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mburssens
Frequent Visitor

Publish and schedule refresh for ServiceNow changes

hi all, 

I have configured a data source with the ServiceNow ODBC connector for serviceNow.

This is working fine on Power BI desktop. Data is received from the cloud when refreshed. However, this makes use of a locally installed ODBC driver provided by serviceNow.

When publishing this dataset to Power BI online, the refresh is disabled due to dependency on this local ODBC connection.

 

Is there a way to configure/upload ODBC cloud connection parameters so that a published report can be refreshed?

Or another way to retrieve change data from ServiceNow in Power BI online? Both are cloud services so there should be no need to pass through an on-premise ODBC via gateway.

 

thanks,

Maarten

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
mburssens
Frequent Visitor

Hi all,

 

Connecting via Service Now REST API url is a solution for this need. You can use web datasource in Power BI desktop to connect to this API. 

Following link helps you to create REST API url (version specific, you need to check your servicenow version)

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/geneva-servicenow-platform/page/integrate/inbound_rest/task/t_Get...

 

eg: URL for retrieving active change requests will look like this - https://<Server Name>/api/now/change_request?sysparm_query=active=true

 

This one doesn't need a gateway since you are using cloud version of Service Now.

 

It may not be a good option if you need to pull more than 10k rows. Usually Service now API has a timeout setting for 10k rows.

If you need to pull more than 10k rows you need to load data in batches which you can do by modifying the power query.

 

 

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

Hello @mburssens

You may connect Servicenow to Power BI and setup scheduled refreshs with the help of our add-on - Power BI Connector for ServiceNow:

We have a handy User and Admin Guides for your convenience, but feel free to reach out support team at support@alpha-serve.com if you need any assistance.

 

Thank you.

Regards,

Anton

===
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

mburssens
Frequent Visitor

Hi all,

 

Connecting via Service Now REST API url is a solution for this need. You can use web datasource in Power BI desktop to connect to this API. 

Following link helps you to create REST API url (version specific, you need to check your servicenow version)

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/geneva-servicenow-platform/page/integrate/inbound_rest/task/t_Get...

 

eg: URL for retrieving active change requests will look like this - https://<Server Name>/api/now/change_request?sysparm_query=active=true

 

This one doesn't need a gateway since you are using cloud version of Service Now.

 

It may not be a good option if you need to pull more than 10k rows. Usually Service now API has a timeout setting for 10k rows.

If you need to pull more than 10k rows you need to load data in batches which you can do by modifying the power query.

 

 

v-shex-msft
Community Support
Community Support

HI @mburssens,

 

>>Is there a way to configure/upload ODBC cloud connection parameters so that a published report can be refreshed?

Maybe you can try to use service parameter, please check below link to know more about this:

Using the Power BI Service Parameters to change connection strings (To possibly change between Dev,

 

BTW, you said, you are using a local odbc driver, I think you need to confirm your device who install the on-premise gateway can connect to your datasource. Otherwise it is impossible to achieve refresh operation.(please double check your odbc connection string)

 

>>Or another way to retrieve change data from ServiceNow in Power BI online?

Do you mean modify the content from service connect pack? It this is a case, current only owner can edit template content pack.

Author template content packs in Power BI

 

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

 

Community Support Team _ Xiaoxin
If this post helps, please consider accept as solution to help other members find it more quickly.

thanks for your reply @v-shex-msft

The issue that I have is linked to the fact that the ODBC connection (stored locally) is connecting to a cloud data source, but this is not getting noticed by Power Bi during the publish step.ServiceNow-changes.png

I have created a small diagram to explain the issue.

 

Microsoft has released a ServiceNow service to get incident data from serviceNow. But there is no connector for change data

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-connect-to-servicenow 

 

What we need is to be able to set up a similar service connection that retrieves ServiceNow data from other tables then just incidents. So we should be able to get the connection set up in the cloud. 

The difference is clear when you check the refresh settings for incidents (working well, making use of the microsoft connector) and changes (not working because the local ODBC connection is not well converted during publish)

incidents working well

ServiceNow-incidents.png

changes not working well 

ServiceNow-changes-published.png

Do you know how we can solve this by changing the way we publish the ODBC connection, or by finding another way to get ServiceNow cloud data to Power BI cloud without the need to use a local component?

 

thanks upfront

Maarten

Hi @mburssens,

 

You can try to use below power bi template file to connect servicenow data source.

 

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

Community Support Team _ Xiaoxin
If this post helps, please consider accept as solution to help other members find it more quickly.

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