Access Live Cosmos DB Data in Excel (Desktop)

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to Cosmos DB data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to Cosmos DB in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live Cosmos DB data in Excel spreadsheets.

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

Configure Cosmos DB Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Cosmos DB from Excel is made possible through Connect Spreadsheets. To work with Cosmos DB data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Cosmos DB connection.

1. Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Cosmos DB" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cosmos DB.

   To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

   • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
   • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Cosmos DB Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Cosmos DB data from Excel.

Access Live Cosmos DB Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live Cosmos DB data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for Connect Spreadsheets and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account
6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. CosmosDB1), Table (e.g. Customers), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one.

Update Cosmos DB Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Cosmos DB data in Excel, Connect Spreadsheets also lets you update and delete Cosmos DB data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Cosmos DB (your changes will be in red)
2. In the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Cosmos DB

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Cosmos DB Data from Spreadsheet Apps

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Cosmos DB data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.