Excel Spreadsheet Automation with the QUERY Formula

The CData Excel Add-In for Bitbucket provides formulas that can edit, save, and delete Bitbucket data. The following three steps show how you can automate the following task: Search Bitbucket data for a user-specified value and then organize the results into an Excel spreadsheet.

The syntax of the CDATAQUERY formula is the following: =CDATAQUERY(Query, [Connection], [Parameters], [ResultLocation]);

This formula requires three inputs:

• Query: The declaration of the Bitbucket data records you want to retrieve or the modifications to be made, written in standard SQL.

• Connection: Either the connection name, such as BitbucketConnection1, or a connection string. The connection string consists of the required properties for connecting to Bitbucket data, separated by semicolons.

  For most queries, you must set the Workspace. The only exception to this is the Workspaces table, which does not require this property to be set, as querying it provides a list of workspace slugs that can be used to set Workspace. To query this table, you must set Schema to 'Information' and execute the query SELECT * FROM Workspaces>.

  Setting Schema to 'Information' displays general information. To connect to Bitbucket, set these parameters:

  • Schema: To show general information about a workspace, such as its users, repositories, and projects, set this to Information. Otherwise, set this to the schema of the repository or project you are querying. To get a full set of available schemas, query the sys_schemas table.
  • Workspace: Required if you are not querying the Workspaces table. This property is not required for querying the Workspaces table, as that query only returns a list of workspace slugs that can be used to set Workspace.

  Authenticating to Bitbucket

  Bitbucket supports OAuth authentication only. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must create a custom OAuth application, and set AuthScheme to OAuth.

  Be sure to review the Help documentation for the required connection properties for you specific authentication needs (desktop applications, web applications, and headless machines).

  Creating a custom OAuth application

  From your Bitbucket account:

  1. Go to Settings (the gear icon) and select Workspace Settings.
  2. In the Apps and Features section, select OAuth Consumers.
  3. Click Add Consumer.
  4. Enter a name and description for your custom application.
  5. Set the callback URL:
     • For desktop applications and headless machines, use http://localhost:33333 or another port number of your choice. The URI you set here becomes the CallbackURL property.
     • For web applications, set the callback URL to a trusted redirect URL. This URL is the web location the user returns to with the token that verifies that your application has been granted access.
  6. If you plan to use client credentials to authenticate, you must select This is a private consumer. In the driver, you must set AuthScheme to client.
  7. Select which permissions to give your OAuth application. These determine what data you can read and write with it.
  8. To save the new custom application, click Save.
  9. After the application has been saved, you can select it to view its settings. The application's Key and Secret are displayed. Record these for future use. You will use the Key to set the OAuthClientId and the Secret to set the OAuthClientSecret.
• ResultLocation: The cell that the output of results should start from.

Pass Spreadsheet Cells as Inputs to the Query

The procedure below results in a spreadsheet that organizes all the formula inputs in the first column.

1. Define cells for the formula inputs. In addition to the connection inputs, add another input to define a criterion for a filter to be used to search Bitbucket data, such as Id.
2. In another cell, write the formula, referencing the cell values from the user input cells defined above. Single quotes are used to enclose values such as addresses that may contain spaces.
=CDATAQUERY("SELECT * FROM Issues WHERE Id = '"&B3&"'","Workspace="&B1&";Schema="&B2&";Provider=Bitbucket",B4)
3. Change the filter to change the data.