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Guardian BackstageTM 3.0 provides data and insights that help you stay informed on the activity in each of your projects registered with Guardian. Guardian Backstage can be accessed through Power BI or any other data-accessing service. This article will show you how to set up your Power BI dashboard.
A Power BI template file is provided with the Guardian installer but can also be downloaded here.
Before the data can be accessed, the Enable Data Access option must be selected in the Backstage tab within Company Settings (Guardian Settings > Company Settings > Backstage).
Open the template file, and a prompt will appear to input the AccounID, RangeStart, RangeEnd, LookbackMonths, Server, and Database.
The AccountID, Server, and Database can be found in the Backstage tab within Company Settings. The AccountID will be the 2- or 3-digit number in the middle of the username, as shown below. In this example, the AccountID is 16.
RangeStart and RangeEnd are for the incremental refresh feature. Learn more about Power BI’s incremental refresh. The incremental refresh dates should reflect the frequency with which you access the Power BI Dashboard.
Enter a date [x/x/xxxx] for RangeStart, which would be a date in the past, such as 1/1/2024.
Enter a date [x/x/xxxx] for RangeEnd, which will be a date in the future, such as 12/31/2030.
Enter 12 for LookbackMonths and click Load. This is for the initial downloading of your data over the given number of months.
Power BI will then prompt you for the server credentials. Select the Database option on the left menu first, then enter your same credentials from the Guardian Backstage tab from the Company Settings dialog. The Database option will be carried over from the previous page. Click Connect.
The available data will then be loaded into the report, and your dashboard will be set up!
To view the most recent data, Power BI will need to be manually refreshed by clicking the Refresh button in the ribbon.
Backstage stores data on a timely basis (roughly every 2 hours). After a refresh, recent data may not be seen right away but should appear in about an hour or two.
To get more information on the data or pages within the report, read the article "Utilizing the Dashboard.”
A dashboard can be created without the use of the Guardian template file. To accomplish this, open Power BI and set up a new data connection by selecting Get data.
Select the SQL Server database and then click Connect.
On the next dialog, enter the Server and Database information. This can be found in the Backstage tab in Company Settings. Select OK.
Power BI will then prompt you for the server credentials. Select the Database option on the left menu first, then enter your same credentials from the Guardian Backstage tab from the Company Settings dialog. The Database option will be carried over from the previous page. Click Connect.
On the next dialog, select the desired tables to import. It is recommended that all tables are included to receive all the analytical data.
Once the tables have been selected, click Load, and the report will be ready!
Reach out to learn more, ask any questions, or meet the team! We'd love to learn more about your challenges and explore the more proactive solution.
