Smartsheet Connector for Power BI In this article you will learn how to integrate Smartsheet data in Power BI without coding in just a few clicks (live / bi-directional connection to Smartsheet). Read / write SmartSheet data inside your app, perform many SmartSheet operations such as Read, Update, Delete, List, Search, Export on objects like Sheets, Rows, Users etc without coding using easy to use high performance API Connector. Using Smartsheet Connector you will be able to connect, read, and write data from within Power BI. Follow the steps below to see how we would accomplish that. Download Documentation The driver mentioned above is part of ODBC PowerPack which is a collection of high-performance Drivers for various API data source (i.e. REST API, JSON, XML, CSV, Amazon S3 and many more). Using familiar SQL query language you can make live connections and read/write data from API sources or JSON / XML / CSV Files inside SQL Server (T-SQL) or your favorite Reporting (i.e. Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, SSRS, MicroStrategy, Excel, MS Access), ETL Tools (i.e. Informatica, Talend, Pentaho, SSIS). You can also call our drivers from programming languages such as JAVA, C#, Python, PowerShell etc. If you are new to ODBC and ZappySys ODBC PowerPack then check the following links to get started. ODBC PowerPack - System Requirements and Installation Getting Started - Using ODBC PowerPack ODBC API Driver Help File

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

Video Tutorial - Integrate Smartsheet data in Power BI

This video covers following and more so watch carefully. After watching this video follow the steps described in this article.

• How to download / install required driver for Smartsheet integration in Power BI
• How to configure connection for Smartsheet
• Features about API Driver (Authentication / Query Language / Examples / Driver UI)
• Using Smartsheet Connection in Power BI

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

1. Install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
   

3. Create a User Data Source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   You should create a System DSN (instead of a User DSN) if the client application is launched under a Windows System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. If the client application is 32-bit (x86) running with a System DSN, use ODBC Data Sources (32-bit) instead of the 64-bit version.

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Smartsheet" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Smartsheet" 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:

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   

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.

    OAuth (Dynamic Token) [OAuth]

   Steps to get Smartsheet Credentials
   

   OAuth Walkthrough

   Apps connect to Smartsheet using OAuth 2.0 to authenticate and authorize users. If you are building an app, this documentation will walk you through the steps you need to authenticate your users. The Smartsheet SDKs contain APIs for OAuth 2.0.

   NOTE: For users of apps like AWS AppFabric, you will need a Tenant ID. You can find your Tenant ID in Admin Center under Security & Controls. There is a Smartsheet Tenant ID pane.

   First Steps

   Before you can start using OAuth 2.0 with your app, Smartsheet needs the following information:

   1. You must register with Smartsheet to get a developer account*. The developer account gives you access to "Developer Tools", which is where you manage your app.
   2. In "Developer Tools", complete any required fields in your developer profile.
   3. In "Developer Tools", register your app so Smartsheet can assign a client Id and a client secret to the app.
   4. Review the list of access scopes. You'll need to choose which ones your app needs to get to a user's Smartsheet data, and then ask the user to consent to that access.
   5. After you've worked through these steps, you'll be ready to implement the OAuth Flow.

   Open Developer Tools

   1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
   2. Click the "Account" button in the lower-left corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
   3. Do one of the following:
      • If you need to register an app, click "Create New App".
      • If you need to manage an app, click "view/edit" for the app.

   Register Your App Using Developer Tools

   1. Log in to Smartsheet with your developer account.
   2. Click the "Account" button in the upper-right corner of your Smartsheet screen, and then click "Developer Tools".
   3. In the "Create New App" form, provide the following information:
      • Name: the name the user sees to identify your app
      • Description: a brief description intended for the user
      • URL: the URL to launch your app, or the landing page if not a web app
      • Contact/support: support information for the user
      • Redirect URL: also known as a callback URL. The URL within your application that will receive the OAuth 2.0 credentials After you click "Save", Smartsheet assigns a client Id and secret to your app. Make a note of these Ids for the next steps; however, you can always look them up again in "Developer Tools".

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

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   OAuth (Dynamic Token) [OAuth]

   https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0

   Required Parameters
   ClientId	Fill in the parameter...
   ClientSecret	Fill in the parameter...
   Scope	Fill in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryStatusCodeList	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryCountMax	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	Fill in the parameter...

   

    Static Token [Http]

   Steps to get Smartsheet Credentials
   

   Raw Token Requests

   If you want to get started quickly, or are developing a standalone application that can run with your credentials, follow these instructions:

   1. Click the "Account" button in the lower-left corner of the Smartsheet screen, and then click "Personal Settings".
   2. Click the "API Access" tab.
   3. Click the "Generate new access token" button to obtain an access token.

   The access token must be sent with every API call in an HTTP authorization header (except for therequests to Get Access Token or Refresh Access Token). Once you have an access token, include it in the Authorization header for every request you make:

   Authorization: Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789

   The header name is Authorization and the value of the header is Bearer JKlMNOpQ12RStUVwxYZAbcde3F5g6hijklM789. Since the access token is being transmitted in clear text, all API calls are done over HTTPS.

