Navigator Issue - Total Newbie

[zdonaldson]

Hi All,

I'm a total newb with Power BI and using APIs in general, so please have patience with me!

I'm attempting to use Power BI to connect to a specialized ERP system to build a report.  The ERP vendor provides a connector.

I'm able to connect and Navigator opens in Power BI.  On the left is what appears to be a folder structure of the tables in the ERP system.  I am able to navigate through it to find what I want.  When I click on the table, the preview window displays a 404 error.

After speaking with the ERP vendor support, it looks like the URI that is displayed in the error message is not correct and indeed does not match the URI I supplied when connecting to the ERP system.

Is there any way to force Power BI to use the full and correct URI when inside Navigator?  and what would be the source of the issue, a Power BI problem or an issue with the ERP system's API implementation?

[zdonaldson · Accepted solution]

I found the issue!  On the vendor's website listing the various API endpoint URI's, they left off the trailing / character.  I was simply cutting and pasting the link into Power BI, which was enough to load the navigator menu but it failed when trying to retrieve data.  

When I included the trailing slash character, the data preview loaded.  My next challenge is to figure out why the "Load" and "Transform Data" buttons don't activate, but for now I've made progress!

[v-sdhruv]

Hi @zdonaldson ,

As pointed correctly by @Amar_Kumar  the issue seems to be with ERP vendor’s Power BI connector. You can ask the vendor to fix the connector or try to change it in the advance editor in Power Query. This will help you to track down the problem. Let us know if that helped.

Thank You

[lbendlin]

Can the ERP vendor support demonstrate a successful connection? Does their documentation indicate any optional or mandatory parameters that could impact the outcome?

[Amar_Kumar]

@zdonaldson 

You cannot force Power BI to use a different URI inside Navigator.

What is happening:

• Power BI connects correctly using the base URI

• The ERP connector builds table URLs internally

• When you click a table, the connector generates a wrong endpoint

• Power BI just executes it and gets a 404

Where the issue is:

• The ERP vendor’s Power BI connector

• Incorrect URL construction or API metadata

• Not a Power BI bug

What you can do:

• Check the Source step in Power Query (Advanced Editor)

• If the connector code is locked, you cannot fix it

• Ask the vendor to fix their connector

• As a workaround, use the Web connector and call the API manually

Note: Power BI cannot override Navigator URLs. The problem is in the ERP connector/API implementation.