Alation Connected Sheets

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Alation Connected Sheets brings spreadsheet users the ability to discover curated data sources from the Alation catalog and download that data with simple clicks without leaving the spreadsheet.

Alation Connected Sheets is supported for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel 2019 and above, web and desktop client.

With Alation Connected Sheets, spreadsheet users can:

  • Discover data sources in your organization’s Alation catalog.

  • Use published queries to self-serve data.

  • Automate spreadsheet-based reports or dashboards.

  • Build real-time reports in a catalog article or web page.

  • View quality indicators such as trust information before using data for analysis.

  • Customize download specifics such as table, column, or query selections along with filters and sorts using an intuitive graphical user interface—no SQL required!

  • Set a refresh schedule to automatically keep the downloaded data up to date and edit your spreadsheet profile. (In Excel, this requires a file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.)

Prerequisites

To use Alation Connected Sheets, your Alation instance must satisfy the following requirements:

  • Must be an Alation Cloud Service instance running the Alation cloud native architecture. To determine if you’re already on the cloud native architecture or to request migration to it, contact Alation Support.

  • Must have available Creator or Explorer licenses for all users running Alation Connected Sheets.

Supported Data Sources

You can connect to cloud instances of Snowflake, Postgres, MySQL, and Redshift databases, or to customer-managed databases with OCF connectors supporting the Alation Agent as described in the following table:

Data Source

Supported OCF Connector

Azure SQL

v4.1.24

AWS Databricks

v2.1.0

Azure Databricks

v1.1.0

Postgres

v1.5

Snowflake

NA*

Redshift

NA*

SQL Server

v1.2.10

MySQL

v1.3.5

Oracle

v1.4.4

* Connects natively through Connected Sheets connectors. For those data sources behind a firewall, ensure the IP address 44.210.61.77 is added to the allow list.

For more information on OCF connectors, refer to the OCF Support Matrix.