Visualize Live PayPal Data in Power BI (via CData Connect AI)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to PayPal data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to PayPal, connect to PayPal data from Power BI and then create reports on PayPal data in Power BI.

Configure PayPal Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to PayPal from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with PayPal data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a PayPal connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "PayPal" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to PayPal.

   The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. The APIs use different authentication methods.

   • The REST API uses the OAuth standard. To authenticate to the REST API, set the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL properties.
   • The Classic API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the Classic API, obtain an API username, password, and signature.

   See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the necessary API credentials.

   To select the API you want to work with, you can set the Schema property to REST or SOAP. By default the SOAP schema will be used.

   For testing purposes you can set UseSandbox to true and use sandbox credentials.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PayPal Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to PayPal data from Power BI.

Query PayPal Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull PayPal data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your PayPal data from Power BI

Create PayPal Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to PayPal Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect AI you have a direct connection to PayPal data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating PayPal data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including PayPal) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect AI page and start a free trial.