New Power Query And Power BI Connector For Raiser’s Edge NXT

Lindsey Rix
Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT® Blog

Do you use Power BI as a centralized reporting solution and need a way to connect your Raiser’s Edge NXT data?

With the SKY Developer Power Query and Power BI connector, you can now plug your Raiser's Edge NXT data via SKY API as a source for Power BI without additional technical know-how! The SKY Developer team has provided an open source code sample in the App Showcase that you can download and use without writing any code.

Are you curious about the process, and want to see how it works? We also have a walkthrough demo with Linton Myers, a Strategic Solutions Developer at Blackbaud. See just how easy it is to create your own custom Power BI connector for Raiser’s Edge NXT using Blackbaud SKY Developer code in GitHub. 

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Comments

  • Michael Bober
    Michael Bober
    Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    Can you explain a little bit about what exactly Power Query and Power BI is and why we would find this useful to our organization? Do you have examples of what is does, the actually features, and how to use it. The demo just goes through set up but doesn't explain the end user experience. Thank you.
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Hey Michael Bober‍, thanks for the question. Power Query and Power BI are both Microsoft applications. They have some documentation that you could go through to learn about them: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop/ and https://powerquery.microsoft.com/en-us/. 



    Also, if you signed up for bbcon 2020, you can access session recordings. I highly recommend Linton's session "Nonprofit Analytics: How To Build Financial and Fundraising Dashboards" as it's a great introduction to this topic. I'm not sure how linking works for the online recordings but if you log in, you can search for that session title. Hope this helps!
  • Michael Bober
    Michael Bober
    Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    I will take a look at the links you provided and check out Linton's session. Thanks. 
  • Graham Getty
    Graham Getty
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    Michael Bober‍ - SKY is the limit with Power BI - ha! You can customize your analytics - personal logo, custom formulas, filters, smash up your data overlayed with census data, easy maps, and more video here: https://resolvedllc.com/sky-api-enabled-power-bi/
  • Paul Sinclair
    Paul Sinclair
    Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    I thought that when using the data connector to refer to a list in NXT, that all the data available in the list would be available in the connector, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  I was hoping to be able to group by Campaign and Appeal withing Power BI but that data is not coming through from NXT.  Am I doing something wrong?
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi Carolyn Grant‍,

    For discussions about using this Power BI code sample, we recommend using the SKY Developer community. We have a category for "Microsoft Connectors." https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/586 It's a great place to troubleshoot, share ideas, and provide us feedback on what you want to see or be able to do. 
  • Katherine Solomon
    Katherine Solomon
    Seventh Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1
    Paul Sinclair‍ I am having the same issue. I can't work out how to create a relationship between my gift list and the Fund, Campaign and Appeals. Anyone have any suggestions?

     
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Paul Sinclair‍ thanks for your question. This connector works through SKY API, so any data that's available in SKY API would be available as part of this Power BI connector. Here's the List API: https://developer.blackbaud.com/skyapi/apis/list 

    As a brief explanation, the way the List API works is that it uses the corresponding entity list endpoint to return the data. So the data that gets returned may be different to what was set up in the List UI. I would recommend seeing what we have available through the API and see if that helps with what you're trying to accomplish. If it doesn't, please post in our Microsoft Connectors forum so it's easier to discuss what you're seeing and provide us feedback about what you're trying to accomplish. 
  • Eric Malloy
    Eric Malloy
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024) Loyalty Badge
    Is there also a connector for FE NXT?  
  • Eric Malloy
    Eric Malloy
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024) Loyalty Badge

    This is the error message I am getting.  Any thoughts?





    Attachment.png

  • Eric Malloy
    Eric Malloy
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Boomerang (2024) Loyalty Badge

    Here is a better screen shot



    Attachment.png

  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Eric Malloy‍ Thanks for your question. My apologies for the delay, I was out of the office on Friday. This connector code sample does also work as is for Financial Edge NXT.  However, while it works, it's not as fully built out on the API side as Raiser's Edge NXT.  So, you may run into roadblocks as you try to use the data the way you'd like. However, we do appreciate feedback and ideas so we can prioritize upcoming work. If you have time, please post in the SKY Developer community, Microsoft Connectors forum.  https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/586
  • TENNYSON YANG
    TENNYSON YANG
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    I've installed the RE NXT Connector and can see some FE NXT data without issues (GL:Account/ Project queries) Can you advise if the FE NXT Journal Entry data are linked and available? I do not see a query available for JE This would be the only piece missing to make it truly powerful in Power BI.handy.



     
  • P T
    P T
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi Lindsey, 
    I am fairly new to Razor's Edge and I was wondering if there is a way to connect your RE dashboards (the ones you can customize) to Power BI? Are there any additional softwares that I should learn? I am really not sure where to start from and from your post it seems like you have an idea of how to do it. 
    Any help would be nice! 
  • David Lee
    David Lee
    Fourth Anniversary Kudos 2 Participant Facilitator 1
    Hi - Is the New Power Query And Power BI Connector available for Blackbaud K12 SIS/LMS?  Thank you!
  • Lisha Yates
    Lisha Yates
    Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Is anyone having issues changing .zip to .mez once you create the zip folder? I'm renaming the zip folder to .mez, but it is still showing the folder type as Compressed (zipped) folder. Thank you. 
  • Sonia Duckett
    Sonia Duckett
    Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi Katherine Solomon‍ and Paul Sinclair‍ - did you ever find a solution to linking your gift list to Campaigns, Funds and Appeals? 
  • Paul Sinclair
    Paul Sinclair
    Seventh Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1
    I have had no success with this.  Because of this gap, I have returned to my old method of exporting CSV and bringing that into PBI.
     
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Not at this time. However, if it becomes available I can let you know. 
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Lisha Yates‍, I recommend using the SKY Developer community to troubleshoot your issue.  We have a category for "Microsoft Connectors." https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/586 
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi, I recommend you ask your question in the the SKY Developer community. We have a category for "Microsoft Connectors." https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/586  and I think you'll be better able to have a discussion there. 
  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant
    Katherine Solomon‍ , Paul Sinclair‍, and Sonia Duckett‍ I would recommend posting in the SKY Developer community. We have a category for "Microsoft Connectors." https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewcategory/586 and i think it would help them to know that this is a feature you'd like to have added. 
  • Gabrielle Williams
    Gabrielle Williams
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Quick (possibly silly) question - do the steps in Linton's demo need to be performed for each separate user that wants to use the connector? Or does the connector, once set up, apply to the entire instance of RENXT, across all registered users?
  • Linton Myers
    Linton Myers Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Participant Facilitator 1
    Gabrielle Williams‍ This is a great question!  Access to and configuration of the connector is required for anyone CREATING a report.  (And, it will need to be set up for each report creator.)  However, if the report creator publishes the report and associated data (e.g. publish to the Power BI service), then anyone READING a report will not need to access the connector.  (Now, appropriate caveat...  There are times when the above isn't completely accurate based on your Microsoft licensing and setup.  However, it's a good way of thinking about it.)  Does that help clarify?
  • Gabrielle Williams
    Gabrielle Williams
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Yes, that's very helpful, thank you!
  • Lee Grant
    Lee Grant
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    Hi I am getting an error message when trying to connect to the blackbaud environment after the "Get Data" step in Power BI. Does anyone know what could be causing this? It gives me an option to sign in  but when I do it says "

    The application you're trying to use has made an invalid request to Blackbaud. If you would like to report this error to the application developer, please include the information below.   Invalid redirect

  • Amanda Campbell
    Amanda Campbell
    Fifth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1

    I have followed every step and as far as i know successfully created the connector app and linked this in my raiser edge nxt environment. My issue is when i open up Power BI desktop and go to “get data” and then navigate to “more” when i search for blackbaud i cannot find the application, what do you think i am doing wrong?

  • Christine Davies
    Christine Davies
    Ninth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1 Loyalty Badge

    HI - I'm having the same issue as the two posts below (from Amanda and Lee) - can anyone help with the step to get the data in to Power BI as Blackbaud (Beta) does not show as a Connector for me. Could this be because I'm on the free version of Power BI?

  • Cristy Dearaujo
    Cristy Dearaujo
    Fourth Anniversary Participant Facilitator 1

    I was able to add the Connector but as I am trying to build reports one key issue is happening. I was running a gift report and noted that Fund, Appeals, and Packages are not available in the Gift tree. How do access this?

  • Lindsey Rix
    Lindsey Rix Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant

    Thanks Cristy for your question. However, can you post it in the Microsoft Integrations discussion forum where we have a community of users doing similar types of things. You'll have a better chance of finding someone who has solved this or can tell you if it's not possible yet.

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