How do I chain API calls?

[DataDave]

The Australian government has made thousands of datasets available through their OpenData initiative. I'm playing with the following dataset:

• https://airquality.des.qld.gov.au/docs/#/default/getAllStations

I have created a Web Datasource based on this URL: airquality.des.qld.gov.au/v1/stations

• This returns a JSON object listing all the air quality sensor stations.
• I can converted the JSON to a table.

I'd like to make a subsequent call to the URL: airquality.des.qld.gov.au/v1/stations/{station_id}/parameters/measurements

• As you can see, this takes the station_id from the previous URL as an input
• It's going to return a dataset per station, which I'm happy to store in a single "measurements" table

I tried to create a parameter from the stations dataset and use it in the URL to obtain the measurements datasets, but that gave me a "please rebuild this data combination" error.

I am now trying to follow

• https://www.excelguru.ca/blog/2015/03/11/power-query-errors-please-rebuild-this-data-combination/

but it's a little confusing.

Any help is appreciated.

[blopez11 · Accepted solution]

I've run into this many times when using web service APIs

To get around this you'll likely have to encapsulate the data sources, at least maybe for stations, into a function

So maybe, GetStation () which just returns the JSON

The caller can convert the JSON into a list, then use this to adjust the URL to get the measurements

It is a pain, but it works.   The following quote from the article below helped me find a solution when I encountered the same as you

"Embedding or masking your Data Sources inside Functions – this method will make your data sources not visible to the Data Privacy Levels at first, but you can tune your queries to define the data source at first and then apply a function."

https://www.poweredsolutions.co/2019/03/12/data-privacy-and-the-formula-firewall/