OData and REST API connections in Power BI - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - OData and REST API connections

Business Question

How can we connect Power BI to online data sources using OData and REST API to create a live sales dashboard?

Sample Data

Data is fetched live from an OData feed and a REST API providing sales orders and customer info.

OrderID	Customer	OrderDate	SalesAmount	Region
1001	Alpha Co	2024-01-15	250	North
1002	Beta LLC	2024-01-20	400	East
1003	Gamma Inc	2024-02-05	150	South
1004	Alpha Co	2024-02-10	300	North
1005	Delta Ltd	2024-02-15	500	West

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales - Shows total sales amount from all orders.
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount])
  Result: 1600
• Bar Chart: Sales by Region - Displays sales totals grouped by region.
  Data: Sum of SalesAmount by Region
• Table: Recent Orders - Lists OrderID, Customer, OrderDate, and SalesAmount.
  Shows latest 5 orders from the connected data.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Total Sales      |    Sales by Region   |
|       (KPI Card)      |      (Bar Chart)     |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                  Recent Orders                |
|                    (Table)                   |
+----------------------------------------------+
  

Interactivity

A slicer filters data by Region. Selecting a region updates the Total Sales KPI, the Sales by Region bar chart (highlighting the selected region), and the Recent Orders table to show only orders from that region.

Data refreshes automatically from the OData and REST API sources when the dashboard is opened or refreshed, ensuring live data.

Self Check

Add a filter for Region = North. Which components update and what changes occur?

• Total Sales: Updates to sum sales only for North region orders (250 + 300 = 550).
• Sales by Region: Highlights North region bar; other regions dim.
• Recent Orders: Shows only orders with Region = North (OrderID 1001 and 1004).

Key Result

A Power BI dashboard connecting live sales data via OData and REST API showing total sales, sales by region, and recent orders with region filtering.