Power BI Connector Setup and Usage guide

Microsoft Power BI's data visualization capabilities work with Siteimprove insights to create an interactive way to share your data. With custom dashboards and multiple display options, you can now see your website’s results in a whole new light.

Connect Power BI and Siteimprove to easily monitor your website's performance directly from your Power BI dashboards and discover the benefits of including your website's performance alongside your usual business metrics.

You must have Siteimprove and Power BI subscriptions to use this Connector.

This guide explains how to install Siteimprove’s Power BI connector on the Desktop version of Power BI.

• Installing the Power BI connector using the package file
  • Adding the Thumbprint to the registry
    • The Thumbprint values for the Siteimprove Power BI Connector
    • Adding the Thumbprint using Windows Registry Editor
  • Place the packaged and self-signed .pqx file in the correct folder
  • Open Power BI and Navigate to the Connector
• Updating or Changing API Credentials
• Usage of the Connector
  • User Access
  • Navigator Window
  • Site Folder(s)
    • All Site Endpoints
    • Suggested Endpoints
  • Previewing and Getting Data from Site Folder(s)
  • Advanced Folder
    • Previewing and Getting Data from ‘Advanced’ Endpoints
    • Common parameters needed to be entered under the ‘Advanced’ area 
• Building Reports
• FAQs, Tips, and Troubleshooting

Installing the Power BI connector using the package file

This part of the guide explains how to install the Siteimprove Power BI Connector on the Desktop version of Power BI using the package file found on the Siteimprove marketing site under the ‘Download’ button.

Adding the Thumbprint to the registry

To trust third-party connectors in Power BI Desktop, you need to add the thumbprint of the certificate you want to trust to a specific registry value. If this thumbprint matches the one on the connector you want to load, you can safely load it into Power BI Desktop at the recommended security level. 

The Thumbprint values for the Siteimprove Power BI Connector

• For the package version Siteimprove-1.0.pqx: 1CCE4AE209EF8BDD10C50D4A83D0DF6C7FBF3354 
• For the package version Siteimprove-1.1.pqx:  56F4E70D268F3A82E2ED6B7491B9FB29ECF30F4A

Adding the Thumbprint using Windows Registry Editor

1. Locate the Windows Registry Editor program on your computer and open it. The easiest way to do that is to search for “Registry Editor.”
2. In the Windows Registry Editor program, find the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop.
3. If the path doesn't exist, you'll need to create it. To create a new folder in the path:
   1. Select the folder you want to add the path to.
   2. Navigate to Edit > New >Key in the top menu bar. Keys are like folders. 
   3. Name the folder/key the part of the file path above that is missing. 
   4. Repeat these steps if multiple items in the path need to be created.
4. Select the key “Power BI Desktop” at the end of the path.
5. Under the ‘Edit’ in the top menu select New > Multi-String Value. 
6. Set the ‘Name’ field to “TrustedCertificateThumbprints” (you may need to go under Edit > Rename to change the Name field). 
7. Select the new Multi-String value item named “TrustedCertificateThumbprints” go under the Edit Menu item, select Modify, and set the ‘Value Data’ field to the Thumbprint value from above and select the ‘OK’ button.
   
   

Place the packaged and self-signed .pqx file in the correct folder

1. Download the package file here: Siteimprove-1.1.pqx (Note: if you have downloaded the file from the Siteimprove Power BI Page under the ‘Download’ button and the file is zipped then use a unzip program to unzip the file). 
2. Place the .pqx file (from within the unzipped file folder if applicable) inside the connectors folder in the path Documents\Power Bi Desktop\Custom connectors on your computer. If the path doesn't exist, you will need to create it by selecting New > Folder and naming the folders and subfolders accordingly.  
3. If you are updating and had previously installed the connector you will need to remove the “Siteimprove.mez” file from under the path Documents\Power Bi Desktop\Custom connectors on your computer.  
   
   

Open Power BI and Navigate to the Connector

1. Open Power BI.
2. There are a couple of ways you can navigate to the Power BI Connector.
   1. Go to Home > Get Data > ALL > select ‘Siteimprove (Custom)’ and click on the ‘Connect’ button. If you are using the latest connector it should look like this below.
      
