This section describes how to edit the DSN configuration and then authenticate and connect to PayPal APIs.

DSN Configuration

You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to edit the DSN configuration. Note that the installation process creates a both a user DSN and a system DSN, as described in Installing the Connector.

Note: The connector stores connection information in the Windows registry. To ensure that the connector can write to the registry, either run Power BI as an administrator or use a User DSN for your connection instead of a System DSN.

User DSN

Complete the following steps to edit the DSN configuration:

1. Select Start > Search, and enter ODBC Data Sources in the Search box.
2. Choose the version of the ODBC Administrator that corresponds to the bitness of your Power BI Desktop installation (32-bit or 64-bit).
3. Select the system data source and click Configure.
4. Edit the information on the Connection tab and click OK.

System DSN

Configure the system DSN the same way as the user DSN, except you will need to switch to the System DSN tab before performing Step 3.

If you're using Power BI's On-Premises Data Gateway with Standard mode, you must use the system DSN.

You must also specify a valid location for OAuthSettingsLocation (a path where OAuth credentials are locally stored to avoid repeated OAuth prompts).

This is because the Standard mode runs on service mode and can only access permitted locations, such as C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\PBIEgwService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\On-premises data gateway.

Connecting to PayPal

The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. Each API uses a different authentication method.

• The SOAP API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the SOAP API, you must set the AuthScheme to Basic, and set the Username, Password, and Signature properties. These API credentials are generated when you enable the SOAP API.
• The REST API uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to the REST API, you must set the AuthScheme to OAuth, and set the OAuthClientId, and OAuthClientSecret properties.

To specify your preferred API, set the Schema property to either REST or SOAP. If no Schema is set, PayPal uses the SOAP schema.

For testing purposes, set UseSandbox to true and use Sandbox credentials.

SOAP API

You can use the SOAP API to retrieve all transactions for the current account. The SOAP API uses the Signature API-credentials type, which has three credential values:

• API Username
• API Password
• API Signature

To generate the API credentials:

1. Log in to your PayPal business account and select Profile > My Selling Tools.
2. In the Selling Online section, click Update for the API Access item.
3. To generate the API signature, click Request API Credentials on the API Access page.
4. Select Request API Signature and click Agree and Submit to generate the API signature.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• User = the API Username.
• Password = the API Password.
• Signature = the Signature.
• UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.

REST API

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your app settings.
• UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.

When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process. PayPal supports only OAuth authentication for use with the REST API. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth, and you must create a custom OAuth application.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to PayPal from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in PayPal, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

• InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
• OAuthClientSecret = the client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
• CallbackURL = the redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.

When you connect, the connector opens PayPal's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the connector refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the connector automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

1. Before connecting to data for the first time, set the following connection parameters:
   • InitiateOAuth = REFRESH.
   • OAuthClientId = the client Id in your application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret = the client secret in your application settings.
   • OAuthAccessToken = the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthSettingsLocation = the path where you want the connector to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
2. On subsequent data connections, set the following:
   • InitiateOAuth
   • OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

1. To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
2. Set the following connection properties:
   • OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your application settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your application settings.

3. Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
4. After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Headless Machines

If you need to log in to a resource that resides on a headless machine, you must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser. You can do this by installing the connector on a machine with an internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow. Set the connection properties as described above in "Desktop Applications".

After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.

Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file, then copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine.

To connect to data via the headless machine, set the following connection properties:

• InitiateOAuth = REFRESH
• OAuthSettingsLocation = the path to the OAuth settings file you copied from the machine with the browser. To enable automatic refreshing of the access token, ensure that this file gives read and write permissions to the connector.
• OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret = the client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you are finished, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.