Connect to SharePoint Excel Services Data in RunMyProcess through Connect Server

Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess makes it easy to create applications for complex business processes, such as budget application and contract management. CData Connect creates a virtual database for SharePoint Excel Services and can be used to generate an OData API (natively consumable in RunMyProcess) for SharePoint Excel Services. By pairing RunMyProcess with the CData Connect Server, you get direct connectivity to all your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources - no need to migrate your data or write your own integrations. Simply connect to Connect Server from RunMyProcess as you would any other REST service and get instant, live access to your SharePoint Excel Services data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to SharePoint Excel Services from CData Connect and accessing SharePoint Excel Services data through an OData feed in RunMyProcess.

Configuring Connect Server

To work with live SharePoint Excel Services data in RunMyProcess, we need to connect to SharePoint Excel Services from Connect Server, provide user access to the new virtual database, and create OData endpoints for the SharePoint Excel Services data.

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to SharePoint Excel Services from RunMyProcess through Connect Server.

1. Click Users -> Add
2. Configure a User
3. Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user

Connect to SharePoint Excel Services from Connect Server

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open Connect Server and click Connections
2. Select "SharePoint Excel Services" from Available Data Sources
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SharePoint Excel Services

   The URL, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials for SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2010, or SharePoint 2013. Additionally, the Library property must be set to a valid SharePoint Document Library and the File property must be set to a valid .xlsx file in the indicated Library.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for RunMyProcess).

Add SharePoint Excel Services OData Endpoints in Connect Server

After connecting to SharePoint Excel Services, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
2. Select the SharePoint Excel Services database
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple domains from an application, such as Ajax, you might violate the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Sample URLs for OData Feeds

Once you have configured a connection to SharePoint Excel Services, created a user, and created OData endpoints in Connect Server, you can access OData feeds for SharePoint Excel Services data. Below, you will see the URLs to access tables and the list of tables. For information on accessing the tables, you can navigate to the API page for Connect Server (click the API link on the top right of Connect Server Web page). For the URLs, you will need the URL of Connect Server, likely in the form: CONNECT_SERVER_URL/. Since we are working with Angular, we will append the @json parameter to the end of URLs that do not return JSON data by default.

As with standard OData feeds, if you wish to limit the fields returned, you can add a $select parameter to the query, along with other standard OData URL parameters, such as $filter, $orderby, $skip, and $top. See the help documentation for more information on supported OData queries.

Retrieve SharePoint Excel Services Data from RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio

With the connection to SharePoint Excel Services and OData endpoints created, we are ready to add SharePoint Excel Services data to RunMyProcess for retrieval.

Create a Provider

1. Log into RunMyProcess and open DigitalSuite Studio.
2. Click Resources to bring up the Resources page, then select then the CONNECTORS tab. 　　
3. Click the + (New Provider) button to create a new provider, choose the project to use, then click Confirm.
4. In the provider settings page, configure the following properties.
   • URL：Set the OData endpoint in the CData Connect Endpoints page.e.g. CONNECT_SERVER_URL/api.rsc/
   • Authentication Schema：Select Login/Password.
   • Login：Specify the CData Connect User name configured above.
   • Password：Specify the Authtoken of the user.
5. Fill in the same properties in the ACCEPTANCE and TEST tabs. Note: You can copy the configured settings by clicking 'Copy this configuration button,' then pasting the content in the new tab by clicking 'Paste previously copied configuration.'
6. Click Save to save the properties.

Retrieve SharePoint Excel Services Data by Creating a Connector

1. In the CONNECTORS tab, click the button with three dots to create the provider, then select Add connector from the menu.
2. In the following page, set Connector URL to the OData endpoint configured in Connect Server.e.g. odataendpoint/
3. Click Save then Launch to test the connector execution. Click Launch test to execute. The process is successful if you get the JSON response of your configured table information.

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a provider and connector to retrieve SharePoint Excel Services data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SharePoint Excel Services (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect Server page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live SharePoint Excel Services data in RunMyProcess.