Power BI Connections

Connections in Power BI

Data does not necessarily come in the form of Excel or CSV files. There could be many platforms where we need to download the data from the web, SQL server, or any other platform. Most of us maintain our data in an Excel or CSV file, but Power BI can fetch the data from multiple sources. This article will show how the Power BI data connection can fetch data from various sources.

As we know, we can import the data in Power BI or make connections in Power BI; the data in a connection are accessed via different queries. The connections can be a SQL connection from a data set or various other data sources, as discussed earlier in the type of data sources.

For the connection of any source of data in Power BI, we need to click on “Get Data” under the “Home” tab. In this list, we can see the most common data sources options but click on the “More” option at the bottom of this drop-down listDrop-down ListA drop-down list in excel is a pre-defined list of inputs that allows users to select an option.read more to explore more data sources options for Power BI.

It will open a new window of “Get Data.” In this, we can see a group of Power BI data sources on the left-hand side. “All,” “File,” “Database,” “Power BI,” “Azure,” “Online Services,” “Other.”

Top 6 Data Source Categories for Power BI

Now, we will see what kind of data connections are available with each category of connection type in Power BI.

#1 – File Category

Under this, we can see only files that are already stored in the computer memory. This category includes “Excel,” “Text/CSV,” “XML,” “JSON,” “Folder,” “PDF,” and “SharePoint Folder.”

#2 – Database Category

This category mainly works on online platforms. Therefore, it has various database connections.

Below is the list of connections available in this category.

SQL Server Database
Access Database
SQL Server Analysis Services Database
Oracle Database
IBM DB2 Database
IBM Informix database (Beta)
IBM Netezza
MySQL Database
PostgreSQL Database
Sybase Database
Teradata Database
SAP HANA Database
SAP Business Warehouse Application Server
SAP Business Warehouse Message Server
Impala
Google BigQuery
Vertica
Snowflake
Essbase
AtScale cubes (Beta)
BI Connector
Dremio
Exasol
Indexima (Beta)
InterSystems IRIS (Beta)
Jethro (Beta)
Kyligence
MarkLogic (Beta)
Amazon Redshift

#3 – Power Platform

This Power BI data connection category includes “Power BI datasets,” “Power BI dataflows,” and “Common Data Service.”

#4 – Azure Category

It is a cloud services database to fetch the data. Power BI can fetch the data from Azure cloud services as well.

Below are the kind of connections we can see under this category of data connections.

Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Azure Analysis Services database
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Table Storage
Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (Beta)
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1
Azure HDInsight (HDFS)
Azure HDInsight Spark
HDInsight Interactive Query
Azure Data Explorer (Kusto)
Azure Cost Management (Beta)

#5 – Online Services Category

It is the need of the hour category. Under this category, we can fetch the live data and set the data refresh timings.

Below are the data connections available with Online Services.

SharePoint Online List
Microsoft Exchange Online
Dynamics 365 (online)
Dynamics NAV
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises)
Microsoft Azure Consumption Insights (Beta)
Azure DevOps (Beta)
Azure DevOps Server (Beta)
Salesforce Objects
Salesforce Reports
Google Analytics
Adobe Analytics
appFigures (Beta)
Data.World – Get Dataset (Beta)
Facebook
GitHub (Beta)
MailChimp (Beta)
Marketo (Beta)
Mixpanel (Beta)
Planview Enterprise One – PRM (Beta)
Planview Projectplace (Beta)
QuickBooks Online (Beta)
Smartsheet
SparkPost (Beta)
Stripe (Beta)
SweetIQ (Beta)
Planview Enterprise One – CMT (Beta)
Twilio (Beta)
tyGraph (Beta)
Webtrends (Beta)
Zendesk (Beta)
Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Beta)
Emigo Data Source (Beta)
Entersoft Business Suite (Beta)
Industrial App Store
Intune Data Warehouse (Beta)
Microsoft Graph Security (Beta)
Quick Base

#6 – Other Category

This category provides data connection from sources like “Web,” R script, Python Scripts, etc.

Below are the data connections available with the above option.

Web
SharePoint List
OData Feed
Active Directory
Microsoft Exchange
Hadoop File (HDFS)
Spark
R Script
Python script
ODBC
OLE DB
Information Grid (Beta)
Paxata
QubolePresto (Beta)
Roamler (Beta)
SurveyMonkey (Beta)
Tenforce (Smart)List (Beta)
Workforce Dimensions (Beta)
Blank Query
BI360 – Budgeting & Financial Reporting (Beta)
Denodo

How to Connect Data from the Web?

Now, we will show you a simple example of fetching the data from the web using a URL. But, first, we will extract the world population table from the URL link.

Source: worldpopulationreview.com

Step 1: Go to Power BI >>> Get Data >>> Web.

Step 2: Now, it will ask you to enter the URL from where you need to download the data, copy and paste the above URL and click on “OK.”

It will establish a connection and show multiple tables. Then, you can click on each table and see the preview. Then, you can either select or unselect.

Step 3: Once you are OK with the data, click “Load” to upload the data to Power BI.

After uploading, we can see this table under the “Data” section.

Things to Remember

Not many people use many of the Power BI data source connection platforms except for the “File Category” options.
Microsoft is continuously working on adding new data connection platforms as and when they release updates.