Integrate Excel Online Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC driver for Excel Online data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to Excel Online data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on Excel Online data in Pentaho.

Connect and Create a Report

1. Copy the JAR file of the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the \Report-Designer\lib\jdbc\ folder in the Pentaho directory.
2. Run the report-designer.bat file in the \Report-Designer\ folder to open the Report-Designer UI.

3. Create a new data source with the driver by clicking Data -> Add Data Source -> Advanced -> JDBC (Custom) and then creating a new Excel Online connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

   • Custom Connection URL property: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:excelonline: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     You can connect to a workbook by providing authentication to Excel Online and then setting the following properties:

     • Workbook: Set this to the name or Id of the workbook.

       If you want to view a list of information about the available workbooks, execute a query to the Workbooks view after you authenticate.

     • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are connecting to a workbook in a sandbox account. Otherwise, leave this blank to connect to a production account.

     You use the OAuth authentication standard to authenticate to Excel Online. See the Getting Started section in the help documentation for a guide. Getting Started also guides you through executing SQL to worksheets and ranges.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Excel Online JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.excelonline.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:excelonline:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.excelonline.ExcelOnlineDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.

Add Excel Online Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Excel Online data.

1. Add the Excel Online source to your report: Click Data -> Add Data Source -> JDBC and select the data source.

2. Configure the query. This article uses the one below:

   SELECT Id, Column1 FROM Test_xlsx_Sheet1
3. Drag a chart onto your report and double-click it to edit the chart. Run the report to display the chart. You can use the results of this query to create a simple chart for the Test_xlsx_Sheet1 table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.