Power BI Connector for SAP Crystal Reports Connect to your Power BI account and retrieve data, refresh datasets, etc. In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Power BI data in SAP Crystal Reports without coding. We will use high-performance Power BI Connector to easily connect to Power BI and then access the data inside SAP Crystal Reports. Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that! Download Documentation Power BI Connector for SAP Crystal Reports is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

Connect to Power BI in other apps Connect to Power BI in SSIS Connect to Power BI in SQL Server Connect to Power BI in Power BI Connect to Power BI in SSRS Connect to Power BI in Informatica Connect to Power BI in MS Access Connect to Power BI in MS Excel Connect to Power BI in SSAS Connect to Power BI in C# Connect to Power BI in Python Connect to Power BI in JAVA Connect to Power BI in Tableau Connect to Power BI in Azure Data Factory (Pipeline) Connect to Power BI in Azure Data Factory (SSIS) Connect to Power BI in Talend Studio Connect to Power BI in UiPath Connect to Power BI in PowerShell Connect to Power BI in ODBC

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Power BI using SAP Crystal Reports we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from Power BI. We will later be able to read data using SAP Crystal Reports. Perform these steps:

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
   • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Power BI" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Power BI" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   PowerBiDSN

   Power BI

   

5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    User Credentials [OAuth]

   Use delegated access (User Credentials) whenever you want to let a signed-in user work with their own resources or resources they can access. Whether it's an admin setting up policies for their entire organization or a user deleting an email in their inbox, all scenarios involving user actions should use delegated access. [API reference]

   Steps how to get and use Power BI credentials : User Credentials [OAuth]
   

   Follow these simple steps below to create Microsoft Entra ID application with delegated access:

   WARNING: If you are planning to automate processes, we recommend that you use a Application Credentials authentication method. In case, you still need to use User Credentials, then make sure you use a system/generic account (e.g. automation@my-company.com). When you use a personal account which is tied to a specific employee profile and that employee leaves the company, the token may become invalid and any automated processes using that token will start to fail.

   1. Navigate to the Azure Portal and log in using your credentials.
   2. Access Microsoft Entra ID.

   3. Register a new application by going to App registrations and clicking on New registration button:

      
      INFO: Find more information on how to register an application in Graph API reference.

   4. When configuration window opens, configure these fields:

      • Supported account type
        • Use Accounts in this organizational directory only, if you need access to data in your organization only.
      • Redirect URI:
        • Set the type to Public client/native (mobile & desktop).
        • Use https://zappysys.com/oauth as the URL.
      

   5. After registering the app, copy the Application (client) ID for later:

      

   6. Copy OAuth authorization endpoint (v2) & OAuth token endpoint (v2) URLs to use later in the configuration:

      

   7. Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source and use the copied values in User Credentials authentication configuration:

      • In the Authorization URL field paste the OAuth authorization endpoint (v2) URL value you copied in the previous step.
      • In the Token URL field paste the OAuth token endpoint (v2) URL value you copied in the previous step.
      • In the Client ID field paste the Application (client) ID value you copied in the previous step.
      • In the Scope field use the default value or select individual scopes, e.g.:
        • offline_access
        • https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/Workspace.Read.All
        • https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/Dataset.Read.All
        • https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/Dataset.ReadWrite.All
   8. Press Generate Token button to generate Access and Refresh Tokens.
   9. Click Test Connection to confirm the connection is working.
   10. Optional step. Choose Default Workspace from the drop down menu.
   11. Choose Default Dataset from the drop down menu.
   12. Done! Now you are ready to use the API Connector!

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   PowerBiDSN

   Power BI

   User Credentials [OAuth]

   https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg

   Required Parameters
   Authorization URL	Fill-in the parameter...
   Token URL	Fill-in the parameter...
   Client ID	Fill-in the parameter...
   Scope	Fill-in the parameter...
   Default Dataset (select after generating tokens)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   Client Secret
   Redirect URI (must match App Redirect URI)
   Default Workspace (Keep Empty for My Workspace - select after generating tokens)
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429|503
   RetryCountMax	20
   RetryWaitTimeMs	1000
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
   Login options

   

6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Power BI

   Connect to your Power BI account and retrieve data, refresh datasets, etc.

