A PostgreSQL Interface for Power BI XMLA Data

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Power BI XMLA data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Power BI XMLA and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Power BI XMLA data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Power BI XMLA Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Power BI XMLA as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class: cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.PowerBIXMLADriver

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:powerbixmla:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  By default, use Azure AD to connect to Microsoft Power BI XMLA. Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.

  For more information on other authentication schemes, refer to the Help documentation.

  Built-in Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Power BI XMLA JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.jar

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:powerbixmla:AuthScheme=AzureADInitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example: ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
2. Start the build: make install USE_PGXS=1

Query Power BI XMLA Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Power BI XMLA data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database: CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
3. Create a server object for Power BI XMLA: CREATE SERVER PowerBIXMLA FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS ( drivername 'cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.PowerBIXMLADriver', url 'jdbc:powerbixmla:AuthScheme=AzureADInitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH', querytimeout '15', jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.powerbixmla.jar');
4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon. CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER PowerBIXMLA OPTIONS ( username 'admin', password 'test');
5. Create a foreign table in your local database: postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE customer ( customer_id text, customer_Country text, customer_Education numeric) SERVER PowerBIXMLA OPTIONS ( table_name 'customer');