How to import your DocRead data into Power BI

The DocRead reporting suite provides several different reports to help you manage your compliance tasks. The out of the box reporting options allow administrators and line managers to track progress with real time reports. For more in-depth reporting needs linking your DocRead databases to Power BI provides an opportunity to create enhanced reports. This post explains how to bring your DocRead data into Power BI.

Prerequisites:

  • The machine that you are running Power BI on needs to be able to see the SQL server (i.e. it needs to be on the same network).
  • You need to ask your SQL Server Administrator the names of the SQL server and the DocRead database. These will have been created when DocRead was installed. Details can be found in the Collaboris Database Configuration setting in SharePoint Central Administration (see section 2.6.1 of the DocRead System Administrator's Guide).

Linking your SQL Database

1) In your Power BI Desktop app, click on "SQL Server" in the Data menu.

Image showing the selection of the SQL server option

 2) Enter your SQL server name and Database name.

Image showing where to add teh SQL server and Database names

Note:

  • Selecting "Import data" will create a local copy of the database. This will mean that your reports will not impact the server performance. However, please note that your data will remain static and won't automatically reflect changes in the real DocRead database. You would need to update your local database copy to reflect changes to the data.
  • Selecting "Direct Query" means that your Power BI reports will be compiled from the actual DocRead database. This means your Power BI reports will always use the latest data, however it may have an impact on your SQL server performance.

3) Once you have made your choice, click "OK" to proceed, enter your access credentials and click "Connect". This may take a few minutes to complete.

DocRead database options

1) Once you have successfully connected to the DocRead database you should see the navigator screen like this.

2) The main views and tables that you should use for your reports are:

  1. Readership vwTaskInfo table: This view contains all the information you will need to report on the current status of Reading tasks. You should try to use this view as much as possible because Collaboris tries to keep this view unchanged between releases which means that your reports would be less likely to break with a new release.
  2. Readership.Receipt: This table contains all the historical reading receipts and it's mainly used for compliance purposes. Some of the key pieces of information contained in this table are:  
    • The date when users completed reading tasks
    • The version number of the document that was read
    • Was the task already overdue when it was completed
    • What Terms and conditions users agreed 
    • What was the name and location of the document that was read.
    • How many times a user failed to complete the reading task (because they failed to successfully complete the Quiz associated with the task)
    • When and why a user failed to complete a reading tasks (e.g. users may not have completed a reading task because they were removed from the audience associated with a document before they had the chance to read it ).

3) Check the box against the views you want to use within your Power BI reports. You can select multiple options, and then select "Load".

Image showing a selected database view

4) Once the information has loaded, the available fields will be displayed in the Fields window on the right hand side of the Power BI screen.

Image showing the available fields for the Power BI report

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