      
      
      
   2. Go to Home > Get Data and search for “Siteimprove” to find the connector.
      
      
      
      
3. For new installations, a password prompt will come up to enter your Siteimprove API Credentials. Enter the ‘API Username’ in the ‘User name’ field and ‘API key’ in the ‘Password’ field.
   
   

   NOTE: Do not use your Siteimprove platform login credentials in this step. You MUST enter the API Credentials created in the Siteimprove platform under Settings > Integrations > API > API keys. For information on how to create API keys visit: How to Connect to the-Siteimprove API. You may not need to re-enter the API credentials if you have already entered them.

   
   
4. You can now see the ‘Navigator,’ where you can see all available options for you to choose from for data from the Siteimprove API to be used in Power BI reporting.
   
   

Updating or Changing API Credentials

1. Go under the File > Options and Settings and select ‘Data Source Settings.’
   
   
2. Select 'Siteimprove API' and then click the 'Edit Permissions' button.
   
3. Under Credentials select the 'Edit' button.
   
4. Enter the API Username and API Key for Password from the platform under Integrations > API > API Keys and select 'Save.' See How to Connect to the-Siteimprove API for more information on API keys.
   
5. Select the 'OK' button.
6. Select 'Close.'

Usage of the Connector

User Access

The user permissions from the Siteimprove platform are tied to the API credentials entered and are carried over to this integration from the Siteimprove Platform. The connector pulls in data from the Siteimprove Platform via the API for sites and services you have access to within the Siteimprove Platform. So if you don’t have access to something you may need to check whether you have access to what you are looking for in the platform as well. You can also check to see if you can access the same thing via our Siteimprove API. Not all data in the Siteimprove Platform can be reflected in the API and connectors. 

Navigator Window

Clicking and unfolding the tree structure in the ‘Navigator’ window loads specifications for all the contained endpoints. 

You can view ‘Suggested endpoints’ or ‘All site endpoints’ under each individual ‘Site Folder(s)’ or you can view endpoints with options to fill in parameters to narrow down to more specific data under the ‘Advanced’ folder. For example, you can modify the time period from the default 7 days to something else under the ‘Advanced’ section. Selecting the individual endpoints will generate a preview of the data before loading it into Power BI and will allow you to adjust parameters for ‘Advanced’ endpoints. 

Site Folder(s)

Under the ‘Advanced’ section in the ‘Navigator’ window, you’ll find a list of all the sites available to you with their site_id in parentheses (that site_id can be used in ‘Advanced’ section). Under each site, you will find ‘All site endpoints’ and ‘Suggested endpoints.’

All Site Endpoints

‘Suggested endpoints’ features the list of the most commonly used endpoints. Clicking on the individual endpoints will generate a preview of live data available.

Suggested Endpoints

‘All site endpoints’ features the list of all general endpoints that don’t require specific parameters, such as “page_id”. The default time period for these endpoints is the last 7 days if a time period if relevant. You can modify parameters for endpoints under the ‘Advanced’ folder. Click on a specific endpoint to generate a preview of live data available.

Previewing and Getting Data from Site Folder(s)

1. Select the checkbox for the data point you want to view and get data from. You can select multiple endpoints to get data but you can only preview or enter parameters for one at a time with the Preview window of the ‘Navigator’ window. 
2. Preview the data in the window.
   
3. Select the ‘Load’ button to load the data in Power BI to be used for reporting. 
4. A loading window will pop up and data will process (Note: the more data you request the longer it will take to get the data and it may fail if too much data is requested). You can then use the data as you choose in the program. 

Advanced Folder

The 'Advanced' section shows you all available API endpoints to select from, along with all possible configuration parameter options that can be filled out. 

Here you have the option to use parameters for the data points to make adjustments to the data returned. 

For example, you could modify the date range from the default of the last 7 days or filter data down to a specific group or page if these parameters apply to the data point. You may need to look at other data points to gather the IDs that need to be entered under the parameters though. Reference Common parameters needed to be entered under the ‘Advanced’ area for help with this. You will need to fill in the required parameter fields for the endpoints to return data but you may want to fill in the optional parameter fields to get to more specific data. 

