Smartsheet Connector for Alteryx : List contacts via SQL

Learn how to list contacts using the Smartsheet Connector for Alteryx. This connector enables you to read and write Smartsheet data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate sheets, rows, and reports — almost no coding required. We'll walk you through the exact setup.

Let's dive in!

Create data source using Smartsheet ODBC Driver

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack (if you haven't already).

2. Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ZappySys API Driver driver:

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use a User DSN if the client application runs under a User Account. This is the ideal option at design time (e.g., when developing in Visual Studio). Use it for both types of applications (64-bit and 32-bit).
   • Create and use a System DSN if the client application runs under a System Account (e.g., as a Windows Service). This is usually the required option in a production environment. If your Windows Service is a 32-bit application, you must use the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure this

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Smartsheet" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Smartsheet" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   

5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

   OAuth (Dynamic Token)

   Smartsheet authentication

   OAuth Walkthrough

   Apps connect to Smartsheet using OAuth 2.0 to authenticate and authorize users. If you are building an app, this documentation will walk you through the steps you need to authenticate your users. The Smartsheet SDKs contain APIs for OAuth 2.0.

   NOTE: For users of apps like AWS AppFabric, you will need a Tenant ID. You can find your Tenant ID in Admin Center under Security & Controls. There is a Smartsheet Tenant ID pane.

   First Steps

   Before you can start using OAuth 2.0 with your app, Smartsheet needs the following information:

   1. You must register with Smartsheet to get a developer account*. The developer account gives you access to "Developer Tools", which is where you manage your app.
   2. In "Developer Tools", complete any required fields in your developer profile.
   3. In "Developer Tools", register your app so Smartsheet can assign a client Id and a client secret to the app.
   4. Review the list of access scopes. You'll need to choose which ones your app needs to get to a user's Smartsheet data, and then ask the user to consent to that access.
   5. After you've worked through these steps, you'll be ready to implement the OAuth Flow.

   Open Developer Tools

   1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
   2. Click the "Account" button in the lower-left corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
   3. Do one of the following:
      • If you need to register an app, click "Create New App".
      • If you need to manage an app, click "view/edit" for the app.

   Register Your App Using Developer Tools

   1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
   2. Click the "Account" button in the upper-right corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
   3. In the "Create New App" form, provide the following information:
      • Name: the name the user sees to identify your app
      • Description: a brief description intended for the user
      • URL: the URL to launch your app, or the landing page if not a web app
      • Contact/support: support information for the user
      • Redirect URL: also known as a callback URL. The URL within your application that will receive the OAuth 2.0 credentials After you click "Save", Smartsheet assigns a client Id and secret to your app. Make a note of these Ids for the next steps; however, you can always look them up again in "Developer Tools".

   API Connection Manager configuration

   Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

   1. Set Authentication Type to OAuth (Dynamic Token) [OAuth]
   2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
   3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
   4. Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
   5. Finally, hit OK button:

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   OAuth (Dynamic Token) [OAuth]

   https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0

   Required Parameters
   ClientId	Fill-in the parameter...
   ClientSecret	Fill-in the parameter...
   Scope	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429|503
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

   Static Token

   Smartsheet authentication

   Raw Token Requests

   If you want to get started quickly, or are developing a standalone application that can run with your credentials, follow these instructions:

   1. Click the "Account" button in the lower-left corner of the Smartsheet screen, and then click "Personal Settings".
   2. Click the "API Access" tab.
   3. Click the "Generate new access token" button to obtain an access token.

   The access token must be sent with every API call in an HTTP authorization header (except for therequests to Get Access Token or Refresh Access Token). Once you have an access token, include it in the Authorization header for every request you make:

   Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789

   The header name is Authorization and the value of the header is Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789. Since the access token is being transmitted in clear text, all API calls are done over HTTPS.

   NOTE: A best practice is to use a shared account, such as ticket-processor@example.com, rather than your individual work account.

   API Connection Manager configuration

   Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

   1. Set Authentication Type to Static Token [Http]
   2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
   3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
   4. Finally, hit OK button:

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   Static Token [Http]

   https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0

   Required Parameters
   Access Token	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429|503
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

6. Then go to Preview tab to start building a SQL query.

7. Once you do that, proceed by opening Query Builder:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Smartsheet

   Read and write Smartsheet data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate sheets, rows, and reports — almost no coding required.

