36 Connecting to Fetch Data
Technical requirements
For this chapter, you will be using the following:
•Power BI Desktop: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/ details.aspx?id=58494
•A Power BI Pro license: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/ power-bi-pro/
•Minimum requirements for installation:
a).NET Framework 4.6 (Gateway release August 2019 and earlier)
b).NET Framework 4.7.2 (Gateway release September 2019 and later)
c)A 64-bit version of Windows 8 or a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2012 R2 with current TLS 1.2 and cipher suites
d)4 GB of disk space for performance monitoring logs
You can find the data resources referred to in this chapter at https://github.com/ PacktPublishing/Power-Query-Cookbook/tree/main/Chapter02.
Getting data and connector navigation
Power Query, thanks to its interface, offers an easy way to connect to data sources. In the previous chapter, you saw different authentication types, but here you will get an overview of the connector types and learn which one fits best. You will also learn the difference between preview (or beta) and general availability connectors.
Getting ready
For this recipe, you need to have Power BI Desktop running on your machine.
How to do it...
Open Power BI Desktop and you will be ready to perform the following steps:
1.The first step in every version of the Power Query tool, whether it is the online or desktop version, is to click on Get data:
Getting data and connector navigation 37
Figure 2.1 – Get data in Power Query Desktop (left) and Get data in Power Query online (right)
2.Once you expand the Get data section, you will end up with the following view in the Power Query Desktop version:
Figure 2.2 – Get Data All connectors view in Power Query Desktop
38 Connecting to Fetch Data
And if you expand the same section in the Power Query online version, you will see the following:
Figure 2.3 – Get Data All categories view in Power Query online
Both versions have the following connectors divided into the same categories:
•File: You can connect to different types of files, such as Excel, CSV/TXT, XML, JSON, Folder, PDF, and Parquet.
•Database: You can connect to all mainstream databases such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, open source databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB), Teradata, SAP, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, and many others. This wide variety allows the user able to connect to the different sources and not have concerns about having the required data in only one standard data source.