   NOTE: A best practice is to use a shared account, such as ticket-processor@example.com, rather than your individual work account.

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

   SmartsheetDSN

   Smartsheet

   Static Token [Http]

   https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0

   Required Parameters
   Access Token	Fill in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryStatusCodeList	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryCountMax	Fill in the parameter...
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	Fill in the parameter...

   

6. Once the data source has been configured, you can preview data. Select the Preview tab and use settings similar to the following to preview data:
   

7. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video instructions

Read Smartsheet data in Power BI using ODBC

1. Once you open Power BI Desktop click Get Data to get data from ODBC:
   

2. A window opens, and then search for "odbc" to get data from ODBC data source:
   

3. Another window opens and asks to select a Data Source we already created. Choose SmartsheetDSN and continue:

   SmartsheetDSN

   

4. Most likely, you will be asked to authenticate to a newly created DSN. Just select Windows authentication option together with Use my current credentials option:

   SmartsheetDSN

   

5. Finally, you will be asked to select a table or view to get data from. Select one and load the data!
   

6. Finally, finally, use extracted data from Smartsheet in a Power BI report:
   

Import Smartsheet data into Power BI from SQL Query

If you wish to import Smartsheet data from SQL query rather than selecting table name then you can use advanced options during import steps (as below). After selecting DSN you can click on advanced options to see SQL Query editor.

Import Smartsheet data into Power BI using SQL Query (ODBC Data source)

Edit Query / Using Parameters in Power BI (Dynamic Query)

let
    vKey=paraAPIKey,
    Source = Odbc.Query(
    "dsn=ZS-OData Customers", 
    "SELECT * FROM value WITH (SRC='http://httpbin.org/post'," 
    & "METHOD='POST'," 
    & "HEADER='Content-Type:application/json'," 
    & "BODY=@'{""CallerId"":1111, ""ApiKey"":""" & vKey & """}')")
in
Source

Edit Query Settings after Import

There will be a time you need to change initial Query after dataset import in Power BI. Not to worry, just follow these steps to edit your SQL.

Edit Power BI Data Source SQL after REST / SOAP Web Service Import

Working with Gateways in Power BI (Schedule Import)

1. In the last section, we Published the report. Power BI may ask you to SIGN IN.
   

   Sign in Power BI

2. Select the Workspace and select Datasets
   

   Go to workspace and dataset

3. Right-click the report and select Settings.
   

   Specify settings for the report

4. The system will ask for a Gateway. Stay here.
   

   Add Power BI Gateway

5. Use the following link to install a Data Gateway:

   https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-gateway-onprem

6. Run the installer and press Next
   

   Gateway installer

7. Select the option On-premises data gateway (recommended). This option allows access to multiple users and can be used by more applications than Power BI.
   

   Choose Power BI option

8. The installer will show a warning message.
   

   Warning message during installation

9. Select the path to install and check the I accept the terms.
   

   Accept terms

10. Specify the email address to use the gateway.
    

    Register email address

11. After entering the email, write the gateway name and a recovery key. Make sure to confirm the recovery key.
    

    Enter recovery key

Manage gateways and configure the schedule

1. The next step is to go to manage gateway
   

   Power BI - Manage Gateway Setting

2. In order to get the connection string, we will need the connection string of the ZappySys API Driver. In the first section of this post, we explained how to configure it. Press Copy Connection String
   

   Connection properties

3. Once that the data is copied, add a New data Source. In Data Source Name, enter the Data Source Name of the ZappySys API Driver in step 13 and in Data Source Type, select ODBC. In connection string copy and paste from the clipboard of the step 13 and press Add.
   

   ZappySys connection properties in Power BI

4. Once added the gateway. You can see the schedule refresh to On and Add another time to add the time where you want to refresh the data.
   

   Schedule gateway

Advanced topics

Create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
   

2. Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
   

3. Select the created Stored Procedure and write the your desired stored procedure and Save it and it will create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver:
   Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here
   

   CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
       @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
    AS
       SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
   

   
   

4. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Stored Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:
   

   Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';

   
   

5. Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using stored procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
   As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
   

   SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC usp_get_orders @fromdate=''1996-07-30''')

   
   

6. Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using stored procedure and provide you the response.
   

Create Custom Virtual Table in ZappySys Driver

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

If you're dealing with Microsoft Access and need to import data from an SQL query, it's important to note that Access doesn't allow direct import of SQL queries. Instead, you can create custom objects (Virtual Tables) to handle the import process.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
   

2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
   

3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

4. Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
   Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here
   

   SELECT
     "ShipCountry",
     "OrderID",
     "CustomerID",
     "EmployeeID",
     "OrderDate",
     "RequiredDate",
     "ShippedDate",
     "ShipVia",
     "Freight",
     "ShipName",
     "ShipAddress",
     "ShipCity",
     "ShipRegion",
     "ShipPostalCode"
   FROM "Orders"
   Where "ShipCountry"='USA'

   
   

5. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:
   

   SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"

   
   

6. Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using stored procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
   As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
   

   SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC [usp_get_orders] ''1996-01-01''')

   
   

7. Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using stored procedure and provide you the response.
   

