Powerbi Native Source Connector Factory

Power BI Native Source Connector Factory

Use this skill whenever source access must be implemented, documented, or reviewed. The default is native Power BI / Power Query connectivity. Embedded demo data is allowed only when explicitly requested for offline tests or when a PBIP preview limitation blocks external query sources.

Connector Families

• File: Excel Workbook, Text/CSV, XML, JSON, Folder, PDF, Parquet, SharePoint Folder, OneDrive/SharePoint-hosted files.
• Database: SQL Server, Access, SQL Server Analysis Services, Oracle, IBM Db2/Informix/Netezza, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, Teradata, SAP HANA, SAP BW application/message server, Amazon Redshift/Athena, Impala, Google BigQuery, Vertica, Snowflake, Essbase, AtScale, MariaDB, MarkLogic, MongoDB Atlas SQL, Denodo, Dremio, Exasol, ClickHouse, ODBC, OLE DB, and certified/preview database connectors.
• Microsoft Fabric: Power BI semantic models, Dataflows, Warehouse, Lakehouse, KQL Database.
• Power Platform: Dataverse, Dataflows, legacy CDS/dataflows when required.
• Azure: Azure SQL, Synapse SQL/workspace, Azure Analysis Services, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Blob Storage, Table Storage, Cosmos DB, Data Explorer/Kusto, ADLS Gen2, HDInsight, Cost Management, Resource Graph, Databricks.
• Online Services and SaaS: SharePoint Online, Exchange, Dynamics 365, Business Central, Customer Insights, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Google Analytics, Adobe, GitHub, Smartsheet, Zendesk, and other Power Query-supported services.
• Other: Web, OData, REST via Web.Contents, Hadoop/HDFS, Spark, R/Python scripts, blank query, custom connectors, gateway-backed sources, and replicated export patterns.

Required Output

• Source family, native connector function, authentication, gateway, privacy level, refresh mode, connection mode, and folding expectation.
• Power Query M template with parameters and no hardcoded secrets.
• Metadata discovery plan, schema drift controls, type conversion, incremental refresh design, and reconciliation checks.
• Fallback path when the exact source has no first-party connector: certified connector, ODBC/OLE DB, OData, REST, file export, dataflow, Fabric pipeline, or replicated warehouse/lakehouse.
• en-US and de-DE documentation notes for source assumptions, credential ownership, gateway dependency, limitations, and validation.

Excel Native Driver Rule

For Excel, use native Power Query patterns:

let
    Source = Excel.Workbook(File.Contents(ExcelPath), null, true),
    Raw = Source{[Item = SheetOrTableName, Kind = SourceKind]}[Data],
    PromotedHeaders = Table.PromoteHeaders(Raw, [PromoteAllScalars = true]),
    Typed = Table.TransformColumnTypes(PromotedHeaders, TypeMap, Culture)
in
    Typed

• For SharePoint/OneDrive Excel files, use SharePoint.Files or SharePoint.Contents, filter the target file, then call Excel.Workbook([Content], null, true).
• For folders, use Folder.Files or SharePoint.Files, a transform function, schema union/intersection logic, and file lineage columns.
• Do not convert .xlsx to CSV unless the user explicitly requests that architectural compromise.
• Do not embed Excel rows into TMDL DATATABLE for production outputs.

Mode Decision

• native_connector: production Power Query connector code.
• replicated_lakehouse: source is staged into Fabric/Lakehouse/Warehouse before Power BI.
• semantic_model_live: connect to Power BI semantic model / SSAS / AAS with live or DirectQuery constraints.
• direct_query: source remains queried at runtime; validate supported transformations.
• direct_lake: Fabric Direct Lake pattern.
• demo_embedded: generated DATATABLE fixture for offline PBIP smoke tests only.

Checks

• Verify exact connector support and Preview/Beta status against current Microsoft Learn docs when implementation depends on it.
• Never hardcode credentials, tokens, tenant IDs, passwords, or personal file paths in reusable artifacts.
• Flag unsupported DirectQuery or live-connection edits before generating model changes.