Please note that this guide is meant to be a generic guide,
suitable (although not necessarily ideal) for the installation of any of the Tugger connectors.
This process presumes you have registered for Tugger and have signed in. (Sign Up Here)
There may be specific parts of the installation process that are only covered by your particular Tugger connector guide; that guide will cover the whole process, including any particular steps unique to them. It is recommended that you follow the appropriate guide.
This guide is provided if, for some reason, your guide is unavailable.
Links to specific connector guides can be found here.
After the signup process, navigate to My Connectors, if you do not see the following; My Connectors will display all available options, until you have added those you require - failing that, select: Connectors.
Select the Connector you wish to add. Connector > 'Add Connector ' (2 in the image). 'Add Connector ' is displayed on all Connector .
(Note: the 'Any Tugger connector' does not exist, but represents any connector, including those currently in development - and others in the future.)
On the next screen, see image below:
- You will need to enter information so Tugger knows what to call your Connector (1 in the image below).
- As well as how much data (2 in the image) which is the date you wish to Tug data from. The further back you go, the more rows you will be storing in our database, and the longer the first Tug will take.
- And how often it will be pulled/Tugged (indicated by 3 in the image below).
- When you're happy with the details, click on the Authorise Access to (Tugger-Type)', 4 in the image.
If you are not signed into the Account of what your Tugger Connector is going to be synced with, you will be required to enter your sign-in name and password. (Note: This does not happen with CASH.)
Note: You will need admin access for this to work correctly.
If you are already signed into the Account in the same browser as your Tugger account, then the above steps are likely to be skipped, and you will be asked to authorise.
(This presumes that that is a requirement: Microsoft Teams - as an example - works slightly differently.)
To continue with the setup process, you need to 'Approve'. (The exact wording on the button could change.)
Once done, you should be returned to Tugger. (If this is a CASH connector you would not have been re-directed.)
1. This would display your Tugger connector name, which you entered previously.
2. Here, you can see that the Tug is due to start at any time.
... And after a few moments the page will update to advise that it's Tugging, with it updating to advise how long the Tug has been running.
Once the data from your Tugger connector has been synced over, on the Summary page (highlighted below) the Tug Successful, will show: Yes; in addition, the Tug Status will also update.
Note: You may not be able to continue until the first Tug has completed.
You will notice that the time to sync is nearly 5 minutes (due to the very small - 127 rows - sample size of our dummy-data); your duration will be dependent on what you selected earlier: date-wise, and the overall quantity of data in your database, but it could be hours and possibly even days. You can also hover over parts of the table to see the row counts at particular times.
It should be noted that some Connector-Types may not update the data immediately; this is due to some organisations implementing a delay in the update; whilst this has not been common in our experience, it is also beyond our control.
Also worth noting, is that any optional parts (available when creating your connector) that include extra data, can further increase your total row-count.
If you wish to change how often the syncing occurs, select the Settings shown in the above image.
To continue with importing a report template into Power BI Desktop, please read on.
Part Two: Import your Tugger Connector data into Power BI Desktop
Pre-requisites for this part of the process are:
- Tugger: A ‘Tug Connector’ created, and your data transferred.
- Power BI .pbit template(s): download from Tugger (see image below). The number of templates can vary between connectors, with our example showing just the one.
- Signed in to your Microsoft Account within Power BI Desktop, which is required to publish to their Service.
If you need to download the report templates for your connector, these are available via Report Setup (image below, 1; then select 2, Power BI).
The easiest method is to open the template, after it has downloaded from the browser, or to navigate to your downloads folder and open it (by double-clicking on it). A Power BI Template has the '.pbit' extension. If you don't have extensions visible, how to enable extensions can be accessed here.
If you wish to see the step by step guide for the Power BI process, follow the link here:
- Setting Up Your Reports For The First Time in Power BI Desktop; otherwise, follow the brief overview below.
The following steps demonstrate where in Power BI Desktop the various screens to import are.
Initial import of template and data
On opening Power BI desktop for the first time, the following splash screen is displayed; subsequent openings may have additional information presented, relating to saved reports.
(You will notice that the top right of the image below states I am signed in; as previously stated, this is required to publish; the splash screen also shows me as signed in.)
Bottom right you will see that an update is available; if you don't have this set to automatically update via Microsoft's store (or some other method), a manual install is required. Using previous versions of Power BI Desktop is not normally an issue, but if the version becomes old enough, features may not work as expected, or reports and/or templates could even refuse to open. There may even be bugs in older versions resolved in more recent releases.
Automated updates can introduce unexpected bugs, so the process you follow is up to yourselves, or perhaps dictated by your organisation.
… Close the Splash Screen.
Navigate to File > Import > Select: Power BI Template
Locate the report template (.pbit extension) previously downloaded.
... And Click Open.
Tugger’s Report Credentials Page
1. The OData URL.
2. The Username.
3. The Password.
4. The Report templates are available in the Report Setup, option Power BI,
Regardless of what method you used to import the template, you will be presented with the following screen, once it has loaded/imported.
From the Report Credentials page above, copy the OData URL (1 in the image) into the Tugger URL in the image below.
Then click Load.
... After a few moments, a Refresh dialogue will appear.
If this is the first time you are importing into Power BI Desktop (or if you have Regenerated the Credentials, the how-to is here, but is not needed for this installation and setup) the OData feed dialogue will pop up.
