How To Connect To Power BI

Generating a Power BI connector

Conquest Power BI connectors are created and managed through Conquest 4, on the Device Connections manager. To generate one:

Step 1.   Open the Device Connections manager in Conquest 4

Step 2.   Click on the Add Connection icon on the top-right corner

Step 3.   Enter a name for the connector.
Hint: It is a good practice to clearly identify the connectors, in order to revoke unused and obsolete ones

Step 4.   Select the lifetime of the connector.

Step 5.   Click on Create PowerBI Connector.

Step 6.   Select the Custom Connectors directory to save the connector.
Important: The Custom Connectors folder location is defined by Microsoft, and it is by default under “Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors”.

Step 7.   Save the connector

Using the connector in Power BI

With a connector created, you can access your data in Power BI by:

Step 1.   Open your Power BI Desktop report

Step 2.   Click on Get data on the Home menu

Step 3.   Select the Conquest connector.
Hint: the connector is listed under the “Other” group

Step 4.   Accept the Microsoft warning about using 3^rd party connectors

Step 5.   Click on Connect

Step 6.   Select the queries and views to load on the desired model

Step 7.   Click Load

Step 8.   Refresh your Conquest data any time

By following these steps, your Power BI report is already able to connect to your Conquest data. However, you can perform additional steps to pre-process your data and take the most out of Power BI capabilities.

Recommended data transformations

Having your connector in place and Power BI retrieving your Conquest data successfully is enough for you to start building your report. However, additional changes on your model can drastically improve your Power BI report overall.

The following changes are recommended, as they are simple and effective:

Transform your data

Step 1.   Click on Transform data on the Home menu to open the Power Query editor

Step 2.   Cast the right data types
Note: By default, Power BI leaves all data as a General type. Casting each field into their respective types improves performance and facilitates the creation of visualisations

a.  Select all columns on each table
Hint: It can be done by selecting any column and using the (ctrl + a) shortcut

b.  Click on Detect Data Type on the Transform menu

c.  Additionally, select datetime fields and cast them into date only
Note: Although sometimes the time component may be useful on your reporting, it prevents the correct relationship with date tables

Step 3.   Apply your changes and close the Power Query editor

 

Create relationships between tables

Step 1.   Select the modeling panel

Step 2.   Associate fields from different tables.
Hint: it can be done with a simple drag and drop or by clicking in Manage relationships.

Step 3.   Delete any erroneous relationship created automatically by Power BI

Step 4.   Change cross filter directions

a.  Double click a relationship

b.  Set the Cross filter direction to Both
Note: Bi-directional filters may have a negative impact on performance, but it improves your data modelling on most cases.

c.  If using security roles in Power BI, activate the Apply security filter in both directions.

d.  Ensure the cardinality matches the expected.

Things to be aware of

Any external Power BI connector must be saved under the Custom Connectors directory. In case your connector does not show up in Power BI, verify that it is located on the right folder and create it if needed. By default, the custom connectors directory is “Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors”