SafetyCulture Power Query Connector

The SafetyCulture Power Query Connector provides a data connection for SafetyCulture in Power BI.

Getting started

To learn how to install and use this connector please visit our support page.

Sample report

A Power BI report template has been included with each release. After installing the connector you can download and open this report in Power BI desktop. You will be prompted to enter an API key which you can generate by visiting API Tokens page in SafetyCulture website.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What’s the purpose of the “Org Name”?

The “Org Name” helps distinguish between organizations locally. This can be particularly useful if you choose to consume data from multiple SafetyCulture organizations. The “Org Name” information doesn’t get transmitted to our servers and is only stored locally on your machine.

You can label the “Org Name” freely, as long as it's unique.

Can the data be filtered when loading data for the first time?

Yes, the “inspections” and “inspection_items” data sets can be filtered using the provided functions of “GetInspections” and “GetInspectionItems”, respectively.

What are some best practices to follow when loading data using this connector?

We have a sample report provided which includes a few common use cases of the data present. The report can be found here

Some tables have no data in them i.e. schedules, schedule_assignees, groups and group_users. Is this expected?

schedule_assignees may be a result of that organisation not having any schedules. groups, group_users and users will require the Group Management and User Management permissions in order to load. Please refer to the following support page for more information.

Why do I see tables with no records, such as “schedule_assignee” and “groups”?

This can result from the data simply not existing or that you don’t have the right permission. For example:

An empty “schedule_assignees” table could mean that the organization doesn’t actually have any schedules created. Learn how to create inspection schedules.

Empty “groups” and “users” tables could mean that you don’t have the “Group Management” and “User Management” permissions in the organization. Learn how to assign permissions as an administrator.

Development

Development requirements

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Power BI Desktop
• Microsoft Visual Studio Code
• Power Query SDK

Development references

• Power Query documentation
• TripPin Tutorial is a great starting point to understand how to create a new data source extension for Power Query.

Testing locally

• Open the project in Visual Studio Code (Windows).
• In PowerShell Admin:
  • Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
  • del .\build\
  • del .\MakePQX_Release\
  • Build the project (execute \build.ps1).
• Copy bin\AnyCPU\Debug\SafetyCulture-Power-Query-Connector.mez into [My Documents]\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors directory.
• Enable the Custom data connectors preview feature in Power BI Desktop (under File > Options and settings > Custom data connectors).
• Open Power BI Desktop.
• Make sure you enable Allow any extensions in the security options of Power BI.
• Select Get Data > More to bring up the Get Data dialog.
• Search for SafetyCulture

Connector signing

In Power BI, the loading of custom connectors is limited by your choice of security setting. As a general rule, when the security for loading custom connectors is set to 'Recommended', the custom connectors won't load at all, and you have to lower it to make them load. The exception to this is trusted, signed connectors. To sign the connector follow the steps here.

Creating a new release

To release a new version you just need to push a new tag and GitHub Actions will do the rest.

1. Checkout the master branch and pull the latest changes. If you don't you'll tag the wrong commit for release.
2. Create your tag, make sure it follows correct versioning and increments on the latest release git tag -a v1.0 -m "Initial Public Release".
   Acceptable version formats include v1.0 and v1.0-beta2.
3. Push your tag to GitHub using git push origin v1.0.
4. Wait for Github Actions to finish its work.
5. Update the release draft and publish it.