data from custom SPO list (newbie question)

[martenm]

Hi, I am a Power BI noob, and this is probably a rather basic question, so forgive me:

I have a custom SPO list with different columns (Person, Alternatives, Checkbox, Text and so on).

I would like to import and visualize this in Power BI, but it won't work at all.

The only thing that works to a degree is to export the data to Excel and then import it to Power BI, but that is not what I want to do, since it will not update without manual work. (And even if I import the Escel, I cannot get any visualizations from the data, but that is issue B, I guess).

Are there any guides or tips I could read, or does anyone have a suggestion?

[martenm]

Thanks for the answer!

The thing is, I do not get an error message, it just sort of wont work. I suppose I ha misunderstood something fundamental in how Power BI works?

I will look at the link you sent, thank you!

Get data - More - Online services - SPO list, Connect
Insert url to Sharepoint site
Select list with checkbox, ok

Then I get all the list columns in the right hand, so that's ok.

But if I make a selection, it does not do what I expected. The example is an alternatives column, with 4 options. Bower BI lists the options, but that's all. I expected it to deliver sums or something ...?

And if I click a diagram for visualisation, it goes blank.

This is the content of the column from thje SPO list, in SPO.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @martenm,

For numeric field, Power BI Desktop will perform aggregation. For more details, please review this article. Based on your second screenshot, the field is text data type, when you drag it to table visual, Power BI desktop will show unique value of this field if you have no other field to identify it.

Based on your third screenshot, you only drag a text  field to pie chart. To make the pie chart display propely, you would need to drag numeric field to Values of pie chart, this is the way that pie chart works. There is an example as follows, and you can review this video to get more details.


Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[Anonymous]

Hi @martenm,

What problem or error message do you get when importing data from SharePoint Online list to Power BI Desktop?

There is a blog about how to work with SharePoint list with different field types in Power BI Desktop.

https://whitepages.unlimitedviz.com/2016/07/simplified-method-working-sharepoint-data-power-bi/

Thanks
Lydia Zhang