Forum Discussion
Getting data from on-prem sharepoint into Power BI Desktop
Hello,
Moving forward with Power BI desktop, I am able to connect our on-prem Sharepoint 2013 lists to an excel spreadsheet and then connect the spreadsheet to Power BI Desktop. I cannot connect directly to the Sharepoint list via the Sharepoint Connector or through OData. The OData issue seems to be a bug (see https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/63c57fd7-109a-4a2c-82a7-409494f19303/trouble-getting-sharepoint-list-contents-via-odata?forum=powerquery), but the Sharepoint connector may also be a bug. I can't find anyone on the forum with this exact issue, so please help if you can:
For search purposes, the error is Cannot find resource for the request $metadata
I am using Windows Security to authenticate.
Thanks,
Mike
Okey, we have found the solution. Thanks to our internal pros! :-) We had the following behavior:
- Some URLs (SharePoint Site) worked, others not.
- With Fiddler we found out that the URL for the Webservice, which Power BI Deskotp calls in the background, are not always the same. Example: https://example.url.com/spsite1 called the Webservice /spsite1/_vti_bin/ListData.svc/$metadata and the other URL https://example.url.com/spsite2 called the Webserive /spsite2/_api/web/$metadata.
- The "spsite1" worked, "spsite2" not.
- We found out that one site was based on a upgraded SharePoint 2010 site template and the the other based on a SharePoint 2013 site template. So, thats the reason for the different calls of webservice URLs (old and new). The "old" one worked, the "new" one not.
- We found a workaround. Now all works fine. Go to the SharePoint Server and to the "_vti_pvt"-folder in your "inetpub" of IIS. Then look for the file "service.cnf" and delete it - or better rename it. Power BI takes the old OData service when he can not find this file. That's it.Hope it helps as a workaround.
philip
17 Replies
Looks like you have run into the "column starts with a number" bug. This was a discussion I participated in on Technet a while ago. Basically, if you had a SharePoint list in your site that had a column that began with a number, this would happen. Drove me crazy for a bit. Renaming column fixed the issue. I'll try to dig up the article link.
stefam Found the thread:
Thank you for the suggestion - I tried looking at all the lists to avoid numbers in the column names or list names. I even created a brand-new team-site with the default lists from Sharepoint 2013. I still get the same error.
I am connecting with Windows Authentication and also tried Anonymous. I also tried connecting at site and sub-site levels.
If I connect directly to the list instead of the site, I get The given URL neither points to an OData Service or a feed.
I can see the list if I connect to the data as a if I'm importing from a webpage (Get Data->Web), but I need to get at the table data, not the view.
Other ideas?
-Mike
Hi Mike,
I would like you to try only the site url not the list URL. In PowerBI Desktop, when you use from SharePoint List, enter the site url then use windows credentials. Meanwhile, run fiddler on the side and enable HTTPS in fiddler (Tools --> Fiddler Options --> HTTPS --> Check the check box for decrypt HTTPS traffic).
When you get that fiddler trace, select all related requests and click save as archive. (I would really appreciate if you can click send a frown and send us the fiddler trace :) ) but if the data is sensitive, here is something else:
In fiddler, the request that returned 400, right click on it and select copy just URL. Paste that URL in the browser and see if it will work or not. Also, what's the URL that returns 400? Is it the $metadata? Or the list?
Are you able to see all your lists before clicking on one of them? Does the error happen when you click on a list or even before that?
Thanks,
Hadeel
Hello,
I have the same issue since days. Did you have found a solution for this? I tried many things, also the thing with the column name.
Thanks for an answer in advance, philip
We did stumble upon a solution! I hope it works for you...
When connecting to the SharePoint site, we dat to do two things:
- Authenticate with your Windows: Alternate Credentials AND
- When selecting which URL to apply the settings to, you must select the bottom one – specific to the subsite
Then we were able to connect to the site and see all the lists an the site!
I am now able to select and connect to all the 10-15 lists on the site except, of course, the one which I need.
But that is another issue...
Mike
Mike, thanks very much for your help. But the thing is that I don't have the option to give the credentials to the connection. So first this screen:
Then I press "Ok" and after one second it appears that screen:
Is there a possibility to apply to that URL credentials?
Thanks again.philip
