pbipy

A Power BI Rest API wrapper for Python.

pbipy aims to simplyify working with the Power BI Rest API and support programatic administration of Power BI in Python.

NOTE: At the moment pbipy is only implementing GET based methods, i.e., getting data from the Rest API. Functionality to update and create new items on the Power BI Instance will be implemented soon.

Installation

pip install pbipy

Authentication

To use pbipy you'll first need to acquire a bearer_token.

How do I get a bearer_token?

To acquire a bearer_token you'll need to authenticate against your Registered Azure Power BI App. Registering is the first step in turning on the Power BI Rest API, so from this point on we're assuming that registration is taken care of.

To authenticate against the Registered App, Microsoft provides the MSAL and azure-identity python libraries. These libraries support many different ways of acquiring a bearer_token.

Because there are multiple ways to acquire the token, pbipy assumes you'll do this in the way that suits, rather than directly handling authentication (of course, this might change in future).

This README doesn't cover Authentication in detail, however, these are some helpful resources that look at acquiring a bearer_token in the context of Power BI:

• Power BI REST API with Python and MSAL. Part II.
• Power BI REST API with Python Part III, azure-identity
• Monitoring Power BI using REST APIs from Python

See below for an example that uses the msal library.

Using pbipy

Start by creating the PowerBI() client. All interactions with the Power BI Rest API go through this object.

The example uses msal authentication methods to get a bearer_token.

import msal

from pbipy import PowerBI


def acquire_bearer_token(username, password, azure_tenant_id, client_id, scopes):
    app = msal.PublicClientApplication(client_id, authority=azure_tenant_id)
    result = app.acquire_token_by_username_password(username, password, scopes)
    return result["access_token"]


bearer_token = acquire_bearer_token(
    username="your-username",
    password="your-password",
    azure_tenant_id="https://login.microsoftonline.com/your-azure-tenant-id",
    client_id="your-pbi-client-id",
    scopes=["https://analysis.windows.net/powerbi/api/.default"],
)

# Create Client
pbi = PowerBI(bearer_token)

Operation Groups

pbipy methods are organized into Operation Groups that mirror the operation groups of the Power BI Rest API:

REST Operation Groups

For example:

pbi.groups.get_groups()
pbi.datasets.get_dataset("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
...

Functionality

To interact with the API, simply call the relevant method from the client.

groups = pbi.groups.groups.get_groups()
print(groups[0])

# Group(id='3d9b93c6-7b6d-4801-a491-1738910904fd', name='marketing group', type='Workspace', ...)

Most methods support passing in an object id...

refresh_history = pbi.datasets.get_refresh_history("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
print(refresh_history[0])

# Refresh(id=None, request_id='9399bb89-25d1-44f8-8576-136d7e9014b1', refresh_type='ViaApi', ...)

... or just pass in the object itself.

sales = pbi.datasets.get_dataset("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
refresh_history = pbi.datasets.get_refresh_history(sales)
print(refresh_history[0])

# Refresh(id=None, request_id='9399bb89-25d1-44f8-8576-136d7e9014b1', refresh_type='ViaApi', ...)

pbipy converts API responses into Python objects.

sales = pbi.datasets.get_dataset("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
print(type(sales))

# <class 'pbipy.models.Dataset'>

To make life easier, attributes are also translated into sensible types.

sales = pbi.datasets.get_dataset("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
print(isinstance(sales.created_date, datetime))

# True

Objects are standardized to have consistent attributes, even when a key is missing from an API response.

sales = Dataset(id="cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229", name="SalesMarketing")

print(hasattr(sales, "is_refreshable"))
print(sales.is_refreshable)

# True
# None

And if you need to access the raw json representation, this is supported to.

sales = pbi.datasets.get_dataset("cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229")
print(sales.raw)

# {'id': 'cfafbeb1-8037-4d0c-896e-a46fb27ff229', 'name': 'SalesMarketing', 'addRowsAPIEnabled': False, ...},

Power BI Rest API Reference

In general, most of the PowerBI() methods follow the resources laid out in the Power BI Rest API Reference:

Power BI REST APIs for embedded analytics and automation - Power BI REST API

Acknowledgements

The design of this library was inspired by the pycontribs/jira library. It also borrows elements of cmberryay's pypowerbi wrapper. A personal Thank You to all the contributors to these libraries for the great examples of what an API Wrapper can be.