We are proud to share our inclusion in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. We believe this recognition reflects the differentiated business outcomes CData delivers to our customers.
Get the Report →Connect to Power BI XMLA Data from PowerBuilder
This article demonstrates how to access Power BI XMLA data from PowerBuilder using the Power BI XMLA JDBC Driver.
The CData JDBC driver for Power BI XMLA is a standards-based control that can be used from any platform or development technology that supports JDBC, including PowerBuilder. This article shows how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Power BI XMLA in PowerBuilder.
This article shows how to create a basic PowerBuilder application that uses the CData JDBC Driver for Power BI XMLA to retrieve data.
Connect to Power BI XMLA Data from PowerBuilder
Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile based on an JDBC URL for Power BI XMLA. You can use a database profile to save connection properties. In the Database Painter, you can graphically manipulate data as well as execute SQL queries.
Add the driver JAR to the PowerBuilder classpath. Set the CLASSPATH system environment variable to the path to the driver JAR, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
Note: If you are using PowerBuilder Classic, you can also add the path to the driver JAR by clicking Tools -> System Options -> Java.
- Click Tools -> Database Painter.
- Right-click the JDBC node and click New Profile.
- In the Database Profile Setup dialog, enter the following:
- Profile Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the profile.
- Driver Name: Enter the class name of the driver, cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.PowerBIXMLADriver
- URL: Enter the JDBC URL.
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.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Power BI XMLA JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.jar
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard. A typical JDBC URL is below:
jdbc:powerbixmla:AuthScheme=AzureADInitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
- To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.

Using Power BI XMLA Data with PowerBuilder Controls
You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to JDBC data sources and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve Power BI XMLA data into a DataWindow. You can add the following code to the open method:
SQLCA.DBMS = "JDBC"
SQLCA.AutoCommit = False
SQLCA.DBParm = "Driver='cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.PowerBIXMLADriver',URL='jdbc:powerbixmla:AuthScheme=AzureADInitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH";
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_customer.SetTransObject(SQLCA);
dw_customer.Retrieve();