For creating an in-depth analysis of your data, a common tool to use is Microsoft Power BI. To make it easy starting with Power BI and creating custom-made Power BI reports, we have created the Power BI IXON Analytics App. This Power BI app makes it possible to gain data through the API, including logging data.
Notes
- This is a sample app providing limited functionality and is intended to be used as a template for creating your own Power BI app.
- Using Power BI requires a license. For more information on pricing, refer to the Microsoft website.
- What is the IXON Analytics App?
- How to download the Power BI IXON Analytics App with sample data?
- How to connect the Power BI IXON Analytics App with your data?
- How to gain logging data in the Power BI IXON Analytics App?
- How to download the PBIX source file for developing your own Power BI custom reports?
- How to troubleshoot error messages from the Power BI app
What is the IXON Analytics App?
App for analyzing IXON Cloud data
The IXON Analytics App is developed for obtaining, visualizing, and analyzing data from the IXON Cloud. After installing the app, it is straightforward to connect to the IXON Cloud data and obtain company account information – i.e. users, companies, remote sessions, and agents –, as well as cloud logging data. The report can be personalized directly in the service or download the source report to author in Power BI Desktop. This gives IXON Cloud users a lot of possibilities by creating their own custom pages, reports, or even apps regarding IXON Cloud data. It is also possible to combine IXON Cloud data with other (internal or external) sources, like ERP or CRM sources. Integrating Power Automate and/or PowerApps within the Power BI IXON Analytics App gives IXON Cloud users maximum capabilities to automate their business processes.
How to download the Power BI IXON Analytics App with sample data?
- Log in to https://app.powerbi.com/ with your Power BI license account.
- Select Apps from the left-hand menu and click on the upper right on Get apps.
- Alternatively, use the link https://app.powerbi.com/groups/me/getapps/apps.
- Search for IXON Cloud Analytics and click on the tile.
- Click on Get it now.
- Fill in the One more thing... form and click on Continue.
How to connect the Power BI IXON Analytics App with your data?
To use your own data instead of sample data, you have to connect the installed IXON Analytics App with your IXON Cloud account.
- Open the IXON Analytics App.
- Click on Connect your data.
- The form titled Connect to IXON Analytics will open. There are 4 parameters to fill in. The 4th can be seen by scrolling down:
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- E-mail address: Fill in the e-mail address that is used to log in to the IXON Cloud. Make sure that the user is a platform administrator.
- One Time Password (OTP): If two-factor authentication (2FA) is enabled in
the IXON Cloud account, fill in the One Time (OTP) password from the Authenticator App. If 2FA is disabled for the account, fill in off. - Password: Fill in the password which belongs to the e-mail address to log in to the IXON Cloud.
- LoggingData Parameter: This parameter can be left untouched the first time a connection is made. The default value is {}. This parameter is required at a later stage to gain the correct set of logging data. The parameter will be generated within the app and modified in the settings as described in the next paragraph.
- Click on Next.
- Leave the default authentication method setting to Anonymous and click on Sign in and connect:
Power BI will now try to connect to your IXON Cloud account and refresh the dataset with the data. This can take a short while, depending on the amount of data to retrieve (number of companies you’re invited to, number of users in the companies, number of devices in the companies, the number of data sources, and the number of tags configured on the data sources). As soon as Power BI is finished retrieving your data, it will show up in the IXON Analytics App.
How to gain logging data in the Power BI IXON Analytics App?
If you have a Cloud Logging license and configured data logging, you can get this (logging) data to the IXON Analytics App:
- Open the IXON Analytics App and go to the LOGGING DATA page.
- The Tag List Table will show up. This page is used to create the LoggingData Parameter to tell Power BI which data from which tag(s) needs to be obtained from the IXON Cloud. Now the LoggingData Parameter can be created.
- Select up to 10 tags in the Tag List Table by holding Ctrl and clicking on the desired tags.
- Select the period you desire to obtain and analyze the data. It is advisable to start with a short period. See the remark at the next point.
- Select the step size (in seconds). This value represents the time between each data point. The lower this value, the more data (points) you get. The step size in combination with the selected period specifies the amount of data. There is a maximum on the amount of data per tag. If you receive an error after refreshing the dataset, it could be that the amount of data for the particular tag is too high. Therefore, it is advisable to start with a high value and adjust this afterward if needed.
- After selecting the tags, period, and step size, the LoggingData Parameter is automatically generated.
- Right-click on this parameter value and select Copy and Copy value to copy the value to the clipboard.
- Close the IXON Analytics App by clicking on Go back in the bottom-left corner.
- On the left-hand side, select Workspaces and then IXON Analytics. The menu entry IXON Analytics will appear under the Workspaces menu entry.
- Select the IXON Analytics menu entry, click on the dots behind IXON Analytics and choose Settings.
- Expand the Parameters section and replace the existing value of the LoggingData Parameter with the copied value.
- Select the menu entry IXON Analytics again and refresh the IXON Analytics dataset to gain the (logging) data for the selected tags.
If Power BI is finished refreshing the dataset, you can analyze your logging data in the Power BI Analytics App.
How to download the PBIX source file for developing your own Power BI custom reports?
The IXON Analytics App is a generally developed app for gaining, visualizing, and analyzing IXON Cloud data in Power BI. The number of possibilities in Power BI, combined with the IXON Cloud data, are almost infinite by combining the IXON Cloud data with other sources like ERP, CRM, or other data sources. It is also possible to integrate Power BI reports and/or apps with Power Apps or Power Automate to automate business processes.
To download the PBIX source file:
- Go to the IXON Analytics workspace.
- Click on the dots next to the IXON Analytics dataset and click on Download this file.
The PBIX-file will be downloaded to the Downloads folder and once finished downloading, the file can be opened in Power BI Desktop.
How to troubleshoot error messages from the Power BI app
One of these errors can occur when using the Power BI App:
- The credentials provided for the Web source are invalid
- Refresh failed
- Web.Contents failed to get contents
Solution
The Power BI IXON Analytics App is a sample app that requires certain conditions to be met. Make sure that you meet the following user account and data requirements or create a separate user account for testing.
Account requirements
- A user account that is a member of only one company.
- The user account has the company-wide role Platform administrator, no additional roles.
- If 2FA is on, enter the current One Time Password (OTP) in the OTP field (found at the same location as the LoggingData Parameter, see steps 8-11 here).
- If 2FA is off, enter "off" (without quotes) in the OTP field (found at the same location as the LoggingData Parameter, see steps 8-11 here).
Data requirements
- Only a few devices with Cloud Logging data.
- Select tags that don't have a high amount of data.
- Use a short period (e.g. one week).
- Use a large step size (e.g. 10000).