Setting Up a DataCurrent Excel Connection in Yellowfin

This article is for anyone looking to read Excel files using DataCurrent in Yellowfin.

1. Prepare your spreadsheet

A spreadsheet being read by DataCurrent is assumed to be in a columnar format.  Each record is on a unique row and they are all stored in contiguous rows.  Each column is labeled in the top row.

2. Connect to your spreadsheet

Once you know the path to your spreadsheet, create a new source in Yellowfin.   Select the "com.adl.axon.jdbc.JDBCDriver" jdbc driver from the drop down menu.   Enter the connection string as "jdbc:excel://[path to file]".    On a linux system you might enter "jdbc:excel:///home/john/file.xlsx".  On a windows system you might enter jdbc://excel://c/users/john/file.xlsx".   Notice that in a windows system you specify the drive letter but do not need to put a colon after it.  Also, notice that you will still use forward slashes to separate file path components rather than backslashes because that is the standard supported on connection strings. 

The screenshot below shows an example of this configuration.  Also, notice that the connection has been tested.  Because Excel files don't require a username and password, Yellowfin will warn you when you test the connection about the missing authentication credentials.  You can ignore this warning (press "OK").   You will see as tables in the schema any sheets in the excel workbook.  In the example below the sheet is called "ExampleSheet".

3 Create metadata and report

 Once you complete these steps you can create metadata with the Yellowfin View builder as well as reports, dashboards and storyboards in the same way you create reports on any data source in Yellowfin.   Yellowfin will see the columns in the spreadsheet, and recognize the data types (date, varchar, integer etc...) as they are stored in Excel.

Don't hesitate to contact support@blacklightsolutions.zendesk.com if you need further assistance.