The CData ODBC driver for Active Directory uses the standard ODBC interface to link Active Directory data with applications like Microsoft Access and Excel. Follow the steps below to use Microsoft Query to import Active Directory data into a spreadsheet and provide values to a parameterized query from cells in a spreadsheet.
To make the connection from Power Query Online: Select the Excel option in the connector selection. In the Excel dialog box that appears, provide the path to the Excel workbook. If necessary, select an on-premises data gateway to access the Excel workbook. Power Query is a built-in feature in Excel 2016 and Excel 2019, but it can also be downloaded in Excel 2010 and Excel 2013 and used as an add-in. In earlier versions, some windows may look different from the images in this tutorial that were captured in Excel 2016.
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
To establish a connection, set the following properties:
- Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., DomainBobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
- Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.
BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.
Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.
You can then work with live Active Directory data in Excel.
Microsoft Excel Power Query Download
- In Excel, open the Data tab and choose From Other Sources -> From Microsoft Query.
- Choose the ActiveDirectory DSN. Select the option to use Query Wizard to create/edit queries.
- In the Query Wizard, expand the node for the table you would like to import into your spreadsheet. Select the columns you want to import and click the arrow to add them to your query. Alternatively, select the table name to add all columns for that table.
- The Filter Data page allows you to specify criteria. For example, you can limit results by setting a date range.
- If you want to use parameters in your query, select the option to edit the query in Microsoft Query.
To set a parameter in the query, you will need to modify the SQL statement directly. To do this, click the SQL button in the Query Editor. If you set filter criteria earlier, you should have a WHERE clause already in the query.
To use a parameter, use a '?' character as the wildcard character for a field's value in the WHERE clause. For example, if you are importing the User, you can set 'CN=?'.
- Close the SQL dialog when you are finished editing the SQL statement. You will be prompted to enter a parameter value. In the next step, you will select a cell to provide this value. So, leave the box in the dialog blank.
Close Microsoft Query. The Import Data dialog is displayed. Enter a cell where results should be imported.
- Close the Import Data dialog. You will be prompted to enter a parameter value. Click the button next to the parameter box to select a cell. Select the option to automatically refresh the spreadsheet when the value changes.
Can You Query In Excel
This example teaches you how to import data from a Microsoft Access database by using the Microsoft Query Wizard. With Microsoft Query, you can select the columns of data that you want and import only that data into Excel.
1. On the Data tab, in the Get & Transform Data group, click Get Data.
2. Click From Other Sources, From Microsoft Query.
The 'Choose Data Source' dialog box appears.
3. Select MS Access Database* and check 'Use the Query Wizard to create/edit queries'.
4. Click OK.
5. Select the database and click OK.
This Access database consists of multiple tables. You can select the table and columns you want to include in your query.
6. Select Customers and click the > symbol.
7. Click Next.
To only import a specified set of records, filter the data.
8. Click City from the 'Column to filter' list and only include rows where City equals New York.
9. Click Next.
You can sort your data if you want (we don't do it here).
10. Click Next.
11. Click Finish to return the data to Microsoft Excel.
12. Select how you want to view this data, where you want to put it, and click OK.
Result:
13. When your Access data changes, you can easily refresh the data in Excel. First, select a cell inside the table. Next, on the Design tab, in the External Table Data group, click Refresh.