Overview

With our Power BI integration you can automatically sync your SmileBack data into reports and dashboards. It is particularly useful for combining your SmileBack data with other metrics, for example ticket volume.

How to set it up

Preparing Power BI Desktop

1. Make sure that you have Power BI Desktop installed on your machine.
2. Check that in your Documents folder you have a folder called "Power BI Desktop" and inside that one called "Custom Connectors".
   1. If you haven't, close Power BI, create these folders and restart it.
3. Inside Power BI click on File, then Options & Settings, then Options.
4. Inside the Options menu go to Security and under Data Extensions check the box "(Not Recommended) Allow any extension to load without validation or warning" then click "OK".

Installing the SmileBack connector

You must be an account administrator to do this.

1. Download the custom connector by clicking here.
2. Place it in the "Custom Connectors" folder.
3. Inside Power BI click on Get Data, then More.
4. Enter "SmileBack" into the search bar and double click on the SmileBack beta connector that comes up (you will get a message warning you that this is a beta development, click "Continue").
5. Follow the on-screen instructions in Power BI to sign in to your SmileBack account.
6. You will then get a window into your SmileBack account, click "Yes, authorize Power BI".
7. Click Connect and you will see a preview of your SmileBack data, then click Load.

Setting up the on-premises data gateway

Please note: The on-premises data gateway is required to be able to refresh datasets and reports on Power BI service.

To use our connector with Power BI's on-premises data gateway you need to do the following:

1. Download and install the gateway from Power BI's website (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/gateway/).
2. Once installed open the on-premises data gateway application and under the Connectors section, select the folder that contains the SmileBack connector (it should be the "Custom Connectors" folder). Once you select that folder you should then see the SmileBack connecter appear in a box above the file path (see image below, where "SmileBack" appears as a blue link). If this doesn't happen, then the gateway may not be able to access that folder due to a global policy and you will need to update that policy or to move the custom connectors folder.

If you run into any issues with your on-premises data gateway please see this article for more details.

Refreshing SmileBack datasets and reports on Power BI Service

You must first follow all the instructions above i.e. set up Power BI Desktop, install the SmileBack connector, set up your on-premises data gateway.

Once you're all set, go to the Power BI Service app (https://app.powerbi.com/) and follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the settings menu by clicking on the gear icon in the top right ⚙️ and select "Manage gateways".
2. Tick the box "Allow user's custom data connections to refresh through this gateway cluster."
3. Select the gateway you have set up and click "Add data sources".
4. Enter the name of that data source and select SmileBack in the data source type drop-down.
5. Press "Edit credentials" and follow the steps. Once that's done, press the "Add" button.
6. Still in Power BI Service on the left menu locate the dataset that you have published from Power BI Desktop and click on the three dots next to it.
7. Select "Settings" on the displayed menu.
8. Expand the "Gateway connection" section and in the "Maps to:" dropdown menu select "SmileBack". Click Apply.
9. Locate the dataset again in the left menu and click the three dots next to it.
10. Select "Refresh now"