The Power Query (M) Builder is a new tool for the XrmToolBox.

It is designed to automate the basic Power Queries for getting data into Power BI from Dynamics 365. This includes selecting fields, renaming fields, querying option sets etc.

Updated: July 22 2018. This page is a work in progress and will continue to be updated.

Here is an intro video on how to use the tool, and some of its features, particularly using FetchXML in your Power Query so you can easily retrieve the option set labels, lookup names, etc.

Video is for Power Query Builder version 1.2018.7.20. (Latest version)

Like the Advanced Chart Editor, the tool was developed between Mohamed Rasheed and myself.

Features included in this tool:

• Support for FetchXML in your Power Query
  • Show labels for Option Sets and Status fields
  • Show name for Lookup fields
  • Show name and type for Owner and Customer fields
• Support for OData retrieval (standard querying method for Dynamics 365)
• Auto-include GUID for current entity
• Use Dynamics 365 display name for all columns
• Automatically set correct data type
• Auto-generate a link back to the Dynamics 365
• Handle empty tables when no records are retrieved
• Use of all-attributes in FetchXML as a setting

Check back regularly for more information about the Power Query Builder for the XrmToolBox that helps accelerate getting data from Dynamics 365 into Power BI.

Some stuff that we are still working on:

• Include fields from related (parent) entities

Ideas, how to questions, feedback etc. please put that in the comments below.

Issues, bugs etc. please put that on GitHub: https://github.com/ITLec/PowerQueryBuilder

NuGet link: https://nuget.org/packages/PowerQueryBuilder/

A big thank you to Scott Sewell, who provided a lot of great feedback during the development of this tool. We still have items on the to-do list.

Also, we want to thank Keith Mescha and the former Sonoma Partners Power BI Accelerator. This tool showed us how to do FetchXML pagination in a Power Query. Without it, all the benefits of using FetchXML would have been limited to just 5,000 records.

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