Creating the Data Source Name
This section describes how to edit the DSN configuration and then authenticate and connect to Excel Services 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:
- Select Start > Search, and enter ODBC Data Sources in the Search box.
- Choose the version of the ODBC Administrator that corresponds to the bitness of your Power BI Desktop installation (32-bit or 64-bit).
- Select the system data source and click Configure.
- 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.
This section provides the details for connecting SharePoint On Premises.
Connecting to a Workbook
Regardless of which edition of SharePoint you are using, set File to the Excel workbook. This path is relative to the following properties:
- Library: The Shared Documents library is used by default. You can use this property to specify another document library in your organization; for example, if you want to connect to OneDrive for Business, set this property to "Documents".
- Folder: You can use this property to specify a path to a subfolder in a library. The path is relative to the library name specified in Library.
Connecting to Spreadsheet Data as Tables
The connector detects the available tables based on the available objects in the underlying API.
The APIs surface different API objects; select the API based on the organization of your spreadsheets and your SharePoint version:
- OData: The OData API allows access to tables defined from Excel table objects (not ranges or spreadsheets), which you create by clicking Insert > Table in Excel. When connecting to the OData API, the connector may not return any tables if you do not have table objects defined in your workbook. Set UseRESTAPI to true to connect to spreadsheets or ranges as tables.
- REST: The REST API enables access to tables defined from Excel table objects, ranges, and spreadsheets. This is the default API. Requesting a large number of rows from ranges and spreadsheets is restricted by the REST API, and the connector limits the number of rows returned to 100 by default. The connector also defaults to detecting column names from the first row; set Header to disable this.
With DefineTables additionally set, you can define tables based on ranges, using the Excel range syntax. A range that is too large will be restricted by the API.
See Data Model for more information on how the connector detects tables and how to query them.
Connecting to SharePoint On Premises
Set the Url to your server's name or IP address. Additionally, set SharePointVersion and the authentication values.
To authenticate to SharePoint OnPremise, set AuthScheme to the authentication type and set User and Password, if necessary.
Note: When connecting to SharePoint On-Premises 2010, you must set UseRESTAPI to true.
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Windows (NTLM)
This is the most common authentication type. As such, the connector is preconfigured to use NTLM as the default; simply set the Windows User and Password to connect.
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Kerberos
Please see Using Kerberos for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.
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Forms
This allows authentication through a custom authentication method, instead of Active Directory. To use this authentication type, set AuthScheme to FORMS and set the User and Password.
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ADFS
Set the AuthScheme to ADFS. The following connection properties need to be set:
- User: Set this to the ADFS user.
- Password: Set this to ADFS password for the user.
- SSOLoginURL: Set this to the WS-trust endpoint of the ADFS server.
- RelyingParty: The value of the relying party identifier on the ADFS server for Sharepoint.
AuthScheme=ADFS;User=ADFSUserName;Password=ADFSPassword;SSOLoginURL=https://<authority>/adfs/services/trust/2005/usernamemixed;SSO Properties ='RelyingParty=urn:sharepoint:sp2016;';
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Anonymous Access
Set the AuthScheme to NONE along with the URL.