Power BI – Using the Custom Data Connector to Connect to Strava
I was very excited when the news came out that there now was a Data Connector SDK Developer Preview, and I started letting customers and people know that there now is the new functionality to literally get data from almost any source.
Then I saw a blog post by Kaper De Jonge where he was trying to get the Data Connector working to connect to Strava data (Building the Power BI Strava data connector). This got me even more excited, as enjoying my sporting activities it would be great to use Power BI to see how I have been doing, as well as if I am improving or getting slower with age!
I followed his simple steps and in almost no time (well actually a bit of time because I had a whole host of new things to figure out) I had my own Strava report.
As you can see below in the report I created the following metrics.
- Relative Date Slicer, so that I can see how I am tracking over time.
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Next, I put in the following measurements.
- How many Strava Achievements.
- Average Speed in km/h
- How many Kudo’s I have received
- And my Total Duration that I have been exercising for.
- I then have a chart showing my Ride, Run and Swim KM, to see how much distance I am covering.
- Next is my Info Graphic where I can compare the different Activity Types. As well as use, this as a Visual Slicer to see how I am going compared to my average.
- In the bottom, left hand charge is the one where I can see what my Average is, and if I am above or below the line (Mostly above it!)
- And then finally on the map the countries where I have done some activities, hoping to add a few more countries to the list.
As I have seen creating a Custom data connector is a great way to connect to data that was previously either hard to get or I could not get at all. This has really shown me if someone can create the data connector how easy it is going to be going forward to get data from virtually any system and this really excites me.
[…] I am going to use my Strava data using the Custom Data Connector from my previous blog post (Power BI – Using the Custom Data Connector to Connect to Strava) and the ability to change the entire page between Bike, Run and Swim measures or […]
Nice!
How did you calculate the average speed in KM/u? After connecting strave to powerbi succesful I notice that some columns are not correct formatting: Moving_time, elapsed_time, distance, average_speed, max_speed. For example: max_speed has the value of 10,6 but it should be 38,2km/u.
Hi there I worked out the calculation like this:
DIVIDE(
16.666666667 ,
SUM('Activities'[Avg Speed]),
0
)
I also used the connector successful, but only in Power BI desktop. How is the data up-to-date in powerbi,com?
Hi there
You would need to set up a gateway and then configure the Custom Data Connector.
Use custom data connectors with the on-premises data gateway
Hi Gilbert,
Thanks for the reply. I’m new to this, but is an on-premise data gateway not just for computers that are always on?
My goal is to connect my report on powerbi.com directly to strava. In other words, when I complete a run or a ride, I want to automatically shown up in the report (without uploading the pbix-file every time).
Hi there,
I have setup the data connector and PowerBi desktop recognises the .mez file, however, when I sign in I only get a HTTP 400 error message. It says it can’t connect to the page: http://www.strava.com/oauth/authroize
Do you know what I may have done wrong? I asked Kasper but didn’t get an answer.
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi there
I have had the same error, and I have also pinged Kasper about it
Hopefully he can get to it soon. I unfortunately do not have the skills to fix it!
Hi Gilbert,
Did you manage to work out a solution to this? I would love to make this work!
Hi Andrew,
Kasper did release an update to the Strava file in GitHub and I can confirm it is now all working.
I downloaded the project, rebuilt it and then copied the MEZ file to the required location.
https://github.com/Kjonge/PowerBIStravaConnector