(Once you have entered the Basic authentication details, you will not be asked again, unless they are cleared from Power BI desktop - or refreshed in Tugger.)
- Select Basic (1 in the image).
- Enter the User name and Password from your Tugger connector's Report Credentials page (displayed previously; items 2 and 3 in the previously displayed image).
- Match the link in the dropdown to the link displayed at the top of the dialogue; if the levels don't match, then issues can develop later.
- click on Connect when ready.
The Logo is indicated for information purposes only.
After a few seconds, the Refresh dialogue will re-appear and updates to the content will become apparent; this is to be expected, and once complete the dialogue will disappear and the report should open (see below).
Note: If an error occurs after clicking Connect, see, Report Refresh Error.
Further Note: Report backgrounds to the actions in Power BI Desktop and Service (online) will display the details from the various reports available; the report type does not matter, it is the actions being performed that are important.
As an example, the two following detail: Teams and Harvest.
There will be several tabs available...
(It should be noted that the dummy-data is a very small sample size, as was noted previously.)
… Highlighted at the bottom of the image is the open tab, and the tab-navigation buttons (forward and backward) for when there are tabs off-screen - not an issue for this report.
You may wish to just save the report at this stage, for example if you’re stopping now with a view to continuing later. It forms part of the Publishing Process, which follows this section, if you are continuing straight away, just give it a name that makes sense to you.
If you don't save now, you will be asked to when Publishing to Microsoft's Online Service.
File > Save As
… Give the report a name that makes sense to you, then save to a directory of your choice.
Part Three: Publish your Tugger Connector Data to Power BI Service (online)
Pre-requisites for this part of the process are:
- Power BI Service: setup (ideally, Workspaces and Access (permissions) added for Users as appropriate).
- Power BI Desktop report imported.
Please see the Power BI Online Workspaces and Users article for basic information relating to adding Workspaces and Users, including assigning the level of access users need.
We do recommend setting up Workspaces beforehand as although the report can be saved to a new Work Space later, it doesn’t copy all the components (no dataset - compare 1 and 2 below) when published, only the report. Not only this, but reports added to the default Workspaces level cannot be shared via assigning Access.
This may not be an issue, but those assigned to a Workspace without a Dataset cannot refresh it, and will have to rely on the automated refresh, unless they can get it manually refreshed by another user.
To publish:
Select Publish, 1 in the below image.
(Note: this simPRO example report was blurred to ensure there was no accidental sharing of identifying data.)
If you haven’t already saved, then 2, as per the image below, will appear (and can even after previously saving).
Click Save.
A Save dialogue appears.
… Save (3) to a directory of your choice.
If you have already saved, after clicking ‘Publish’, the Publish to Power BI dialogue should appear, otherwise it appears after saving. (The report here is a CASH Jobs )
The steps are:
- Publishing and Saving (detailed previously).
- Search for Workspace (optional).
- Select My Workspace if you haven't created your own (not recommended).
- Or, select the Workspace created (recommended).
- Then click on Select (highlighted).
Note: If the only Workspace is called My Workspace (which is the default and always available) you may wish to Cancel instead of clicking Select. You could then create a Workspace - perhaps configuring access for Users at the same time (Available here: Power BI Online Workspaces and Users.). After creating a Workspace: Publish again to the newly created Workspace.
Once the report has been published, the following should be displayed.
Navigate to your Power BI Service (online) to find your report or click on the link shown in the image above.
Part Four: Navigating to a Published Document in Power BI Service (Online)
After logging into Power BI Service, to navigate to your previously published report: see image below.
In the example here: Workspaces > My Generic Workspaces, as the image displays; the optional search feature is also indicated.
The next image offers a brief explanation of what is offered:
- This is the report (previously viewed in Power BI desktop before publishing); there is an opportunity to share this report, by hovering and selecting as appropriate.
- The main use – at least initially – is setting up how often your data from our secure data warehouse is refreshed. Click on the refresh icon, where you may need to enter Login details, authorising Power BI to access said data. The mini-tutorial for this can be viewed in Setting up Automatic Refresh in Power BI Online.
- The Share option.
- Perform a manual Refresh. (In our case here, grabbing updates from Tugger.)
- Set up Schedule Refreshes, although other options are available.
- The vertical Ellipse offers other options, including Delete, tailored to the either the Dataset or Report; Note: deleting the dataset will also delete the report.
The report can be selected by clicking on the link (A Report), 1 above.
Alternatively, following the link after publishing, from Power BI desktop, the report (as shown below, which is a CASH report) is displayed.
The view for the reports is presented in a different manner to what Power BI Desktop displayed; instead of the multiple tabs, there are the Pages for the reports; the selected page is indicated above.
It should be noted that some pages shown in Power BI Desktop are not automatically visible in the Service/Online feature; viewing them is done via various methods, but often a Drill-through.
A quick example (both from Teams, but any report type offers the same functionality).
- Hover over the required item, which displays further info. via a popup. (The Team Dalton bar in our example.)
- Right click on it.
- Select the required page from the Drill through sub-menu; there should be at least one available.
You will be presented with an additional page, filtered depending on what was selected and where you drilled through from. Pages available in this manner are known as Hidden Pages, although they are visible (and need to be) in Power BI Desktop.
There can be further options, including Drill-throughs, but you won't know unless you look.
To return to the previous page, select the blue arrow in the circle towards the top right of the page (indicated with an arrow) or select one of the pages, also indicated.
This concludes the Tugger Generic Installation guide.