Integrate Live SQL Analysis Services Data into Custom Business Apps Built in Power Apps

Power Apps is a service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data and work across the web and mobile — without the time and expense of custom software development. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to SQL Analysis Services data from the apps you build using Power Apps. This article shows how to connect to Connect Server from Power Apps and build an app based on live SQL Analysis Services data.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL interface for SQL Analysis Services, allowing you to easily integrate with live SQL Analysis Services data in Power Apps — without replicating the data. CData Connect Server looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Apps and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SQL Analysis Services, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SQL Analysis Services data.

Create a Virtual SQL Database for SQL Analysis Services Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SQL Analysis Services" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Analysis Services.

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

Connecting to CData Connect Server

To use Connect Server to integrate SQL Analysis Services data into your Power Apps, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to the address of your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the virtual SQL Analysis Services database you created earlier (like ssasdb)
   • Set the Username and Password and click Create

Building a Data-Centric App for SQL Analysis Services Data

With the connection to Connect Server configured, you are ready to integrate live SQL Analysis Services data into the apps you build in Power Apps.

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create, hover over "Start from data" and click Make this app
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect
6. Customize the newly created app just like you would any other, including changing the layout and setting the fields exposed in BrowseScreen, DetailScreen, and EditScreen

At this point, you have an app with read access to live SQL Analysis Services data that you can save and publish for use within your organization.

SQL Access to SQL Analysis Services Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live SQL Analysis Services data from Microsoft Power Apps. You can create more connections and apps to drive business — all without replicating SQL Analysis Services data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect Server.