Revision as of 11:40, 5 August 2020

This section requires Power BI skills and a knowledge of how the API works. It my be useful to use an API Development tool to check the dictionaries and make test calls, Postman is a suitable tool for this. Power Query is used to call the API to retrieve the data.

What you will need

In order to follow this section you will need the following;

Dizions API Licence (Read Only or Full)
Microsoft Power BI Professional licence
Power BI Desktop installed
API Development tool (Optional)

Setting up our first API query directly in Power BI Desktop

Here we are going to look at how to get started using the API and Power Query in Power BI. Before you start you will need to create an Authentication File, with this file we can then use a standard header for all of our queries that we wish to use.

Open Microsoft Power BI Desktop and select get data.

Power BI Desktop will then open and display the Get Data Menu. By default the All source menu will be selected. Scroll to the bottom of this list and select blank query and click Connect.

This will open the Power Query Editor and create Query 1. We are going to use the advanced editor to paste the following:

Details of the authentication, stored in our Authentication File.
A call to the API dictionary to see which records we have on the system.

To access the Advanced editor click on the View Tab and select 'Advanced Editor'. This will open a new window. For the purpose of this example you can copy the text below but you will need to change the file path on the second line (keyFile) to the location of your Authentication File. In the advanced editor delete the details currently display and paste the example below, making sure you have updated the keyFile line.

let
keyFile = "C:\Users\RichardDuheaume\Desktop\Dizions_API_Details.xlsx",
SourceKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{0}[Column2],
OrgKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{1}[Column2],
UserKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{2}[Column2],
APIHost = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{3}[Column2],
URL = APIHost
 & "/v2/referrals/date_active/2010-10-01,2020-10-31/field/id;date;client;referrer;contact_method;client_age_range;project_name"
 & "?resolveIds[]=ALL",
apiResults = Json.Document(Web.Contents(URL, [Headers=[#"Source"=SourceKey, #"Org"=OrgKey, #"User"=UserKey]])),
    #"Converted to Table" = Table.FromList(apiResults, Splitter.SplitByNothing(), null, null, ExtraValues.Error),
    #"Expanded Column1" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Converted to Table", "Column1", {"id", "date", "client", "project_name", "contact_method", "referrer", "client_age_range"}, {"Column1.id", "Column1.date", "Column1.client", "Column1.project", "Column1.contact_method", "Column1.referrer", "Column1.client_age_range"}),
    #"Changed Type" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#"Expanded Column1",Template:"Column1.date", type datetime)
in
    #"Changed Type"

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 To access the Advanced editor click on the View Tab and select 'Advanced Editor'.  This will open a new window.  For the purpose of this example you can copy the text below but you will need to change the file path on the second line (keyFile) to the location of your [[API_Authentication#Using_Excel_to_store_credentials_for_Power_Query| Authentication File]].  In the advanced editor delete the details currently display and paste the example below, making sure you have updated the keyFile line.
- //start of header, this can be used in all queries
   let
-  keyFile = "C:\Users\YourName\Desktop\Dizions_API_Details.xlsx",
+  keyFile = "C:\Users\RichardDuheaume\Desktop\Dizions_API_Details.xlsx",
   SourceKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{0}[Column2],
   OrgKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{1}[Column2],
   UserKey = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{2}[Column2],
   APIHost = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(keyFile), null, true){0}[Data]{3}[Column2],
- //End of header-API call below
   URL = APIHost
-   & "v2/dictionary/client_type",
+   & "/v2/referrals/date_active/2010-10-01,2020-10-31/field/id;date;client;referrer;contact_method;client_age_range;project_name"
- apiResults = Json.Document(Web.Contents(URL, [Headers=[#"Source"=SourceKey, #"Org"=OrgKey, #"User"=UserKey]]))
- in
-     apiResults
-You will be prompted that Information is required for the data privacy.
-*Click on continue.
-*Click the check box to ignore privacy and select save.
-The query will then run and display a list of the record types available in your system.  This can be used as an index to lookup ID's for the records you may wish to use.  On the right hand side you can change the name of the query, like 'List of Record types'.
-From here we can click on close and load.  If you haven't set the privacy above to will be prompted to do so.  The data that is received from the API will then be added to a new worksheet in a table.  If we wish to edit the query we can right click on the query in the 'Queries and Connections panel".  If you have minimised the panel in can be found on the Data tab of the ribbon.
-The next steps from here is to add further queries to your workbook.
-=Moving forward=
-In this section you will find examples of queries to help you move forward.  Each query will need to be added to the header information as explain earlier.
-This example query below will:
-*Retrieve records from type 1 (the default client record of the system)
-*The fields retrieved will be the Record ID, Surname, Forenames and ethnicity.
-*The query will convert to a table and expand the fields to include the fields above.
- URL = APIHost
-  & "v2/clients/type/1/field/postcode;id;name;first_name;ethnicity"
-  & "?resolveIds[]=ALL",
- apiResults = Json.Document(Web.Contents(URL, [Headers=[#"Source"=SourceKey, #"Org"=OrgKey, #"User"=UserKey]])),
-     #"Converted to Table" = Table.FromList(apiResults, Splitter.SplitByNothing(), null, null, ExtraValues.Error),
-     #"Expanded Column1" = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(#"Converted to Table", "Column1",  {"id", "name", "first_name", "postcode", "ethnicity"},  {"Column1.id", "Column1.name", "Column1.first_name", "Column1.postcode", "Column1.ethnicity"})
- in
-     #"Expanded Column1"
-This example query below will:
-*Retrieve referrals from all projects form 01/01/2020 to 31/12.2020
-*The fields retrieved will be the Referral/Case ID, the date, contact method, client age range at time of referral and the name of the project..
-*The query will convert to a table and expand the fields to include the fields above.
- URL = APIHost
-  & "/v2/referrals/date/2020-01-01,2020-12-31/field/id;date;client;referrer;contact_method;client_age_range;project_name"
    & "?resolveIds[]=ALL",
   apiResults = Json.Document(Web.Contents(URL, [Headers=[#"Source"=SourceKey, #"Org"=OrgKey, #"User"=UserKey]])),
@@ Line 85: / Line 42: @@
   in
       #"Changed Type"
-You can download the below XLSX file that has three queries;
-*Record Types
-*All Referrals in 2020
-*Record Type 1 (Default Client Record)
-Once opened you will need to edit each query to specify the location of your [[API_Authentication#Using_Excel_to_store_credentials_for_Power_Query| Authentication File]].  This is done by editing the keyFile line.
-[https://dizions.sharepoint.com/:x:/s/externalsite/EfqycM7wpP5EgsYzSE0xEPgB5azftri7Xdat5rImmbk8xw Example with 3 queries.xlsx]

Difference between revisions of "Power BI with Power Query"

Revision as of 11:40, 5 August 2020

What you will need

Setting up our first API query directly in Power BI Desktop

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