Primary Commodity Prices Power BI User Guide

Introduction

The Intratec Primary Commodity Prices Power BI Dashboard is a pre-configured, open-source project file (.pbix) that provides straightforward access to Intratec Primary Commodity Prices data. It can be used as a starting point for experienced users to develop more complex applications or as a ready-to-use simple dashboard for those in need of an easy way to access the data provided by Intratec.

Intratec also provides short tutorial videos on how to use the Intratec Primary Commodity Prices Power BI Dashboard at https://intrat.ec/ipcp-power-bi-videos.

File Structure

The Intratec Primary Commodity Prices Power BI Dashboard is divided into pages, which can be navigated through the left bar on Power BI online, as shown in the screenshot below.

Series Info

This page presents the description of all the available series under the subscription. In this page, a table on the left lists the available series (assessments) along with the unique codes used to identify each of them. By selecting an assessment in this table, the user may check the following details on the right side of the dashboard:

• Last Final: Date of the latest final data point available for the assessment (data points for later dates are preliminary).
• Has Forecast?: Specifies if forecasts are available (TRUE/FALSE).
• History Changed?: Specifies if the user should request historical data points. This is particularly useful when new data assessments are created or if revisions have been made to existing data assessments (TRUE/FALSE).
• Default Currency: Shows the default currency in which the assessment data is displayed.
• Default Unit: Shows the default unit in which the assessment data is displayed.
• Available Currencies: Displays the available currencies for conversion.
• Available Units: Displays all the available units for conversion.
• Industry: The industry dataset the assessment belongs to.
• Commodity Specification: Describes the specifications of the commodity approached by the price assessment.
• Details: Relevant information complementing the assessment description.

The Series Info page allows users to identify and select the relevant assessments. The corresponding codes can then be used to retrieve both current and historical data for those series.

Data

The Data page displays the last 13 months of data up to the most recently concluded month for each requested assessment, along with short-term forecasts for the subsequent six months when available.

This page features a chart and intuitive controls for customizing the data display. Users can use the filters at the top of the page to narrow down data by industry, assessment, or date range. Additionally, by selecting a curve in the chart, detailed information will appear in the panel on the right.

Historical Data

The Historical Data page is like the Data page, except that it presents the whole series data history for the selected assessments. The controls and functionalities are the same as the Data page explained above.

Data Limits

This page provides an overview of the number of requests made during the current month. Users can select their subscription's industry and track both the number of requests used and the total requests available each month.

Requests are counted based on the number of data series codes submitted to Intratec's servers. Each dataset has a specific request limit, and the remaining requests are reset when new data is released, following our Release Schedule.

Set up File

Download and publish the file online. Before starting, make sure to have Power BI Desktop installed on the computer and to be logged in with a valid Microsoft account.

Step-by-Step

1. Download the newest version of the Intratec Primary Commodity Prices Power BI Dashboard at https://intrat.ec/ipcp-power-bi-download.
2. Open the file.

3. Click the Publish button on the top-right ribbon.

This will make the dashboard available to access via Power BI online.

4. Select a private workspace to publish the dashboard, click Select, and wait for it to load.

5. Click on Open 'primary_commodity_prices_dashboard.pbix' in Power BI to access it in the web browser.

Once opened, the dashboard should look like the following in the web browser:

6. To configure the access, click on the three dots next to Edit on the top ribbon and select View semantic model.

7. Then click on File > Settings.

8. Under Data source credentials, click on each of the Edit credentials buttons next to Web.

A pop-up will open to configure access to the Intratec APIs. Set it up as displayed below and click Sign in:

9. On the left column, click on the Semantic model icon.

10. On the top ribbon, click Refresh > Refresh now and wait.

If refreshing data is successful, it should look like this:

Get Available Series Information

Retrieve the list of available assessments (data series) and their identification codes included in your subscription. Use these codes to request data, as explained in the Get Series Values and Values History section.

