Trouble with connecting Power BI to App

@Nilsen Septon
Assuming you are talking about the BLackbaud Power BI connector, not one that you created yourselves, then the instructions are:

1. Update the client_id.txt and client_secret.txt files with values from the application you registered in the Getting Started section.
2. Update the subscription_key.txt file with the value from the SKY Developer Subscriptions page.

these are the 3 files you need to update with your developer account info to it the connector to work.

Info from URL:

@Nilsen Septon
I followed the same steps in the page and was able to connect and get data, so I don't know where you might have failed.

The “GrantQuick” link you sent is outdated and will no longer be supported, I do not suggest you using it as it will not contain the latest API definition.

While the installation page is long, it really boils down to very simple few steps:

1. Go to: https://github.com/blackbaud/powerbi-connector

1. Extract the zip file, and go into the Blackbaud folder
2. Open client_id.txt client_secret.txt and subscription_key.txt and copy and paste into them the needed info

1. Select all the files in the Blackbaud folder (DO NOT select the Blackbaud folder itself) and zip (normal zipping, no password, no 7z, no other format).
2. Name the file Blackbaud.mez
   1. in normal windows setup, you do not see the file extention of known file type, you need to go into change folder option and uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”

1. Then copy/move this file into C:\\Users\\your.login.user.name\\Documents\\Power BI Desktop\\Custom Connectors folder

1. Start Power BI Desktop and go into option to enable use of custom connector

1. Restart

You may feel you did everything correctly, but follow through the steps again. it is all in the details of each steps to make it work, the main thing is, it does work.

1 last thing, MAKE SURE you add this URL to the application that you provided the client_id and client_secret into the mez file.

@Chetan Sondagar
Did you follow this last steps:

@Kaitlyn Gainer
I don't know what “final step” you are talking about, what instruction are you using?

@Kaitlyn Gainer
which step are you talking about?

Also in this page, there is no mention of Control Panel, will need to know what step you are having trouble.

Also, did you read my reply (long reply with lots of screenshot) and compare what you did? Many people had issue following the steps in the link you provided and find my screenshots to be helpful. Try it out if you haven't already

@Kaitlyn Gainer
while it may be a permission issue (as connecting app does require certain level of admin right), the issue you have first is Blackbaud has changed its menu. There is no “Control Panel > Application". Instead, click on the “pancake” icon, and go to Marketplace, then click on Manage.

@Alex Wong Thank you for your help Alex. It took me a few tries, but I have now successfully connected Power BI and RE. Now my question is, how does the data refresh? On the GitHub, I see instructions for a gateway and scheduling automatic refresh of data. Is this necessary? What is the benefit? Thanks!

@Alex Wong Thanks for the prompt reply Alex. Is there an alternative to this? If I did not install a gateway, what would happen? If I were to hit “Get data” whenever I want to run a report, would that pull in refreshed data? As you can tell, I am brand new at Power BI and connectors….

@Kaitlyn Gainer Welcome to the wonderful world of Power BI!

Using the custom connector and a gateway allows you to automatically refresh your data. The advantage over manually refreshing is it saves you a step (sometimes refreshes can take a bit). It's more helpful when you have multiple people accessing the data in the report.

There are some limitations with the custom connector, mainly that it doesn't have all of the fields that are available in RENXT and it requires a gateway for automatic refreshes. Many practitioners are leveraging Power Automate with the Query API. Power Automate can also be used to refresh the data.

@Kaitlyn Gainer There is no cost to use the APIs (each org is allotted a number of free calls per month. No worries about hitting the limits in most use cases).

I'd recommend starting with this automation which pulls the results of a query into OneDrive or Google Drive:

Once you work though that template, you should look at this template which shows how to automate a refresh:

@Rosa Crichton, when you do not see Blackbaud (Beta) (Custom) show up in the Get Data list, this is an indication that your .mez file isn't saved in the right location or has another issue.

Your Blackbaud.mez file should be in your user's file path for Documents\\Power BI Desktop\\Custom Connectors. For me, my user's path is under OneDrive, which is common.

If your file path looks right, then it might be a problem with the .mez file. If you manually unzipped and then re-zipped the file, a common mistake is to accidentally zip up the whole folder so that there is an extra folder to drill through before getting into the files within. When manually zipping up the files, be sure to select all of the individual files to zip, rather than zipping up the folder containing the files.

Hopefully you've stumbled through one of these common issues and can get back on track with these tips.

Hi, I’ve followed the setup steps and included the client ID in both the client_ID.text file, and to connect the app in Blackbaud marketplace, but I receive a pop-up error when trying to sign into my Blackbaud account through Power BI (using the Blackbaud option in “Get Data”).

Could you advise on what additional steps may be required to resolve this issue?

Thank you for your help!