Question

I using wso2 carbon to get data from an excel spreadsheet and google spreadsheets, and have 2 questions.

1. Is there a way to pass the location/name of the spreadsheet into the service so it isn’t hard coded?

2. Is there a way to form a query to filter the returned data (ie, return columns B and C only if column A has the value “yes”)?

Answer 1

I believe you’re referring to WSO2 Data Service Server functionalities. Please find my answers to your questions below.

1.Is there a way to pass the location/name of the spreadsheet into the service so it isn’t hard coded?

The primary idea of data services is to expose your datasources as a web service. For example, if you take a flat file datasource such as a spreadsheet, then the spreadsheet is considered as the datasource and dataservices allow you to expose all your data stored in the spreadsheet to be exposed as a web service. Therefore, moving along with that concept you have to have datasource configurations per spreadsheet in your dataservice. However, currently the WSO2 Data Service Server provides you with the ability to have multiple datasource configured in the same data service descriptor file (a.k.a DBS file). So you can configure multiple datasources wrapping up multiple spreadsheets. And then you have the ability to use the relevant datasource when you configure your queries. With that approach you wouldnt have to pass the spreadsheet location but you can have all your spreadsheet configurations pre-configured before deploying it.

1. Is there a way to form a query to filter the returned data (ie, return columns B and C only if column A has the value “yes”)?

Currently we don’t offer this functionality via the WSO2 DSS versions 2.6.3 and the releases prior to that. However, this will be available in our latest upcoming release (DSS 3.0.0) that will be done early this month. With that you will have the ability to query a Excel or Google Spreadsheet in a SQL-like manner.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Prabath