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zenisekd's avatar
zenisekd
Super User
2 years ago

Connecting to a SAP Cube via Dataflow (Power Query)

Hi,  I am looking for some guidance.  Our customer has SAP and  SAP BW. Now he wants to do some reporting. But he doesn't want me in, so I have to use a gateway to pull data to Power Bi service...
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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
2 years ago

Hi zenisekd ,

First Power BI uses DirectQuery to connect to SAP BW multidimensional datasets, which means it queries the data directly from the source without importing it. You can check out this documentation: DirectQuery and SAP Business Warehouse (BW) in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

 

Since you have already tried to use the SAP BW Application Server connector without success, make sure that you have followed all the necessary steps and prerequisites. This includes installing SAP .NET Connector 3.0 and ensuring that the Power BI Desktop installation version matches the .NET Framework Connector version (32-bit or 64-bit).

 

Power BI interacts differently with multidimensional datasets, especially in Power Query Online, than with traditional relational data sources.Power BI handles multidimensional dataset dimensions and metrics differently, and these dimensions and metrics are not directly editable in Power Query Online because they are not directly editable in relational databases or in Power BI Desktop.

 

 

 

Best Regards

Yilong Zhou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

 

  • zenisekd's avatar
    zenisekd
    Super User
    2 years ago

    Hi Anonymous , 

     


    I am not sure your first statement is true. I am able to use online power query in data flow to connect to SAP BW application server, load some attributes and measures and then do further adjustments to it. Direct Query behaves differently. 

    I did connect to SAP BW application server with partial success, but I see some cubes but not all at first sight. Why?