Quick Guide for How to Use the OpenAir Business Intelligence Connector 

Ready to get started with the OpenAir Business Intelligence Connector? Top Step has a step-by-step guide to show you how the publishing process works.  For purposes of explanation here, we will use an Excel document, but keep in mind that the OABIC works with any BI tool that supports the OData protocol: 

1. Create a report in OpenAir and save it the way you would any report
2. Find the report under “saved reports,” “my reports” in the OpenAir Reports module
3. Go into the action buttons and choose “publish to OData” 
4. At this point, you will receive an OData service URL
5. Copy the URL 
6. Go into your Excel document 
7. Do NOT use the “get data” button in Excel; Instead, choose “new query” which is next to the “get data” option 
8. Choose “From OData feed” under the “From Other Sources” menu option
9. You will be prompted to paste the URL here
10. Log in with “Basic,” using the company name/user name and the password
11. This connects you to the OData server
12. From the server, choose the title of the report you want (The report title is auto-generated, so you cannot customize the name. You will need to remember the file you wanted or go back into the OData feed to retrieve the report title now.)
13. Once you have found the report you want, click the edit button and bring up “query” (This allows you to tweak the document one more time before it goes into Excel if you like.) 
14. Close and load your report 

The steps in this process are relatively straightforward and easy to follow. Rest assured it won’t be long before you have the process memorized, making it even faster and easier to start using the BI connector to get data out to the relevant parties.

“Gotchas” to Keep in Mind as You Use the OABIC 

While it won’t take long to adapt to using the OABIC proficiently, there are a few “gotchas” to keep in mind as you start working with the tool:

• Requires a User Login:  Because the OABIC cannot be used without an actual user login, no SAML-only users can publish or retrieve reports on the OData server. 
• Limits on Requests: There are limits on the number of requests you can make to the OABIC. The request limits are similar to those used for scripts and API calls. You can make 500 requests per minute and you are allowed 10,000 requests per account per day. It is the second limit that businesses often find the most challenging. 
• Only Supports OData V4: No previous versions of OData are supported. However, most tools that support OData also support V4.
• Works Only One Way:  Your data can be viewed in your BI tools, but changes made in the BI tools will not be reflected in OpenAir. You will need to change your data on the OData server to make it available in your BI tool and accessible to all recipients. 

Frequency Limits: Remember you are limited to running one automatically scheduled report per day. However, you can manually run as many reports daily as you like.