Step-by-Step

1. With the dashboard open in the browser, click on the three dots next to Edit on the top ribbon and select View semantic model.
2. Then click on File > Settings.
3. Under Parameters, fill the credentials with a valid Developer account's Email and Password.

4. Fill the remaining parameters with a hyphen (-), as shown below.

The above parameters are not required for retrieving the list of available assessments. They will be used in the next section for retrieving price assessment values.

5. After setting up the parameters, click Apply.

6. On the left column, click on the Semantic model icon.
7. On the top ribbon, click Refresh > Refresh now and wait.
8. On the left column, click on the Report icon.

The Series Info page should now be filled with all the available assessments.

Get Series Values and Values History

Retrieve data series values by entering the desired assessment codes.

Step-by-Step

1. After choosing which assessments to request, click on the three dots next to Edit on the top ribbon and select View semantic model.
2. Then click on File > Settings.
3. In the Parameters window, enter a comma-separated list of assessment codes in the Data Request parameter to retrieve recent assessment values.

4. In the Historical Data Request parameter, enter a comma-separated list of assessment codes to retrieve the full history of values.

5. Click the Apply button.
6. Click the Semantic model icon on the left column.
7. Refresh the data by clicking Refresh > Refresh now and wait for it to finish.
8. On the left column, click on the Report icon.

The values for the requested assessments are now available to be analyzed in the dashboard. If, after refreshing the data, the requested assessments still do not appear on the chart, simply click on the Refresh visuals button on the upper-right ribbon.

Querying Values in Another Currency or Unit

When querying data, the user may specify an alternate currency and/or unit of measurement to display the values. Available units and currencies for each assessment are displayed on the Series Info page. Currencies and units are identified by a number, which can be found in the Currency Reference and Unit Reference sections, respectively.

Specify a different output currency by adding &c={Currency_ID} after the code.

Specify a different output unit by adding &u={Unit_ID} after the code.

If an invalid {Unit_ID} or {Currency_ID} is provided, the values will be displayed in the default unit and currency.

Formatting Guidelines

When setting up the requests, make sure to properly format the list of assessments by following three simple guidelines:

1. Request a maximum of 40 assessment codes per request.
2. Leave the Historical Data Request parameter with a hyphen (-) if the account is not entitled to access historical data.
3. Make sure the list of assessments is properly formatted, and that all requested codes appear on the Series Info page.

Download Data

Export the data from the charts and save it into a different file so you do not lose the retrieved price assessment values before making a new request.

Step-by-Step

1. On the upper-right corner of the graph, click on the three dots and select Export data.

2. Then, select Summarized data to download only the information that appears on the chart.

3. Under File format, select .xlsx (Excel 150,000-row max).

4. Click Export and wait for the file to download.

Common Problems

Wrong Input or No Access to the API

If there is anything wrong with the request, a warning symbol will appear next to the date and time of the last attempt to refresh the dataset:

By clicking the symbol, the user can see error details:

The error message displayed above appears when:

• More than 40 codes are added to the Data Request or Historical Data Request parameters.
• The user has added codes to the Historical Data Request parameter without having access to historical data. Check if your account has the required automation tier at https://www.intratec.us/account/log-in.
• The list of assessments is either not properly formatted or includes codes that the user does not have access to. Include only codes from the Series Info page of the dashboard, separated by commas and without spaces.

Misconfigured Data Source Credentials

The following error message is caused when one or more data source credentials were not configured properly:

Follow the steps to fix it:

1. Click on the Semantic model icon on the left bar.
2. Then click on File > Settings.
3. Under Data source credentials, find the connection and click Edit credentials.

4. Configure it as follows and click Sign in.

Currency Reference

Unit Reference

Questions & Feedback

For assistance, feel free to reach out at https://www.intratec.us/help/contact-us. We value your feedback. If you have complaints, compliments, or suggestions, do not hesitate to share them with us.