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Power BI Ideas Admin on 05 Nov 2014 06:19:56

Connect to workbooks that are stored in Dropbox

Comments (14)
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450a8ada 3b9b-4792-b23e-fe4e111752b0 on 05 Jul 2020 23:44:37

RE: Dropbox

Connecting to Dropbox from a web gateway with anonymous credentials (key in url) throws the error "Failed to update data source credentials: Web.Contents failed to get contents from"
Connecting to Dropbox from PowerBI Desktop works.

It would be nice to have an easy to use connector, but I would be happy with any method that works right now ;).

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7180ac7f 9e05-423a-8aad-6871351feb48 on 05 Jul 2020 23:17:12

RE: Dropbox

Any update on this? Although it is working for Power BI Desktop, there is no available solution for Power BI service yet...

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9dd09047 d733-4ecb-9bc1-d767f8ce54db on 05 Jul 2020 23:05:51

RE: Dropbox

Try these tutorial, from the MVP Imke Feldman:

http://www.thebiccountant.com/2017/06/25/import-multiple-files-dropbox-folder-powerbi-excel-via-powerquery-at-once/#comment-695

Works to me.

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80c6c177 663a-4d6c-bc82-c972a43a68c7 on 05 Jul 2020 22:56:13

RE: Dropbox

This works for files, but not for folders. The abilty to query a whole folder is critical. There is code out there that works for excel/powerquery but errors in PBI Service

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708d0708 0d02-41e8-9cd1-4c6746e9cd5f on 05 Jul 2020 22:54:58

RE: Dropbox

we would like to be able to connect Power BI to our dropbox as well. Please let us know if this is something you are working on.

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e97b0e86 59b6-4692-a918-51e7236405e8 on 05 Jul 2020 22:48:08

RE: Dropbox

You can still do this with Dropbox v2, at least in Power BI Desktop (haven't tried in web)
Basic steps
- Create an app at http://www.dropbox.com/developers
- Go here: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#files-download
- In the example on that page, you will see a live link to "get access token". Click it.
- In power bi, create a Web data source, and switch to advanced mode
- The URL is: https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download
- Add header: Authorization, with the value "Bearer " (without quotes)
- Add header: Dropbox-API-Arg, with the value { path: "path\to\your\file.xlsx" }
- Once the data loads, right click the blob you see in the query editor, select "Excel", and it's all good.

The direct function if you want to skip the UI is:
Excel.Workbook(Web.Contents("https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download", [Headers=[Authorization="Bearer ", #"Dropbox-API-Arg"="{""path"": ""/Your/Path.xlxs""}"]]), null, true)

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af0019aa 9a7e-4776-9021-7b1171cd13bc on 05 Jul 2020 22:42:00

RE: Dropbox

While researching this topic, I noticed that all the examples given (in community forums) appear to be for the Dropbox v1 API, which has been deprecated and will be turned off in a few months (June 2017):

https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2016/06/api-v1-deprecated/

The v2 API looks much more complex - there doesnt appear to be any direct equivalent for the method suggested above (single HTTPS call with an API Key). The authentication requirements now seem more complex:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/auth-types#user

It's stumped me - I hope the direct integration can be added soon!

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b76e5645 3add-4ca4-9425-6ee88a50ef19 on 05 Jul 2020 22:34:44

RE: Dropbox

I think it's a very clear to power bi team connecting to dropbox is very important!
Any update?

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25fce083 9aea-4ecc-8ee8-728ea163c931 on 05 Jul 2020 22:34:42

RE: Dropbox

Any update?? I have lots of excel files in Dropbox that I need to use in Power BI. Please let us know when it is ready.

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e6ba9ba7 cb80-4688-9400-869d5b2323bd on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:17

RE: Dropbox

YES!!! The ability to read a CSV file in a dropbox is very important to us too. Right now, this is the only way we can access our CSAT scores to put them on a dashboard.