   SmartsheetDSN

   

8. Then simply select the List Contacts endpoint (action).

9. Continue by configuring the Required parameters. You can also set optional parameters too.

10. Move on by hitting Preview Data button to preview the results.

11. If you see the results you need, simply copy the generated query:

    List Contacts

    Optional Parameters
    Modified Since
    PageSize
    Include All Rows (Do not paginate)	true
    Advanced Properties
    PagingMode	ByUrlParameter
    PagingByUrlAttributeName	page
    PagingMaxRowsExpr	$.totalCount
    PagingMaxRowsDataPathExpr	$.data[*]

    SELECT * FROM Contacts --Where Id='abcd1234abc'

    

12. Click OK to use built SQL query and close the Query Builder.

13. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in Alteryx:

    

    ZappySys API Driver - Smartsheet

    Read and write Smartsheet data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate sheets, rows, and reports — almost no coding required.

    SmartsheetDSN

    SELECT * FROM Contacts --Where Id='abcd1234abc'

    
    You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
    A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Smartsheet API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Smartsheet servers).

Let's not stop here and explore SQL query examples, including how to use them in Stored Procedures and Views (virtual tables) in the next steps.

Smartsheet SQL query examples

Use these SQL queries in your Alteryx data source:

Read contacts

Gets a list of all contacts.

SELECT * FROM Contacts --Where Id='abcd1234abc'

Create SQL view in ODBC data source

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

If you're dealing with Microsoft Access and need to import data from an SQL query, it's important to note that Access doesn't allow direct import of SQL queries. Instead, you can create custom objects (Virtual Tables) to handle the import process.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
   

2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
   

3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

4. Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
   Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here
   

   SELECT
     "ShipCountry",
     "OrderID",
     "CustomerID",
     "EmployeeID",
     "OrderDate",
     "RequiredDate",
     "ShippedDate",
     "ShipVia",
     "Freight",
     "ShipName",
     "ShipAddress",
     "ShipCity",
     "ShipRegion",
     "ShipPostalCode"
   FROM "Orders"
   Where "ShipCountry"='USA'

   
   

5. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:

   SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"

   

List contacts in Alteryx via SQL view

1. Open Alteryx Designer.

2. First, verify your DCM Settings to ensure you can access ODBC drivers. Go to Options > User Settings > Edit User Settings.

   If DCM Mode is set to DCM Only, change it to DCM Optional if you would like to access the legacy Generic ODBC Connection.

   
   After changing this setting, you may need to click Save and restart the connection window for the "Generic ODBC" icon to appear.

3. Drag an Input Data tool onto your Alteryx canvas.

   

4. In the Configuration pane, click Set Up a Connection.

   

5. Note for DCM Users: If your environment has DCM (Data Connection Manager) enabled, the classic "Generic ODBC" icon may be hidden. To find it, select Data sources on the left and type "ODBC" in the search bar.

6. Once the ODBC window opens, click Connect Asset and select your SmartsheetDSN DSN from the list.

   
   Ensure you have configured a 64-bit System DSN in the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator before this step.

7. After selecting your DSN, configure your SQL Query in the Input Data tool configuration:

   

8. To save your data, drag an Output Data tool and connect it to the Input Data tool.

9. Configure the Output Data tool to write to a CSV file:

   

10. Press Run (Ctrl+R) to execute the workflow. Verify the results in the Results Window at the bottom.

    

Advanced topics

Creating SQL stored procedures

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
   

2. Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
   

3. Select the created Stored Procedure and write the your desired stored procedure and Save it and it will create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

   CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
       @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
    AS
       SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
   

   

4. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Stored Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:

   Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';

   

Conclusion

And there you have it — a complete guide on how to list contacts in Alteryx without writing complex code. All of this was powered by Smartsheet ODBC Driver, which handled the REST API pagination and authentication for us automatically.

Download the trial now or ping us via chat if you have any questions or are looking for a specific feature (you can also reach out to us by submitting a ticket):

More actions supported by Smartsheet Connector

Got another use case in mind? We've documented the exact setups for a variety of essential Smartsheet operations directly in Alteryx, so you can skip the trial and error. Find your next step-by-step guide below:

• Add Sheet Rows
• Delete Sheet Rows
• Export Report (to PDF, Excel, CSV file)
• Export Sheet (to PDF, Excel, CSV file)
• Get Contacts
• Get Sheet Fields
• Get Sheet Row by ID(s)
• Get Sheet Rows
• List Groups
• List Reports
• List Sheets
• Search (cell data or other object types)
• Send Report Via Email Excel Pdf Or Pdf Gantt Format
• Send Sheet Via Email Excel Pdf Or Pdf Gantt Format
• Update Sheet Rows
• Make Generic REST API Request
• Make Generic REST API Request (Bulk Write)

More Smartsheet integrations

SSIS

SQL Server

Microsoft Fabric

Power BI

SSRS

Informatica PowerCenter

MS Access

Excel

SSAS

C#

Python

Java

Tableau

SAP Crystal Reports

Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Talend Studio

UiPath

PowerShell

ODBC