Actions supported by Smartsheet Connector

Smartsheet Connector Examples for Power BI Connection

This page offers a collection of SQL examples designed for seamless integration with the ZappySys API ODBC Driver under ODBC Data Source (36/64) or ZappySys Data Gateway, enhancing your ability to connect and interact with Prebuilt Connectors effectively.

SELECT * FROM Sheets --Where Id='5815807987847055'

SELECT * FROM Contacts --Where Id='abcd1234abc'

SELECT Id,RowNumber,[Some Column 1],[Some Column 2] FROM [My Sheet Name] --Where Id='5815807987847044'

SELECT * FROM get_sheet_rows_by_ids 
WITH (
  SheetId=3482072521854852
, Id='1312208360476548,6941707894689668,5815807987847044'
--OR-- (If you supply both Id and RowNumber then only Common Rows selected
--, RowNumber='1,2,100'
)

SELECT * FROM get_sheet_rows_by_ids 
WITH (
  SheetId=3482072521854852
, RowNumber='1,2,100'
--OR-- (If you supply both Id and RowNumber then only Common Rows selected
--, Id='1312208360476548,6941707894689668,5815807987847044'
)

INSERT INTO [My Sheet]
  ( [Some Text Number Column], [Some Checkbox Column], [Some Contact List Column], [Some Date Column], [Some PickList Column], [Some Multi PickList Column], [Some Symbol Column] )
VALUES 
  ('Updated at <<FUN_NOW>>', true, 'something@abc.com', '2024-12-31','Not Started','Value2,Value4','Green,Yellow')
/*
WITH(
RowLocation='"toTop": true'  --insert at the top
--OR--
--RowLocation='"siblingId": 1231234567'  --insert after some sibling row id
)			
*/

UPDATE [My Sheet]
SET [Some Text Number Column]='Updated - <<FUN_NOW>>',
    [Some Checkbox Column] = true,
    [Some Contact List Column] = 'something@abc.com',
    [Some Date Column] = '<<FUN_NOW>>',
    [Some PickList Column] = 'Not Started',
    [Some Multi PickList Column] = 'Value2,Value4',
    [Some Symbol Column] = 'Green,Yellow'
WHERE Id=7522710866202500		
WITH(Output=1)

DELETE FROM [My Sheet] WHERE Id=7522710866202500 
--WITH(IgnoreRowsNotFound='true' --or false)		
--Or
--DELETE FROM [My Sheet] WHERE Id='7522710866202500,7522710866202501,7522710866202502'
--WITH(IgnoreRowsNotFound='true' --or false)

SELECT * FROM export_sheet WITH(
  SheetId=1592926391979908, 
 ,TargetFilePath='c:\temp\exported_sheet_as_excel_file.xlsx' --or .pdf, .csv   
 ,Format='application/vnd.ms-excel'  --or-- application/pdf  --or-- text/csv
--below Paper Size only valid for PDF
--,PaperSize='LETTER' --or LEGAL, WIDE, ARCHD, A4, A3, A2, A1, A0
)

SELECT * FROM export_report WITH(
  ReportId=2972339541069700, 
 ,TargetFilePath='c:\temp\exported_report_as_excel_file.xlsx' --or .pdf, .csv   
 ,Format='application/vnd.ms-excel'  --or-- application/pdf  --or-- text/csv
--below Paper Size only valid for PDF
--,PaperSize='LETTER' --or LEGAL, WIDE, ARCHD, A4, A3, A2, A1, A0
)

SELECT * FROM send_report_email
WITH(
	  ReportId='2972339541069700'
	, Subject='Test report'
	, Message='This email contains report attachment'
	, CcMe='true'
	, PaperSize='LETTER'
	, SendToEmails='bob@mycompany.com~sam@mycompany.com'
	--OR (Emails or Group only - one allowed)
	--, SendToGroups='10022222001~10333330002'
)

SELECT * FROM send_sheet_email
WITH(
	  SheetId='1592926391979908'
	, Subject='Test report'
	, Message='This email contains report attachment'
	, CcMe='true'
	, PaperSize='LETTER'
	, SendToEmails='bob@mycompany.com~sam@mycompany.com'
	--OR (Emails or Group only - one allowed)
	--, SendToGroups='10022222001~10333330002'
)

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to connect to Smartsheet in Power BI and integrate data without any coding. Click here to Download Smartsheet Connector for Power BI and try yourself see how easy it is. If you still have any question(s) then ask here or simply click on live chat icon below and ask our expert (see bottom-right corner of this page).

Download Smartsheet Connector for Power BI Documentation 

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