Visualize Live Office 365 Data in Power BI (via CData Connect Cloud)

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 Cloud, you get access to Office 365 data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to Office 365, connect to Office 365 data from Power BI and then create reports on Office 365 data in Power BI.

Configure Office 365 Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to Office 365 from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Office 365 data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a Office 365 connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Office 365" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Office 365.

   Office 365 uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate requests, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and OAuthCallbackURL by registering an app with Office 365. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Office 365 Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Office 365 data from Power BI.

Query Office 365 Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull Office 365 data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect Cloud and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud account
3. After signing in, click "Connect"
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Office 365 data from Power BI

Create Office 365 Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

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

Live Access to Office 365 Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect Cloud you have a direct connection to Office 365 data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Office 365 data.

To get SQL data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Office 365) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect page and start a free trial.