Integrate Power BI XMLA Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Power BI XMLA data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Automate and integrate live Power BI XMLA data into your workflows and tasks.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Power BI XMLA, allowing you to easily integrate with live Power BI XMLA data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Power BI XMLA, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Power BI XMLA data.

Configure Power BI XMLA Connectivity for Power Automate

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

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

2. Select "Power BI XMLA" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Power BI XMLA.

   By default, use Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to connect to Microsoft Power BI XMLA. Entra ID (formerly 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 EntraID (formerly AzureAD).

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

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

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Power BI XMLA data from Power Automate.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate Power BI XMLA data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the Power BI XMLA connection (e.g. PowerBIXMLA1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Integrating Power BI XMLA Data into Power Automate Tasks

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live Power BI XMLA data into your Power Automate tasks.

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click My flows -> New flow and choose to create the flow from blank or template
3. Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect AI connection
4. Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc) 👁 Getting Power BI XMLA "Rows"
   
5. Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow

SQL Access to Power BI XMLA Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Power BI XMLA data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating Power BI XMLA data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article explains how to use CData Connect AI with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop:

• Power BI XMLA Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
• Power BI XMLA Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC