Connecting to Data Sources

For most data sources, you can connect to only one data source per worksheet.

The following exceptions apply:

Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase and Oracle Essbase—You can connect to multiple Essbase databases on a single worksheet, as described in Changing Connections in Multiple-Grid Worksheets.
Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition—You can connect to multiple catalogs on a single sheet, as described in Connecting to Multiple Oracle Analytics Cloud Data Sources and Connecting to Multiple Oracle BI EE Data Sources.

Watch this overview video to learn about Oracle Smart View for Office connections.

Overview video

Watch this video to see a tutorial on navigating in Smart View, including connecting to a data source.

Tutorial video

To connect to a data source:

From the Smart View ribbon, click Panel.
From the Smart View Home panel or from the menu displayed when you click the arrow next to , do one of the following:
- Select Shared Connections to open the Shared Connections panel, where you select a data source type from the drop-down menu. Once you select a data source type, the connections available for the selected data source are displayed in a tree list.
  Note:
  - For examples of the shared connection URL syntax to use, see Creating Shared Connections.
  - Shared connections are not supported for Oracle Analytics Cloud, Oracle BI EE, Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase, or Narrative Reporting data sources. However, private connections to these sources can be added to the shared connection XML file, as described in the Oracle Smart View for Office Installation and Configuration Guide, Accessing Shared Connections from an XML File
- Click Private Connections to open the Private Connections panel, and select a connection from the drop-down menu.
  
  When working with Oracle Analytics Cloud, Oracle BI EE, Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase, or Narrative Reporting, you must use a private connection.
- Click Private Connections, then enter a URL in the field, and then press Enter. For examples of the URL syntax to use, see Private Connection URL Syntax.
- Click a connection name under Recently Used. You can click to pin items to this list.
When accessing a cloud data source, the service domain name appears next to Welcome in the Login screen. If you need to change domains, click the change domain link, enter the new cloud Identity Domain name, and click Go. Then proceed to step 3.
For cloud data sources: In the Login screen, enter your user name and password.

For on-premises data sources: In Connect to Data Source, enter your user name and password for the data source.
In the Smart View Panel tree list, double-click the item—form, ad hoc grid, Smart Slice, task list, or catalog—that you want to open.

After the item is opened on the grid, you can easily locate it in the tree view. Click the arrow next to and select Locate Worksheet Connection.

Note:
Depending on how the administrator configured Smart View, you may or may not be required to enter your user name and password as you change data providers and Office applications.

Notes:

The following applies to Essbase and Oracle Analytics Cloud - Essbase only:

If external authentication is disabled, for security reasons, you must provide your user name and password each time you connect to a different application on the same server.
Once connected to an Essbase database, users can view database notes associated with the database. To display database notes, from the Smart View Panel, right-click the name of the Essbase database, and then select Database Note. You cannot edit these database notes from Smart View. Database notes can be implemented in VBA by using the VBA function, HypGetDatabaseNote (see the Oracle Smart View for Office Developer's Guide).