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gianplod's avatar
gianplod
Frequent Visitor
4 years ago
Solved

Connecting to SharePoint libraries and lists - PBI RS

Hello everyone,

 

I have a PBI dashboard connected to a series of Excel files hosted in a SharePoint library and also to a SharePoint list, both within the same site (SharePoint 2013).

 

As usual, from PBI Desktop the connection works great, but when trying to authenticate in PBI Report Server, things get complicated.

 

I had to create what we call a service account (just a generic user) to validate the data connections in PBI RS. However, when I try to test the connection from the Data Sources panel, I get the following error:

 

"The report server couldn't connect to the data source using the information you entered. Make sure you've entered the connection string and any credentials correctly."

 

Error details: "OData: The given URL neither points to an OData service or a feed: 'https://contoso.com/sites/topsitename/subsitename'."

 

I am not sure if this is a permissions-related issue or if it has something to do with how the connection is built in PBI Desktop. I used the standard SharePoint On-Prem connector for retrieving the data both from the library and from the list.

 

I was thinking that maybe the problem is in the Connection String (https://contoso.com/sites/topsitename/subsitename), but I can't modify it. It just points to the subsite where the library and list are hosted, as that is what the SharePoint connector requires to make the connection in PBI Desktop.

 

Any help would be REALLY appreciated!

Power BI Desktop RS
sharepoint 2013
  • gianplod's avatar
    gianplod
    4 years ago

    Hello Icey 

     

    I understand what you're saying, but this is SharePoint 2013 (on-prem), no SharePoint Online.

     

    It ended up resolving by itself, and I'm really not sure why. However, PBI Support from within my company had previously told me to use the Web connector instead of the SharePoint connector, which didn't make much sense to me, but did it anyway. It fixed the connection issue, but then I wasn't able to refresh the dashboard (an error regarding an HTML module being disabled for that context was thrown out). Any ideas on why this could have happened?

     

     

3 Replies

    • gianplod's avatar
      gianplod
      Frequent Visitor
      4 years ago

      Hello Icey 

       

      I understand what you're saying, but this is SharePoint 2013 (on-prem), no SharePoint Online.

       

      It ended up resolving by itself, and I'm really not sure why. However, PBI Support from within my company had previously told me to use the Web connector instead of the SharePoint connector, which didn't make much sense to me, but did it anyway. It fixed the connection issue, but then I wasn't able to refresh the dashboard (an error regarding an HTML module being disabled for that context was thrown out). Any ideas on why this could have happened?

       

       

      • Icey's avatar
        Icey
        Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
        4 years ago

        Hi gianplod ,

         

        Please check if this is the cause:

         

        Power BI Report Server has a limitation when using web data: only data files from web can be refreshed. Data based on Page or By example aren't refreshable. This limitation is because the M expressions created with Web.BrowserContents and Web.Page can't be refreshed. Power BI Report Server can only refresh Web.Contents data sources.

         

        Reference: Power BI report data sources in Power BI Report Server - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

         

         

        Best Regards,

        Icey

         

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