   PowerBiDSN

   

7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in SAP Crystal Reports to retrieve data from Power BI. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * 
   FROM Workspaces
   WHERE Id='aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee'

   
   Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Power BI API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.

8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in SAP Crystal Reports:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Power BI

   Connect to your Power BI account and retrieve data, refresh datasets, etc.

   PowerBiDSN

   SELECT * 
   FROM Workspaces
   WHERE Id='aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee'

   
   You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
   A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Power BI API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Power BI servers).

9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read data in SAP Crystal Reports from the ODBC data source

1. First of all, open SAP Crystal Reports and create the new Crystal Report.
   

2. And it will open the new data source selection window. Under ODBC(RDO) double click on the Make New Connection and Select the desired ODBC DSN, in our case we need to select PowerBiDSN which we created in upper section. And Click on Next.
   

   PowerBiDSN

   

3. Expand the Connection and under the data select the desired table(s) or view(s) and click Add > button and click on Next.
   

   PowerBiDSN

   PowerBiDSN

   

4. Add the desired Fields to Display in the Reports. Here we are adding all fields and click on Finish.
   

5. That's it and you will be able to load the data in the Report.
   

Using ZappySys Driver Custom Views and Stored Procedure in SAP Crystal Report

Using Custom Views in the SAP Crystal Report

PowerBiDSN

PowerBiDSN

Using Custom Stored Procedure in the SAP Crystal Report

1. First of all, create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Please refer to this article to create the custom stored procedure.
   
2. After establishing the connection with PowerBiDSN Data Source you can use the custom Stored Procedure in SQL Crystal Report. Same way you can write custom queries also in the query box.
   PowerBiDSN

   

Actions supported by Power BI Connector

Learn how to perform common Power BI actions directly in SAP Crystal Reports with these how-to guides:

• Create a Push Dataset
• Delete a Dataset
• Execute a DAX query
• Get a Dataset
• Get a Workspace
• Get Datasets
• Get Table Columns
• Get Table Rows
• Get Tables
• Get Workspaces
• Insert Rows into Push Dataset Table
• Refresh a Dataset
• Truncate a Push Dataset Table
• Generic Request
• Generic Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Power BI in SAP Crystal Reports and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Power BI, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Power BI Connector for SAP Crystal Reports and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Power BI Connector for SAP Crystal Reports Documentation

More integrations

Other connectors for SAP Crystal Reports

Amazon Ads

Amazon Athena

Amazon Selling Partner (SP-API)

Apache Derby

Apache Hive

Apache Spark

Asana

Azure DevOps

Cosmos DB

DropBox

ElasticSearch

FastSpring

Google Ads

Google BigQuery

Google Calendar

Google Drive

Google Sheets

Hubspot

Infor Data Lake

Jira

Mailchimp

ManagedEngine ServiceDesk Plus (Zoho)

MariaDB

OData

OneDrive

Outlook Mail (Office 365)

ServiceNow

SharePoint Online

Shopify

Smartsheet

Starburst

Stripe

Trino

YouTube

Zendesk

Zoho CRM

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoom

REST API

JSON

JSON File

XML

SOAP

XML File

JDBC-ODBC Bridge

Salesforce

CSV

Amazon S3 JSON File

Amazon S3 XML File

Amazon S3 CSV File

Azure Blob JSON File

Azure Blob XML File

Azure Blob CSV File

FTP/SFTP JSON File

FTP/SFTP XML File

FTP/SFTP CSV File

Build your own Custom API Connector

Other application integration scenarios for Power BI

SSIS

SQL Server

Power BI

SSRS

Informatica

MS Access

MS Excel

SSAS

C#

Python

JAVA

Tableau

Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Talend Studio

UiPath

PowerShell

ODBC

Common Searches: