Issues linking RE to Power BI Desktop

Pippi Reader

Hello I have followed this video which is available on Blackbaud's site to set up Power BI desktop. I've definitely done everything it says but when I go to Power BI Desktop and try to connect to Blackbaud, I get an error message:

Uh-oh! 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.

More details for developers

I Invalid client_id

I think it is connected to the Redirect URL I am using which I took from this video but it doesn't include my client ID. Does anyone understand the issue and how I resolve it?

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
please see this post with my replies on it, make sure you are following every steps.

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong
Thank you so much. I deleted it all and redid and it seems to have worked - woo hoo. The only thing is when you do link Microsoft Power BI Desktop with Blackbaud, and you see the lists of things it can connect to on the Consitutents folder it says ‘forbidden access’ is that right?

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
that's not right. so you have access issue with the API.

are you RE environment or solution admin? if not, you have to make sure your application scope covers api that you have access to

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong yes I am the admin for RE. How do I check if my application scope covers api? Sorry this is all new to me

Pippi Reader

i should have also said that error message doesn’t show when you click on the other folders eg Gifts etc

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
Check the “Scope” section in the developer.blackbaud.com > Developer account > Application

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong thank you. I've done that and I've changed it to Full Access. But it still says on both the Gifts and Constituents ‘Access to the resource is forbidden’. Any ideas?

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
might want to try using the “Try It” tool on developer.blackbaud.com API reference

to see if you have true permission issue or power bi custom connector creation issue.

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong I figured it out. I hadn’t approved the change to full access in applications and have now done this and that error message has gone. Thank you so much for your help. I definitely wouldn’t have figured this out on my own . I appreciate it

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong sorry me again! As this way of doing things limits you to what fields you can pull out, is there another way of linking RE NXT to Power BI via direct queries so you can control more what fields you can pull out. I can see you can do lists but that only allows you to select the list not then specific outputs from that list? Just wondering if there is a better way of linking the two systems which gives you more scope for the fields and data you can access?

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
You can only get field of information as it is produced by SKY API and the connector that expose the information.

Meaning, if SKY API provide the data (check developer.blackbaud.com API documentation), then you “MAY” have the info in the Blackbaud connector (unofficial, remember it isn't from Blackbaud). The connector itself will need also show the data too.

To get more data than SKY API/connector provide, you can use Query API, but there is no connector in power bi for Query API right now.

I shared a template where you can use Power Automate ability to run Query API to provide all queryable data from database into Power BI
https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/586/70826

You can take this route.

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong ok thanks I will take a look. Does this then allow you to schedule updates. So it won’t be real time but I could get it to update weekly / daily etc?

Alex Wong

@Pippi Reader
Yes, as often as hourly, and doesn't require setting up of a data gateway like the power bi unofficial connector needs

Joel Waldman

@Pippi Reader Hi Pippi. I read through the challenges you are having with connecting your RE NXT to Power BI. Have you considered using a Data Warehouse solution? SimpliPhi (simpliphi.io) is a longtime Blackbaud partner offering a data warehouse solution. Our warehouse solution easily connects to Power BI. Would you be interested in a intro meeting? Thank you. Joel

Pippi Reader

@Joel Waldman great that would be fab. What's the best way to connect? I've also sent an email via your main website ‘contact us’ page.

Thanks

Pippi

Pippi Reader

@Alex Wong I've reset this up and getting errors again. I've checked the scope and it's set to full access and i've approved that but this is what I'm seeing when I'm in power BI. Any ideas?

Rebecca Sundquist

@Pippi Reader, did you resolve your access to Gifts and Constituents so that it is only Events giving you an “access forbidden” error now? Your access permissions within RENXT are honored by the connector too. As Alex suggested earlier for gifts and Constituent end points, you can check your access to Events through the Developer Console with the Try It button: https://developer.sky.blackbaud.com/api#api=event&operation=GetEventList

Pippi Reader

@Rebecca Sundquist thanks for getting in touch. Yes the issue fixed itself so all sorted now. Thank you!