, Raw

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

UserEntered

Remarks¶

Determines how the connector parses values the user submits to Microsoft Excel Online.

ValueRenderOption¶

Determines how the provider renders values in the output.

Possible Values¶

FormattedValue, UnformattedValue, Formula

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

FormattedValue

Remarks¶

Determines how the connector renders values in the output.