Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From Azure DevOps connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New Azure DevOps Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to Azure DevOps

To connect to your Azure DevOps account, navigate to Profile > Organizations to obtain the name of your organization in the account. Set the Organization property to this value.

Note: Some table names exist in multiple catalogs and schemas. When querying a table, you should specify the catalog and schema in either the Catalog and Schema connection properties or the fully qualified table name.

Authenticating to Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps supports both Basic and Azure AD (OAuth-based) authentication.

Basic

When you connect to your Azure DevOps via Basic authentication, you provide both the Organization and a PersonalAccessToken.

To generate a personal access token, log in to your Azure DevOps Organization account and navigate to Profile > Personal Access Tokens > New Token. The generated token will be displayed.

Entra ID (Azure AD)

Note: Microsoft has rebranded Azure AD as Entra ID. In topics that require the user to interact with the Entra ID Admin site, we use the same names Microsoft does. However, there are still CData connection properties whose names or values reference "Azure AD".

Microsoft Entra ID is a multi-tenant, cloud-based identity and access management platform. It supports OAuth-based authentication flows that enable the add-in to access Azure DevOps endpoints securely.

Authentication to Entra ID via a web application always requires that you first create and register a custom OAuth application. This enables your application to define its own redirect URI, manage credential scope, and comply with organization-specific security policies.

For full instructions on how to create and register a custom OAuth application, see Creating an Entra ID (Azure AD) Application.

After setting AuthScheme to AzureAD, the steps to authenticate vary, depending on the environment. For details on how to connect from desktop applications, web-based workflows, or headless systems, see the following sections.

Desktop Applications

You can authenticate from a desktop application using either the add-in's embedded OAuth application or a custom OAuth application registered in Microsoft Entra ID.

Option 1: Use the Embedded OAuth Application

This is a pre-registered application, included with the add-in. It simplifies setup and eliminates the need to register your own credentials and is ideal for development environments, single-user tools, or any setup where quick and easy authentication is preferred.

Set the following connection properties:

AuthScheme: AzureAD.
InitiateOAuth:
- GETANDREFRESH: Use for the initial login. Launches the login page and saves tokens.
- REFRESH: Use this setting when you have already obtained valid access and refresh tokens. Reuses stored tokens without prompting the user again.

When you connect, the add-in opens the Microsoft Entra sign-in page in your default browser. After signing in and granting access, the add-in retrieves the access and refresh tokens and saves them to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation.

Option 2: Use a Custom OAuth Application

If your organization requires more control, such as managing security policies, redirect URIs, or application branding, you can instead register a custom OAuth application in Microsoft Entra ID and provide its values during connection.

During the registration of your custom application, as described in Creating an Entra ID (Azure AD) Application, record the following values: client Id, client secret, and callback URL (redirect URI).

Then, set the following connection properties:

AuthScheme: AzureAD.
InitiateOAuth:
- GETANDREFRESH: Use for the initial login. Launches the login page and saves tokens.
- REFRESH: Use this setting when you have already obtained valid access and refresh tokens. Reuses stored tokens without prompting the user again.
OAuthClientId: The client Id that was generated when you registered your custom OAuth application.
OAuthClientSecret: The client secret that was generated when you registered your custom OAuth application.
CallbackURL: A redirect URI you defined during application registration.

After authentication, tokens are saved to OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across sessions and are used to automatically refresh the access token when it expires, so you don't need to log in again on future connections.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to Azure DevOps you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

Excel Add-In for Azure DevOps