How to update Gmail from Excel

The CData Excel Add-In for Gmail enables you to edit and save Gmail data directly from Excel. This article explains how to transfer data from Excel to Gmail. This technique is useful if you want to work on Gmail data in Excel and update changes, or if you have a whole spreadsheet you want to import into Gmail. In this example, you will use the Inbox table; however, the same process will work for any table that can be retrieved by the CData Excel Add-In.

Establish a Connection

If you have not already done so, create a new Gmail connection by clicking From Gmail on the ribbon.

There are two ways to authenticate to Gmail. Before selecting one, first ensure that you have enabled IMAP access in your Gmail account settings. See the "Connecting to Gmail" section under "Getting Started" in the installed documentation for a guide.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, can be set to valid Gmail user credentials.

Alternatively, instead of providing the Password, you can use the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to provide the User. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Retrieve Data from Gmail

To insert data into Gmail, you will first need to retrieve data from the Gmail table you want to add to. This links the Excel spreadsheet to the Gmail table selected: After you retrieve data, any changes you make to the data are highlighted in red.

1. Click the From Gmail button on the CData ribbon. The Data Selection wizard is displayed.
2. In the Table or View menu, select the Inbox table.
3. In the Maximum Rows menu, select the number of rows you want to retrieve. If you want to insert rows, you need to retrieve only one row. The Query box will then display the SQL query that corresponds to your request.
4. In the Sheet Name box, enter the name for the sheet that will be populated. By default the add-in will create a new sheet with the name of the table.

Insert Rows to Gmail

After retrieving data, you can add data from an existing spreadsheet in Excel.

1. In a cell after the last row, enter a formula referencing the corresponding cell from the other spreadsheet; for example, =MyInboxSheetInExcel!A1.
2. After using a formula to reference the cells you want to add to Gmail, select the cells that you are inserting data into and drag the formula down as far as needed. The referenced values you want to add will be displayed on the Inbox sheet.
3. Highlight the rows you want to insert and click the Update Rows button.

As each row is inserted, the Id value will appear in the Id column and the row's text will change to black, indicating that the record has been inserted.