What is it?
The following steps describe how to set up the connection and pull the data from your ITONICS instance into PowerBI. This data can then be used in PowerBI to create dashboards or to compare with information from other applications.
How does it work?
Please note: This feature needs to be activated by ITONICS. Please contact your Customer Success Manager for further assistance.
To connect ITONICS to PowerBI, you must have access to the desktop version of PowerBI. The web-based interface does not allow web calls, which we require as described below.
Get Data
First of all, you have to define the method you want to use to import the data into PowerBI. To pull data from the REST API you have to use the "Web" method, which you can access the dropdown for the "Retrieve Data" option.
Insert Endpoint
In the second step, enter the endpoint* appended to your ITONICS applications' domain into the prompt triggered by the previous step. Make sure you select the "Basic" option and enter the appropriate endpoint. Once you are done, either press "enter" or select "ok".
Explanation: An endpoint is a specific API component that accepts a request and returns a response. Essentially, each endpoint serves a query purpose, such as for example to return a list of elements from your application. This allows us to query specific data through the API and in return we receive the data for that specific query. You can find all available endpoints in the technical documentation referenced above.
Authentication
When you enter a request for the first time, your application must check whether you are actually authorized to receive a response. To do this, you need to enter your login credentials, which you have previously set up using the steps in the technical documentation mentioned above.
Select the "Basic" option and enter your REST API username and password. The level selection should automatically be set to the top-level domain of your application. This will ensure that you are not prompted to re-enter your authentication details when querying different endpoints during the same session.
When you have entered all the data, either press the "Enter" key or select "Connect". The query will now be executed and PowerBI will request the information from your ITONICS application.
Please note: If you receive an error code 403, it means that your credentials are not valid.
Receive Data
After the query has been successfully executed, PowerBI automatically opens a new "Power Query Editor" window containing the requested data. PowerBI automatically creates a table view from the .json format sent by your ITONICS application.
You can now use this table to create reports or dashboards. If you want to update the information, you can simply re-trigger the query or configure a recurring retrieval in your PowerBI application.