Build a Simple VCL Application for Power BI XMLA Data

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Power BI XMLA, you gain access to live Power BI XMLA data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to retrieve Power BI XMLA data. This article will walk through connecting to Power BI XMLA and creating a simple VCL application with the Form Designer.

Create a Connection to Power BI XMLA Data

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

By default, use Azure AD to connect to Microsoft Power BI XMLA. Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.

For more information on other authentication schemes, refer to the Help documentation.

You can then follow the steps below to use the Data Explorer to create a FireDAC connection to Power BI XMLA data.

1. In a new VCL Forms application, expand the FireDAC node in the Data Explorer.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Power BI XMLA.

Create VCL Applications with Connectivity to Power BI XMLA Data

Follow the procedure below to start executing queries to Power BI XMLA data from a simple VCL application that displays the results of a query in a grid.

1. Drop a TFDConnection component onto the form and set the following properties:

   • ConnectionDefName: Select the FireDAC connection to Power BI XMLA data.
   • Connected: Select True from the menu and, in the dialog that appears, enter your credentials.

2. Drop a TFDQuery component onto the form and set the properties below:

   • Connection: Set this property to the TFDConnection component, if this component is not already specified.

   • SQL: Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query. For example:

     SELECT Country, Education FROM Customer WHERE Country = 'Australia'
   • Active: Set this property to true.

3. Drop a TDataSource component onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSet: In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery component.

4. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:

   • DataSource: Select the name of the TDataSource.
5. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form — this is required to avoid a run-time error.

You now have an executable application that displays the results of the SQL Query set in the TFDQuery object.