Solved: Using a REST API as a data source - Page 5

Anonymous · ‎07-15-2016

I'd like to be able to connect to a Blackbaud REST API to pull data from that system and use it in a Power BI Desktop report: http://on-api.developer.blackbaud.com/getting-started/

That said, I don't have experience using REST APIs.

Is that's possible, either for a live data connection or for a scheduled refresh? If it's not possible in Power BI Desktop, would it be possible if I managed the report on the Power BI Service?

Further, if that's possible, could someone give me a quick and dirty of how to accomplish that and perhaps point to toward the materials I need to read to figure out how to do it? Part of my misunderstanding here is how the Blackbaud and Power BI REST APIs interact (if at all).

I have an E5 license that allows me access to Power BI Pro features.

Eric_Zhang · ‎07-19-2016

@Anonymous

I don't know the Blackbaud REST API in your case and it is not in the list of suppported "Online Service".

But according to the content in the link that the API reponses in JSON, you can get the data by using "Get Data"-->"Other"-->"Web". And then extend JSON to a table in query editor.

eg. http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1/comments

You can replace it with a link like "http://[school].myschoolapp.com/api/academics/department/?t=[token returned from previous step]" in your link.

In the query editor,

Done

Regarding refreshing, you can publish it to Power BI Service and schedule refresh.

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Using a REST API as a data source

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