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.
  • 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.