Visualize Live Google Cloud Storage Data in the Power BI Service

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant access to Google Cloud Storage data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to build and publish a dataset from Google Cloud Storage data in Power BI and then create reports on Google Cloud Storage data in the Power BI service.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL interface for Google Cloud Storage, allowing you to easily build reports from live Google Cloud Storage data in Power BI — with no need to replicate the data. As you build visualizations, Power BI generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Google Cloud Storage, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Google Cloud Storage data.

NOTE: You can also import Google Cloud Storage data into Power BI through Connect AI (instead of using the on-premise gateway). Read how in the related Knowledge Base article.

Configure Google Cloud Storage Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to Google Cloud Storage from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Google Cloud Storage data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a Google Cloud Storage connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Google Cloud Storage" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Google Cloud Storage.

   Authenticate with a User Account

   You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. After setting InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH, you are ready to connect.

   When you connect, the Google Cloud Storage OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions, then the OAuth process completes

   Authenticate with a Service Account

   Service accounts have silent authentication, without user authentication in the browser. You can also use a service account to delegate enterprise-wide access scopes.

   You need to create an OAuth application in this flow. See the Help documentation for more information. After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH.
   • OAuthJWTCertType: Set this to "PFXFILE".
   • OAuthJWTCert: Set this to the path to the .p12 file you generated.
   • OAuthJWTCertPassword: Set this to the password of the .p12 file.
   • OAuthJWTCertSubject: Set this to "*" to pick the first certificate in the certificate store.
   • OAuthJWTIssuer: In the service accounts section, click Manage Service Accounts and set this field to the email address displayed in the service account Id field.
   • OAuthJWTSubject: Set this to your enterprise Id if your subject type is set to "enterprise" or your app user Id if your subject type is set to "user".
   • ProjectId: Set this to the Id of the project you want to connect to.

   The OAuth flow for a service account then completes.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Google Cloud Storage Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Google Cloud Storage data from Power BI.

Connecting to Connect AI from Power BI

To connect to and visualize live Google Cloud Storage data in the Power BI service, install the on-premise data gateway, add a data source to the gateway from the Power BI service, and publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the service.

Install the On-Premises Data Gateway

The Microsoft on-premise data gateway provides secure data transfer between connected data sources and various cloud-based Microsoft tools and platforms. You can read more about the gateway in the Microsoft documentation.

You can download and install the gateway from the Power BI service:

1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
2. Click the Download menu and click Data Gateway.
3. Follow the instructions for installation, making note of the name of the gateway.

Add Google Cloud Storage as a Data Source to the Power BI Service

Once you have installed the data gateway, you add Connect AI as a data source to the Power BI service:

1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
2. Click the Settings menu and click "Manage gateways."
3. Click "ADD DATA SOURCE" and configure the connection to Connect AI:
   
   
   • Set Data Source Name to something like ConnectCloudGoogleCloudStorage.
   • Choose SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333.
   • Set Database to the name of your Google Cloud Storage connection (e.g. GoogleCloudStorage1).
   • Set Authentication Method to Basic.
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the user above.

Publish a Dataset from Power BI Desktop

With the gateway installed and Connect AI added as a datasource to the Power BI service, you can publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the service.

1. Open Power BI, click Get Data -> More, then select SQL Server database, and click Connect.

2. Set the connection properties and click OK.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333.
   • Set Database to the name of your Google Cloud Storage connection (e.g. GoogleCloudStorage1).
   • Set Data Connectivity mode to DirectQuery*.
   * DirectQuery enables live query processing and real-time visualizations of Google Cloud Storage data.
3. In the authentication wizard, select Database, set the User name and Password properties, and click Connect.

4. Select the table(s) to visualize in the Navigator dialog.
5. In the Query Editor, you can customize your dataset by filtering, sorting, and summarizing Google Cloud Storage columns. Click Edit to open the query editor. Right-click a raw to filter the rows. Right-click a column header to perform options like the following:
   • Change column data types
   • Remove a column
   • Group by columns

   Power BI detects each column's data type from the Google Cloud Storage metadata reported by Connect AI.

   Power BI records your modifications to the query in the Applied Steps section, adjusting the underlying data retrieval query that is executed to the remote Google Cloud Storage data. When you click Close and Apply, Power BI executes the data Retrieval query.

   Otherwise, click Load to pull the data into Power BI.

6. Define any relationships between the selected entities on the Relationships tab.
7. Click Publish (from the Home menu) and select a Workspace.

Build Reports and Dashboards on Google Cloud Storage Data in the Power BI Service

Now that you have published a dataset to the Power BI service, you can create new reports and dashboards based on the published data:

1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
2. Click Workspaces and select a workspace.
3. Click Create and select Report.
4. Select the published dataset for the report.
5. Choose fields and visualizations to add to your report.

Live Access to Google Cloud Storage Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Google Cloud Storage data from the Power BI service. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Google Cloud Storage data.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.