This article describes how to use FluentPro Power BI Pack for Microsoft Project Online.
Please note: Configuration and usage of Power BI Report Pack for Project Online requires active subscription or active trial period. Please contact FluentPro Sales Team for pricing or trial request at sales@fluentpro.com.
The process is divided into 4 main steps:
I. Sign up to EPM Pulse
Reports created from FluentPro Power BI package will be using EPM Pulse as a source of data. Thus, you need to have an active EPM Pulse application, connected and synchronizing data from the Project Online PWA.
Please note: FluentPro Datamart is now based on EPM Pulse technology and therefore it shares some parts of user interface with FluentPro EPM Pulse. However, the product is currently in the process of rebranding and afterwards Datamart will be available as a standalone product with its own interface.
To sign up to EPM Pulse, follow the steps from this article -
Power BI reports will be using EPM Pulse OData as data source. To establish connection between Power BI and EPM Pulse OData it is required to provide login and password (Basic authentication). If either of integrated authorization modes - Office 365, Google or Microsoft - are used when signing up to EPM Pulse, it would not be possible to establish connection between Power BI and EPM Pulse OData, since for such authentications user's login and password are not used explicitly. They use access tokens instead.
After the sign up, please proceed to the next step to add your Project Online PWA as a connection to EPM Pulse.
II. Connect Project Online to EPM Pulse
Once you signed up to EPM Pulse by the steps above, you can proceed with adding Project Online as a connection.
Please note: When you sign up for the first time, a free plan is issued for 14 days. For more details, please refer to the 'EPM Pulse Free Plan' article. To continue using the product when the free plan expires, please get in touch with our sales team at sales@fluentpro.com.
1. Select Project Online tile as your project management system.
2. Provide the Project Online PWA URL and click Connect next to Account.
3. In the pop-up window provide the credentials to log in to Project Online PWA.
Press Trust it button in the ‘Do you trust EPM Pulse for Project Online’ window, if you confirm all the permissions.
The account should be the Site Collection Administrator and a member of default PWA Administrators group!
4. Click Finish to save this connection in EPM Pulse.
5. Once the connection is added, allow EPM Pulse some time to perform the initial synchronization, which normally takes around 10 minutes.
As it is finished, you will see the green indicator:
📢 If for some reason the red indicator is displayed, please refresh the account and retry the data synchronization per steps in the following article - Refresh Synchronization account
6. Now as Project Online PWA was connected to EPM Pulse and the initial data synchronization is completed, copy the URL of your EPM Pulse instance from the address bar and send it at license@fluentpro.com in order to apply necessary changes to your license.
Example - https://us-online.epmpulse.com/.
III. Install Power BI report Pack for Project Online from AppSource
Next, install Power BI report Pack for Project Online from AppSource by this Link.
1. As you click 'Get it now', please provide credentials you use to sign in to Power BI service.
2. In the next window that appears make sure that you are signed in with the correct account, review the terms of use and privacy policy and click Continue to agree and proceed.
3. Next, click Install to install Power BI report Pack for Project Online.
4. The application will appear on the Apps page in Power BI service.
IV. Connect Power BI pack to Project Online data
The last step will be to finish the Report Pack configuration via the reports Datasets in Power BI service.
To finish the Report Pack configuration perform the following:
1. Click Edit App button on the Apps page. The workspace for Executive Reports for Project Online will be opened.
2. On the opened page, please switch to Datasets tab, click "More options" (three dots button) and select the "Settings" from the drop-down.
3. In the opened window click on the "Parameters". and In the OData URL section provide EPM Pulse URL in the required format
https://us-online.epmpulse.com/
https://datamart.tenant.com/
Click Apply.
Please note, that for some time after your Sign Up and first data synchronization in EPM Pulse the URL might contain '%' sign instead of '@'. E.g. www.us-online.epmpulse.com. Be sure to substitute % to @ when you use the copied link later for connection to Power BI.
4. Next, it is required to set the connection credentials. Open "Data source credentials" section and click "Edit credentials".
In the opened window, select Basic authentication method, provide your user name and password and select the necessary privacy level.
Please make sure to provide the correct ‘User name’ and ‘Password’.
If you are sure that the credentials provided are correct, please refer to the following article: '(404) Not found' error while loading data to report.
5. Next, navigate back to Datasets and click "Refresh now".
Power BI will start loading data to the report. You can check the status of data synchronization in Datasets.
Congratulations! You can now use Power BI to review the reports on your Project Online PWA data!
Do not forget to make sure that data in your report will be constantly updated. Check this article for more information - Making sure report data will be refreshed.