Previewing and Getting Data from ‘Advanced’ Endpoints

1. Select the checkbox for the data point you want to view and get data from. You can select multiple endpoints to get data but you can only preview or enter parameters for one at a time with the Preview window of the ‘Navigator’ window. Whatever folder is selected is the endpoint you are modifying the parameters for. 
2. Enter the required data into fields in the top section of the Preview area of the ‘Navigator’ window and select the ‘Apply’ button to see a preview of the data.
3. Select the ‘Load’ button to load the data in Power BI to be used for reporting. 
4. A loading window will pop up and data will process (Note: the more data you request the longer it will take to get the data and it may fail if too much data is requested). You can then use the data as you choose in the program. 

Common parameters needed to be entered under the ‘Advanced’ area 

• site_id - this is the Global Site ID of the site that can be seen in parenthesis next to the URL for the site under the Site folders. For example, in the screenshot below, where it says https://www.siteimprove.com (28268539130) the number “28268539130” is the site_id. You can also look these IDs up under General > Get sites.
  
• group_id - the Content or Quality Assurance group_ids can be found under Quality Assurance > Get quality assurance groups. Analytics group IDs can be found under Analytics > Get Analytics groups.
• page_id - you can find this under Quality Assurance > Get pages from inventory. Also, this is under page reports in the platform in the page report URLs after the parameter “?PageId=” or “?pageId=”.
  In the URL below the page ID is4700037447: Accessibility Page Report Overview
  
• filter_id - this can be found under Analytics > Get available segments under the sites. 
• period- the default time range is the last 7 days. You can set this to a different time period under the 'Advanced' area folder of data points under the Power BI connector. A time period can be a single date, a date range, or a predefined interval. Only full dates are allowed, not individual hours. It is recommended not to query too long of a time period as you may run into loading issues. Instead, you can query each month and add them up once the data is queried. 
  • Single date – just fill in ‘period Start Date’
  • Range of dates – Fill in both ‘period Start Date’ and ‘period End Date’.
  • Predefined interval - can be one of the following (case insensitive) - these intervals align with the intervals in the platform. 
    • now
    • today
    • yesterday
    • last_seven_days
    • last_week
    • last_fourteen_days
    • last_month
    • this_month
    • last_thirty_days
    • last_six_months
    • this_quarter
    • last_year
    • this_year
    • last_365_days

Building Reports

We support the connector and data within it from the Siteimprove Platform but cannot advise on how to create reporting in the Power BI program. For that, we advise you work with someone who has expertise working with Power BI or that you consult with Power BI’s product documentation on how to use their program to create reporting. See Microsoft's documentation on Power BI. 

FAQs, Tips, and Troubleshooting

1. ‘A11YNextGen’ is the Next Gen Accessibility data points and if you can see this area under the connector you are using the latest connector. The ‘Accessibility’ area is the old Accessibility data. 
2. The ‘Content’ area is to be used only for Prepublish checks aka Content Checks. 
3. Typically, if you are looking for data that you can see in the platform it will be named something similar in the connector. 
4. You can search for data points using the search box in the ‘Navigator’ window. You need to expand out the folders to search under them though.
   
   
   
   
5. We don’t currently have a full list of available data points but you should be able to look at our API and generally if the data is in the API it should be in the connector. See more on how to connect to the API here: How to Connect to the-Siteimprove API. 
6. Most of the limitations and usage guidelines for data are similar to the API which are listed here: Siteimprove API Usage Guidelines page
7. It is recommended for Analytics data to gather data in smaller chunks for timeframes and then gather the data together after data is fetched. 
8. If you are not seeing the “Get history” endpoint you may need to go under Documents\Power Bi Desktop\Custom Connectors or just search “Custom Connectors” under File Explorer and remove the ‘Siteimprove.mez’ file from under the 'Custom Connectors' folder. You will need to restart Power BI to see if that helps or not. If it helped you should see data for the 'Get history' endpoint. 
9. If you are having issues with the "Get DCI scores" data point showing [Record] instead of the DCI scores you will need to ensure you are using the latest version of the package file here: Siteimprove-1.1.pqx