Microsoft Power BI

About the QUESTIONSTAR connector for Microsoft Power BI

With the QUESTIONSTAR connector for Microsoft Power BI, you can integrate your survey data directly and securely into Power BI — with no manual export. This lets you conveniently process, analyze, and combine your survey results with other data sources.

Power BI is a powerful business intelligence tool from Microsoft that lets you:

• structure, evaluate, and visualize your survey data,
• combine it with other internal or external data sources,
• create interactive dashboards and automated reports,
• share key data insights with your team,
• and make well-founded decisions based on up-to-date data.

The integration with QUESTIONSTAR lets you always access current data and update your dashboards in real time — ideal for data-driven work in marketing, HR, research, customer satisfaction, and much more.

Eligibility

Before you can analyze your QUESTIONSTAR survey data in Microsoft Power BI, a few basic requirements must be met:

• QUESTIONSTAR account: You need an active user account with QUESTIONSTAR, through which you created and published your surveys.
• Microsoft Power BI Desktop: The desktop version of Microsoft Power BI must be installed on your computer. This application is free and can be downloaded directly from the official Microsoft website.
  ➜Download Power BI Desktop

Install the connector

Our connector is currently still in the validation phase at Microsoft — a process that, in our experience, unfortunately takes some time. For this reason, the QUESTIONSTAR connector is currently not automatically visible in the list of available data sources in Microsoft Power BI and must be installed manually.

In this section we'll show you step by step how to set up the connector manually.

How to install the connector:

1. Open or create the folder:
   On your computer, navigate to the following path:
   Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors
   If the folder doesn't yet exist, create it manually.

2. Download the connector file:
   Save the file Questionstar.mez in the folder you just created (or that already exists).

   

3. Start Power BI Desktop and open the options:
   Go to:
   File → Options and settings → Options

   

   

4. Enable the correct security settings:
   In the Security section, please check:
   

   • Allow any extension to load without validation or warning
   • Use my default web browser

   

   

5. Restart Power BI:
   For all changes to take effect, close Power BI and open it again.

Establish the connection for data retrieval

To analyze the data from your QUESTIONSTAR surveys in Microsoft Power BI, you first need to establish a connection between the two systems via the QUESTIONSTAR connector.

How to establish the connection:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click the "Home" tab in the top menu.
2. Click the "Get data" button.
3. In the dialog that appears, select the QUESTIONSTAR connector from the list.
4. Click "Connect".

Confirm the security notice:
Power BI informs you that a connection to a third-party service is being established.

5. Optionally check the "Don't show this warning again" box.
6. Click "Continue".

Sign in to QUESTIONSTAR:

7. Click "Sign in" to connect with your QUESTIONSTAR account.
   You'll be redirected to a QUESTIONSTAR web page where you confirm the connection.

   

8. If you're already logged in to QUESTIONSTAR but want to use a different user account, click "Log out & choose another account".
9. Check the "Allow access"
10. box and click "Allow"

11. If you weren't logged in yet, the login form now appears. Sign in there.
    

    

    After signing in successfully, you can close the browser window.

Back in Power BI:

12. Power BI again shows you the option to switch accounts.
13. If everything is correct, click "Connect".

Load your survey responses from QUESTIONSTAR

Once the connection between QUESTIONSTAR and Microsoft Power BI has been set up successfully, you can retrieve and analyze your survey data at any time.

How to load the data:

1. In the ribbon, click the "Home" tab.
2. Then click "Get data".
3. In the dialog, select the desired survey or multiple surveys.
4. On the right side, a data preview is shown.
5. Click "Load" to import the data.

Analyze the data:
After the import, the survey data appears in the Fields list (1) in Power BI.
You can now begin your analysis by dragging the desired fields into the Visualizations pane (2) and editing or visualizing them further there.

Changing the connector settings

You can adjust the settings of the QUESTIONSTAR connector — in particular the permissions — at any time.

Here's how:

In the top menu, click "File", then:

1. Select "Options and settings"

2. and then "Data source settings".

   

3. In the dialog, select the QUESTIONSTAR connector.
4. Edit the permissions, or
5. clear the connection entirely to set new settings the next time you use it.

Remove the connection

You can remove the connection between QUESTIONSTAR and Microsoft Power BI at any time. Once disconnected, no more data is exchanged between the two systems.

Here's how:

1. In your QUESTIONSTAR account, click your name in the top right.

2. In the dropdown menu, select "Integrations".

   

3. In the left menu, click "Apps and websites".

4. Next to "Microsoft Power BI" click "Remove access".

   

5. Confirm your selection in the dialog.