Installing the Power BI Connector to connect Power BI Desktop to Luminesce

If you have Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store, you can install Luminesce Power BI Connector on a Windows computer to query Luminesce providers directly.

Note: If you have a different BI app on a Windows computer, including non-Desktop or non-Microsoft Store versions of Power BI, start with this article.

To do this, you require:

• The Luminesce Power BI Connector MSI and the Luminesce ODBC driver MSI (contact us for delivery options)
• Administrative privileges on a Windows 7 SP1+ computer
• Power BI Desktop

Installing the Luminesce Power BI Connector

1. The first step is to to install the Luminesce ODBC driver, on which the Luminesce Power BI Connector has a dependency. Run the following command:

   msiexec /i Finbourne.Luminesce.ODBCWin64.<version>.msi
2. When the Luminesce ODBC Drivers Setup Wizard appears, select Next on each prompt and then select Finish.
   

3. Run the Luminesce Power BI Connector MSI at the command line:

   msiexec /i Finbourne.Luminesce.PowerBIConnector.<version>.msi
4. When the Luminesce Power BI Connector Setup Wizard appears, select Next on each prompt and select Typical when prompted to Choose Setup Type.
   Note: If you are installing the connector for another user, contact us for advice.
   
5. Select Install when prompted. Once the installation is complete, select Finish.
   
6. Open Power BI and confirm Luminesce and Luminesce Query now appear as a data source. This can be found in Power BI through Get Data > More... > Online Services.
   

Using Power BI Desktop to query a Luminesce provider

You can interact with a provider in one of two ways:

• Explore, load and transform data using the Luminesce data navigator.
• Write a SQL query to immediately generate a table upon connection with Luminesce Query.

Note: For information on caching query result data for faster execution, see this article.

Exploring data using the Luminesce data navigator

The Luminesce data navigator enables you to connect to your data in either Import or DirectQuery mode. You can then use the navigator to explore the data source and easily select, load and transform data. To use Luminesce data navigator:

1. Select Luminesce (Beta) and click Connect in Power BI.
   
2. Enter your LUSID domain. For example, if your domain is set up for https://acme.lusid.com/app/home, enter acme here.
   
3. Select your preferred Data Connectivity mode: 
   • Import imports selected tables and columns into Power BI Desktop. As you create or interact with a visualization, Power BI Desktop uses the imported data. To see underlying data changes since the initial import or the most recent refresh, you must refresh the data, which imports the full dataset again.
   • DirectQuery queries the underlying data source as you create or interact with a visualization, so you’re always viewing current data. No data is imported or copied into Power BI Desktop.
4. Choose an authentication method:
   • OAuth2 PKCE (recommended): Power BI requests a username/password and issues any MFA challenge when you click the Sign in button. This is a secure approach for individual users using Power BI on their own desktop.
   • Personal Access Token (PAT): Supply a token generated in the LUSID website for the domain which is held in the encrypted Power BI credentials store. Credentials set up in this way expire on expiry of the PAT (if set).
   • DSNs (not recommended for Power BI Desktop use): DSNs can be used for authentication, however this method is more complex and requires configuring your ODBC for service authentication. You also need to supply your Domain name as dsn=<your_dsn> for this authentication method. 
5. Once signed in, click Connect and use the Navigator to select and load or transform your data.
   

Writing a SQL query using Luminesce Query

Luminesce Query enables you to specify a Luminesce SQL query to be run and immediately generate a table upon connection. All data sources created against Luminesce Query are Import and considered native database queries. To use Luminesce Query:

1. In Power BI, navigate to File > Options and settings > Options > Security and ensure the Require user approval for new native database queries checkbox is NOT ticked.
   
2. Select Luminesce Query (Beta) and click Connect in Power BI.
   
3. Enter your LUSID domain. For example, if your domain is set up for https://acme.lusid.com/app/home, enter acme here.
   
4. Enter a Luminesce SQL query to be run on connection and click OK.
   
5. Choose an authentication method:
   • OAuth2 PKCE (recommended): Power BI requests a username/password and issues any MFA challenge when you click the Sign in button. This is a secure approach for individual users using Power BI on their own desktop.
   • Personal Access Token (PAT): Supply a token generated in the LUSID website for the domain which is held in the encrypted Power BI credentials store. Credentials set up in this way expire on expiry of the PAT (if set).
   • DSNs (not recommended for Power BI Desktop use): DSNs can be used for authentication, however this method is more complex and requires configuring your ODBC for service authentication. You also need to supply your Domain name as dsn=<your_dsn> for this authentication method.
6. Once signed in, click Connect. Your table for your query immediately generates.
   

Accessing logs

By default, Luminesce ODBC driver logs are written to C:\Windows\Temp\FinbourneLuminesce\ODBC64Logs. You can adjust the base directory (C:\Windows\Temp\FinbourneLuminesce) using the LOGPATH argument when running the MSI.

Luminesce Power BI Connector logs can be found in the normal Power BI logs location: File > Options and Settings > Options > Diagnostics > Enable tracing > Open crash dump/traces folder

Uninstalling

You can uninstall the driver and connector using Add or remove programs in the usual way, for example: