Access Live MongoDB 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 MongoDB data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to MongoDB in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live MongoDB 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.

Getting Started

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Configure MongoDB Connectivity for Excel

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

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

   Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to MongoDB. To access MongoDB collections as tables you can use automatic schema discovery or write your own schema definitions. Schemas are defined in .rsd files, which have a simple format. You can also execute free-form queries that are not tied to the schema.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add MongoDB Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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

Access Live MongoDB Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live MongoDB 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. MongoDB1), Table (e.g. restaurants), 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 MongoDB Data from Excel

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

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to MongoDB (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 MongoDB

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to MongoDB Data from Spreadsheet Apps

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live MongoDB 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.