Dynamic data using ODBC

Thomas Swanson

Has anyone setup an ODBC driver connected to Excel? This would allow an Excel user to pull FE data directly into an Excel spreadsheet and update it at will Dynamically. This would eliminate data exports that always go to a new sheet. There are many advantages to this approach. Are users interested?

Alexander Frenkel

Very interested. Could you please share more information?

Thank you!

Dennis Ladnier

Thomas, I may be missing something but I assume your FE is on-prem (i.e. not NXT). If so, you should be able to specify your excel data source as ‘from sql database’ to connect to your specific server/database. With that said, you may need to specifically alter your sql instance to provide your AD login specific permissions. Also, you need to make sure you have the correct odbc drivers on your pc/laptop. The net is your ‘IT staff’ should be able to easily get this going for you.

Dennis

Thomas Swanson

As seen by Dennis' comment, I/we need to work with our respective IT staffs to provide the permissions and connectivity to ODBC. My next question is: can we download the FE NXT ODBC Driver through Blackbaud at no cost? The driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live FE data (accounts and more), directly from any application that supports ODBC connectivity (eg Excel). Once connected Excel spreadsheets can be refreshed with new data with a recalc. Very nice. I used ODBC previously with Dynamics GP data.

Sylvia Cook

following to hear what there is for NXT and connecting to Excel.