Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

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

Connecting to Google Sheets

The add-in supports authentication schemes using user accounts, service accounts, GCP instance accounts, and API keys for authentication. Each of these types of accounts have different AuthSchemes, but all of them use the OAuth standard for authentication.


Access	AuthScheme	Notes
User Accounts	OAuth	Can use embedded credentials if access from a Desktop application. See Desktop Applications, below.
Service Accounts	OAuthJWT	Depends on whether the data will be JSON or PFX files. See Authenticating as a Service, below.
GCP Instance Acct	GCPInstanceAccount	For use on a GCP virtual machine.
API Key	Token	Also, set APIKey to True. To create an API key in the Google Cloud Console, click Create credentials > API Key. To restrict the key before using it in production, select Restrict and choose one of the available restrictions.

The following sections focus on authentication as a User, and authentication as a Service.

Authenticating as a User (OAuth)

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to Google Sheets from a User account (AuthScheme OAuth) via three common authentication flows:

Desktop: a connection to a server on the user's local machine, frequently used for testing and prototyping. Authenticated via either embedded OAuth or custom OAuth.
Web: access to data via a shared website. Authenticated via custom OAuth only.
Headless Server: a dedicated computer that provides services to other computers and their users, which is configured to operate without a monitor and keyboard. Authenticated via embedded OAuth or custom OAuth.

For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, and why you might want to create one even for auth flows that have embedded OAuth credentials, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in Google Sheets, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop. You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Google Sheets console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Before you connect, set the following variables:

InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
Custom OAuth applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the add-in opens Google Sheets's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the add-in automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

The first time you connect to data, set the following connection parameters:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.
- OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the add-in to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
On subsequent data connections, set the following:
- InitiateOAuth
- OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAUth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
Set the following connection properties:
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret in your application settings.
Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Authenticating as a Service (OAuthJWT)

Authenticating to Google Sheets from a Service account (AuthScheme OAuth) requires:

The creation of a new service account (see Creating a Custom OAuth Application); and
A copy of the accounts certificate.

You must also set the following properties, which are specific to the preferred medium:

JSON File Properties

AuthScheme: OAuthJWT.
OAuthJWTCertType: GOOGLEJSON.
OAuthJWTCert: The path to the Google-provided .json file.
OAuthJWTSubject (optional): The email address of the user whose data you want to access. Only set this value if the service account is part of a GSuite domain and you want to enable delegation.

PFX File Properties

AuthScheme: OAuthJWT.
OAuthJWTCertType: PFXFILE.
OAuthJWTCert: The path to the Google-provided .pfx file.
OAuthJWTIssuer: The email address of the service account. This address usually includes the domain iam.gserviceaccount.com.
OAuthJWTCertPassword (optional): The .pfx file password. In most cases you must provide this since Google encrypts PFX certificates.
OAuthJWTCertSubject (optional): Set this only if you are using a OAuthJWTCertType which stores multiple certificates. Should not be set for PFX certificates generated by Google.
OAuthJWTSubject (optional): The email address of the user whose data you want to access. Only set this value if the service account is part of a GSuite domain and you want to enable delegation.

Connection Properties

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

Managing Connections

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

Excel Add-In for Google Sheets