Publish To Power BI Tool

The Publish to Power BI tool uses the Power BI REST API to upload a data table from your Alteryx workflow to the Power BI web application. From there you can create and share dashboards containing any number of data visualizations and reports. Re-run the macro to update the data underlying the dashboards.

The following three files are packaged with the macro. They are required for the macro to properly authenticate with the API and should remain in the same folder location as the macro itself.

• PBIGetAccessToken.exe
• Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.dll
• Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory.WindowsForms.dll

The data cannot include column names that start with numbers or contain periods.

Configure the tool

Use the Configuration tab to set what data is published to Power BI.

• Dataset name: Enter the dataset name as you want it to be saved to Power BI.
• Table name: Enter the table name as you want it to be saved to Power BI.
• Operation: Select one of the following operations:
• Create New: A new dataset/table will be created. If a dataset of the same name already exists, “_2” will be appended to the dataset name. If that dataset name already exists, then an additional “_2” will be appended, and so on.
• Append: Append records to the end of an existing table. If the dataset doesn’t exist, one will be created.
• Replace: Overwrite table. If the dataset doesn’t exist, one will be created.

Use the Advanced tab to set credential options.

• Interactive authorization: [Default] This option prompts the user for their username and password upon running the workflow. A client ID is not required (see below). Because the authentication is interactive, workflows using this option can’t be scheduled or used in a Gallery application.

If you are prompted to select an account type, you must select "Work or school account".

• Use refresh token: This option caches a ‘refresh token’ which allows the user to re-run the workflow without the needs to re-authenticate until the refresh token expires. (Check with Microsoft for expiration policies). Uncheck this box if attempting to publish to a different Power BI account so that the user will be prompted for a different username. Unchecking this box and running the workflow will delete the cached refresh token which could be useful if the token becomes corrupted.
• Hard-coded credentials: Select this option if you will be using the macro in a Gallery application or a scheduled workflow.
• User: Enter the Power BI username.
• Password: Enter the Power BI password.
• Client ID: When using a corporate deployment of Microsoft Azure, the Alteryx application needs to be registered by your Azure administrator and a Client ID obtained from them. When using an account you setup yourself, you’ll need to perform the following Azure Active Directory administration tasks to obtain the Client ID. It is recommended to get help from someone familiar with Azure Active Directory management.
1. Create an Azure Active Directory tenant.
2. Sign up for Power BI Service.
3. Register a client app.
4. Obtain a client ID.