Connecting Dynamics NAV 2013/2015 to the NAV content pack in PowerBI.com

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PowerBI.com has a Dynamics NAV content pack which connects to Dynamics NAV 2016 out of the box. I’ve discussed about it here.

Customers using NAV 2013 or NAV 2015 can also connect to this NAV Content pack in powerbi.com.

Power BI expects NAV to expose certain web services, irrespective of the NAV version. The required web services are shown in the following picture (NAV 2016 Web Services Page).

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Let’s consider NAV 2013 installed on premise where authentication is based on windows logins. we’ll connect NAV 2013 to Power BI content pack.

Step 1: In NAV 2013 version, we have to make sure all of the required objects are available.

  • The required Page objects (Page: 197 – Account Schedule KPI Web Service and 42 – Sales Order) are available in NAV 2013 out of the box.
  • We require 6 Query objects (numbered 100 to 105 in NAV 2016). You can create these queries manually or import the query objects that I’ve uploaded here. The newly created/imported queries are now with ID: 50000 to 50005.

Step 2: Expose these objects as OData web services in NAV 2013. Open the Web services page and publish these objects as web services. It is very important here to provide the service name exactly like in NAV 2016 (refer to the service name in the above picture. Even the case has to match exactly!).

Step 3: Make sure the OData web service is enabled in the NAV 2013 Admin console.

Step 4: Sign in to https://www.powerbi.com

Step 5: [This step is required when NAV is using windows authentication]

  • In Powerbi.com, click on download button which is available on right top. Download and install the Power BI Gateway on NAV server.
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  • Run/launch the Power BI gateway and sign in to powerbi.com when prompted. Next, Enter your Windows user name and password and click on Next. This should start the gateway.
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  • Click on finish to close the gateway window.

Step 6: In Powerbi.com, click on Get Data at left bottom –> Click on Get button under Services –> choose Microsoft Dynamics NAV from the list of services –> Click on Connect

Step 7: Enter the OData URL (http[s]://navserver:Odataport/instance/OData/(‘company’)), Select the authentication method (Select windows if NAV is using windows authentication) and click on Sign in.

Your Dataset, Reports and Dashboard is now ready!

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Thank you :)