Forum Discussion
Using FRED Data
API can be tough. Basically, it's like getting from a web source. Check out these instructions: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/charles_sterling/2016/05/25/how-to-call-rest-apis-and-parse-json-with-power-bi/
Looks like they have an API. https://research.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/fred/
I saw that. I know this is a very newbie question, but how do I use an API with PBI?
API can be tough. Basically, it's like getting from a web source. Check out these instructions: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/charles_sterling/2016/05/25/how-to-call-rest-apis-and-parse-json-with-power-bi/
- In this case, you use Power BI's Web connector (Get Data/Web) and then paste in text per this model:
https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations?series_id=GNPCA&api_key=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456
- Replace GNPCA with the ID code for the data series you want to retrieve.
- Replace abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz123456 with an API key you get from FRED by requesting it in your user account at the API keys link.
- Then paste the edited string into the Web connector and load the data.
- Power BI will initially show a list of attributes and descriptive data such as the data series' start and end date. To get to the observations, in query editor, choose transform, then expand.
I was using Python to pull FRED data series, but after discovering the web connector has a refresh advantage, I'm switching.
I tried using the example it does connect and get a reply but it only returns three columns to query editor :
Series, Attibute:realtime_start, Attribute:realtime_end.
It does not return data and it only has the same date for start and end .
There has to be a way to get data and specify dates
If you'd like to share your code, I'd be happy to help troubleshoot. Were you able to try this step to transform and expand, or do you not have that option?
- Power BI will initially show a list of attributes and descriptive data such as the data series' start and end date. To get to the observations, in query editor, choose transform, then expand.
Hi - when i do this, and after using multiple sources, only the first shows up in the data source tab. After the first one, I do get the observations for the series I enter as a table in Power Query, but I do not see it in the Data source tab. what could i be doing wrong?
