Create Power BI Reports on Real-Time Halo Service Desk Data

With built-in support for ODBC on Microsoft Windows, the CData ODBC Drivers provide self-service integration with self-service analytics tools such as Microsoft Power BI. The CData ODBC Driver for Halo Service Desk links your Power BI reports to operational Halo Service Desk data. You can monitor Halo Service Desk data through dashboards and ensure that your analysis reflects Halo Service Desk data in real time by scheduling refreshes or refreshing on demand. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create real-time visualizations of Halo Service Desk data in Microsoft Power BI Desktop and then upload to Power BI.

The CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Halo Service Desk data in Power BI due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power BI to Halo Service Desk, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Halo Service Desk and utilizes the embedded SQL Engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Halo Service Desk data using native Power BI data types.

Connect to Halo Service Desk as an ODBC Data Source

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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the HaloServiceDesk Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\HaloServiceDesk.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for HaloServiceDesk (see below).

HaloServiceDesk API Profile Settings

HaloServiceDesk uses API key authentication. You can find or create API keys in HaloServiceDesk under Administration > Integrations > Halo API.

Set the following connection properties to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to the API key from your HaloServiceDesk account.
• Domain: Set this to the hostname of your HaloServiceDesk instance (e.g. yourcompany.haloservicedesk.com).

Create Data Visualizations

After creating an ODBC DSN, follow the steps below to connect to the Halo Service Desk ODBC DSN from Power BI Desktop:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> More... to open the Get Data window.
2. In the Get Data window select Other -> ODBC to open the next window.
3. Select the DSN in the menu. If you know the SQL query you want to use to import data, you can expand the Advanced options node and enter the query in the SQL Statement box. Otherwise, click OK to continue.
4. Choose Default or Custom as the authentication option and click Connect.
5. Select tables in the Navigator dialog.

6. Click Transform Data to edit the query. The table you imported is displayed in the Power Query Editor. In the Power Query Editor, you can enrich your local copy of Halo Service Desk data with other data sources, pivot Halo Service Desk columns, and more. Power BI detects each column's data type from the Halo Service Desk metadata retrieved by the driver.

   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 Halo Service Desk data. When you click Close and Apply, Power BI executes the data retrieval query.

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

Create Data Visualizations

After pulling the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Follow the steps below to create a pie chart (Salesforce shown):

1. Select the pie chart icon in the Visualizations pane.
2. Select a dimension in the Fields pane: for example, Name.
3. Select a measure in the Fields pane: for example, Annual Revenue.

You can change sort options by clicking the ellipsis (...) button for the chart. Options to select the sort column and change the sort order are displayed.

You can use both highlighting and filtering to focus on data. Filtering removes unfocused data from visualizations; highlighting dims unfocused data. You can highlight fields by clicking them:

You can apply filters at the page level, at the report level, or to a single visualization by dragging fields onto the Filters pane. To filter on the field's value, select one of the values that are displayed in the Filters pane.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your Halo Service Desk data from Microsoft Power BI, or any applications that support ODBC connectivity, download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Halo Service Desk. As always, our world-class support team is ready to answer any questions you may have.