Connect Community Edition to Power BI Desktop

[OU_Professor]

I have submitted this question several times to Databricks over the past few weeks, and I have gotten no response at all, not even an acknowledgement that my request was received.

Please help.

How can I connect a certain dataset in Databricks Community Edition to Power BI desktop?  The documentation I’ve found is generic in the sense it only connects to random files in my opinion.  I want to connect to certain datasets in DB Community so that I can build visualizations in Power BI desktop. 

When I took the course as a student, we connected the DB Community edition to Power BI Desktop in a very straightforward way.  Then, we would simply take the JDBC/ODBC link, massage it a bit, and then simply paste it in the Power BI data connection screen.  For example, if this is the link on the Compute screen in DB Community edition:

jdbc:databricks://community.cloud.databricks.com:443/default;transportMode=http;ssl=1;httpPath=sql/p...

We would simply massage it a bit so that it would be whittled down to this string:

https://community.cloud.databricks.com:443/sql/protocolv1/o/7574958165221865/0817-135805-u7j57skj

We would then simply paste this link in the PBI Spark connection.

That connection would give me access to all of my tables, views, etc. from DB Community edition.

Today, I try using the same method I used when I took the class in the fall of 2021, but it does not work now.

I've also tried using the Azure Databricks connection in PBI, but it does not seem to work either.  I enter the Server Hostname and HTTP Path, log in to PBI, etc.  However, PBI connects to some random tables in Databricks.  How can I connect to a dataset I have in Databricks?

Thank you in advance.

[Kaniz · Accepted solution]

Hi @OU_Professor, To connect a particular data set in Databricks Community Edition to the Power BI desktop, you can follow these steps:

1. Install Databricks JDBC driver: You can download the JDBC driver from the Databricks JDBC driver download page. The driver is a JAR file and does not require installation but can be added to the Java classpath.

2. Build the connection URL for the Databricks JDBC driver: The JDBC connection URL has the following general form:
   

text
    jdbc:databricks://:443;HttpPath=[;property=value[;property=value]]
    

   Here jdbc:databricks:// is the subprotocol Server Hostname , the server's address to connect to, and Http Path the compute resources URL. You can set additional connection properties if needed.

3. Authenticate using a personal access token: You can set the following properties collection to authenticate using a unique access token:
   

text
    String url = "jdbc:databricks://:443;HttpPath=";
    Properties p = new java.util.Properties();
    p.setProperty("UID", "token");
    p.setProperty("PWD", "personal-access-token");
    

4. Connect to Databricks in Power BI: Go to the data connection screen and paste the JDBC connection URL in Power BI. This should give you access to your tables, views, etc., from Databricks Community Edition.

Please note that the exact steps might vary depending on the specific versions of Databricks and Power BI you are using.

Sources:
- [Databricks Connect documentation](https://docs.databricks.com/dev-tools/databricks-connect.html)