This last month has mostly been focused on performance improvements and training. The following lists all the enhancements new in OdataLink for March 2022.
Performance Improvements for Xero
Filtering capabilities for JournalsAccrual and JournalsCash Xero endpoints
Odatalink now supports the ability to filter JournalsAccrual and JournalsCash endpoints.
Previously, the only way to control these endpoints was through the Default Start Date and End Date entered within the Model.
With the latest update, the JournalNumber and DateCreatedUTC fields can now be filtered. Any filters applied to these fields get passed in directly to the Xero API to be processed by Xero itself. This is in addition to filtering that was already possible within Power Query, Excel or Power BI.
While this improvement may seem small at first, it can provide an enormous amount of performance.
By caching data already downloaded and combining it with a query that downloads newly created journals, the refresh time can be reduced considerably (from 20+ minutes down to 2-3 minutes in some of our tests).
It is worth noting that due to limitation in the Xero API, these fields only support the Greater Than or Greater Or Equal operators at the moment.
Performance Improvements for MYOB
MYOB API Server Timeouts
OdataLink will now chose the best MYOB API server to handle the requests. Those that use MYOB may see a slight improvement in the time it takes to pull data into Power BI, Excel or other OData clients.
MYOB Rate Limit
OdataLink now also handles the Rate Limit Exceeded warnings returned by MYOB. While not common, these errors affected a few customers and caused their refresh to fail or take longer than required.
Subscription Improvements
We also streamlined the subscription process to resolve various issues.
Firstly, OdataLink will automatically choose the best price based on the actual subscription price rather than the number of data file licenses required. As an example, the Business 10 plan is actually cheaper for those with 8 or 9 data files. This was not obviously apparent. With this improvement, OdataLink will scan and choose the best plan possible based on the total price, rather than simply looking at the number of data files.
Another small annoyance was that OdataLink didn’t automatically assign licenses after subscribing. This is no longer the case. OdataLink will automatically assign spare licenses to unlicensed data files.
Training Documents
With the OdataLink platform being mature and stable, our current aim is to provide as much value and advice as possible to get people started with their own reports and dashboards.
To this end, we created additional guides for some of the more complex challenges.
In the coming months, we plan on adding many more articles, tutorials and training guides for Power BI, Excel, Power Query, Data Flows, MYOB or Xero.
How to separate Xero Tracking Categories into distinct columns using Power Query
This article explains how you can use Power Query (within Power BI and Excel) to separate our the Xero Tracking Categories field of various endpoints into distinct columns (for instance, Department and Job). View
How to integrate MYOB or Xero with SQL Server using OdataLink CLR
This article explains how you can use the OdataLink CLR to query data directly within SQL Server. This is an alternative approach to using SQL Server Integration Services and is our preferred approach a the moment. View
How to get Xero or MYOB data into Microsoft Access using linked tables to Microsoft Excel
This article explains how you can use OdataLink to pull Xero or MYOB data into Microsoft Access by using linked tables to a Microsoft Excel Workbook first. View
For a complete list of all training material covering topics such as Power BI, Excel, Power Query, MYOB or Xero, visit the Tutorials page (available via the menu at the top).