How to Connect to 3 Common Data Sources in Power BI Desktop

Connect to Three Common Data Sources in Power BI Desktop

Learn how to connect to three of the most common data sources in Power BI Desktop: Excel Workbook, a Power BI semantic model in the Power BI service, and a Web data source.

Hi everyone. This is Juan Carlos with Playfair+. Today we’re going to be looking at how to connect to data in Power BI Desktop. We’re going to connect to three common sources: an Excel workbook, a Power BI semantic model in the Power BI service, and a web data source. 

So once we have Power BI Desktop open, you’ll see the blank canvas in front of you. And we’re going to go to Get data on the Home Ribbon on the top left. Scroll down, we’re going to click on Excel workbook. Look for the Financial Sample in our files or whatever workbook we want to connect to. Click Open. You’ll see the Navigator window pop up. Once this Navigator window appears, you’re going to want to click on the financials table.

The tables you want to connect to are going to be the ones that have the table icon next to them. So we’re going to click on the financials table here, not Sheet1. Then click Load. In our next video, we’re going to look at transforming data in Power Query Editor. But for now, we’re just going to hit Load. So once you see the table appear in the Data pane on the right-hand side of your screen, you’re all set. That’s how you connect to an Excel workbook data source in Power BI Desktop. 

Now we’re going to look at a Power BI semantic model. So click on the Get data button again. Click on Power BI semantic models. Once you find the semantic model you want to use, you’re going to click on it and then hit Connect.

There’s going to be another Connect to your data pop-up. Hit Submit. You’ll see the Data pane on the right-hand side of your screen update once again with the new table, and you’re connected. 

Now that we’ve seen how to connect to an Excel workbook data source, a Power BI semantic model, let’s do one more. Let’s connect to a web data source. 

Using the Get data button again, scroll down to Web, and in this pop-up, you’re going to want to enter the URL that you want to connect to. Here, we’ll be using the AdventureWorks sample dataset, also from Microsoft. We’re going to hit OK. Now you’ll see the Access Web content pop-up. This allows you to select which level that you want to apply the authentication settings to.

We’re going to scroll down to our data set and then hit Connect. Now you’ll see the same Navigator window appear. And just like before, we’re going to click on all the tables we want to use and then we’re going to hit Load data. Once we see the Data pane update with our new tables, we’re all set. This has been Juan Carlos with Playfair+, showing you how to connect to three different data sources in Power BI Desktop.

Thanks for watching. See you in the next one.