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How to visualize Gluu data in PowerBI
How to visualize Gluu data in PowerBI
Louise avatar
Written by Louise
Updated over a week ago

In this article we will show you a simple guide on how to retrieve all the available data in Gluu via our API and use them in PowerBI. You do not need any coding experience to succeed.

Prerequisites

You need to make sure that two things are in place prior to starting this guide:

  1. A Windows version of PowerBI (access to the online version is not enough)

  2. You need to have the “Manage account” right in Gluu.

Let’s start with a basic access

Step 1: Find the desired data in Gluu

In the lower left corner of your Gluu screen you will find a “Manage account” button, that will take you to Gluu’s more advanced features.

Screenshot show where to find the Manage Account button

If you do not have this button, you need to get the “Manage account” right in Gluu. More on “Manage account” here.

Under the menu bullet “API browser you will find all the queries Gluu has made available.

Please note that we will develop this area over time, so next time you visit there will probably be more queries available. Read more about the API here: Using Gluu's rest API

Queries Gluu have made available.
Example of a selected query

What is a query?

A “query” is basically a technical question to a server or machine. A query will be answered with the desired data in a format (in Gluu’s case JSON).

What is the output format

Gluu exports all data in the JSON format. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. Good times 😊

Step 2: Getting the right data

Press the “Get Query” button in the grey menu bar and you will open a popup with URL and an access token.

For PowerBI to fetch the data for your current running cases you need both the URL (where to get the data) and a token (access identification).

TIP! If you need a tailormade dataset that is not available amongst the standard queries, please do not hesitate to contact the help desk. We will create the desired query for you that delivers the exact data you need.

Position of the "Get query" button
URL and Token information example

What is a token?

Basically a token is a long text string with letters and numbers that are really hard to guess.
Gluu uses a token for authentication to allow an application (eg. PowerBI, R or similar) to access the data. The token is also used to uniquely identify your account, so we know which data to send, which is that’s why we added the red box to the screenshot.

Please note that this token may change (mostly for security purposes), and when it does your PowerBI dashboard will no longer receive data.

Step 3: Fetching the data from PowerBI

Starting with a blank dashboard in PowerBI, you press “Get data” in the top menu and chose the Web option.

If you cannot see the “Get data” is it most likely because you are in a different area than “Report”. Check in the small lefthandside menu.

In the popup chose the “Advanced” option, since you need to join a URL string in order to use the access token.

Import data from a web page option in power BI

We have matched the popup in PowerBI with the popup in Gluu:

The first line in the section “URL parts” in PowerBI matches the URL line in Gluu (the popup is inserted in the image below).

Example of how to add url and token to power BI importing data from web

The second line in PowerBI needs to start with
?=access_token=[access token], where you replace [access token] with the text string from the second line (Authorization header) in Gluu.

Please remember that PowerBI will add the “Bearer” string on its own when fetching data, so do not copy that word.

Check the “URL preview” in PowerBI prior to pressing the “OK” button.

It should read something along the lines of: https://api.gluustage.wpengine.com/cases/running?access_token=25dbokasfda, where the akward string “25dbokasfda” is replaced by yours.

Everything OK? Great 😊 Then press the “OK” button (and wait…)

Step 4: The Power Query Editor

Please note that PowerBI opened a new window with the Power Query Editor .

In this window you can see the data fetched from Gluu in a table view.

For the sake of simplicity and your own sanity, change the name of your Gluu query to “All cases” under Properties in the right side of the screen. It will make it a lot easier to identify later on.

Power query editor in Power BI

Once you have renamed the query press the “Close & Apply” button to return to PowerBI.

Screenshot showing position of Close and Apply button of Power Query Editor

Congratulations, you have now successfully imported Gluu data in PowerBI! 😊

If you want to visualize it too, see step 5.

Step 5: Visualizing the data

Back in PowerBI you now have the Gluu data available. You can see it by pressing the “Data” button to the left or join the data with other Gluu or other organizational data in the “Model” section.

Please note: You might need to press the “Apply changes” in the yellow bar in the PowerBI interface.

Let’s start by visualizing the “All cases” data:

  1. Press “Report” in the left-hand side menu

  2. Chose the “Table” in the Visualization pane to the right

Visualizing importing data: position of Data button and Model section

Once you have a table icon on the report area (see image), open the “All cases” dataset in the Fields pane and check the “caseName” field.

You have now listed all active Gluu cases in PowerBI.

5 steps to visualise Gluu data in PowerBI

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