The BI Connecter program has two modes
- Simple One Company
- Advanced Multi Company and Automatic Refresh
The automatic refresh runs a BIforCloud Desktop Connector Service. This service communicates with the BI Cloud and refreshes the data from your computer to the cloud server. The installation documentation is here.
The BI Connector service run as a Windows Service. Windows Service to not see Network Drives or Fileshares.
If the company files the BI Connector connects to are on a network then a Windows Service will not see these files unless the service is setup to run as a user login and the files have the name specified with the servers name in it which is also called UNC file name.
You will need to have Windows Administration access to do some of the following. If you don't have Administrator access then don't proceed.
Setup Service to Run as a User Login
On the computer that has the BI Connector installed locate the Services option.
You will need to set this service whenever you re-install the connector or if you change your servers. We can provide technical resources to assist but this is chargeable and is not part of your BI Subscription
This can normally be found under the Control Panel > Administration Tools
- Select Services
- Locate the BIforCloud Desktop Connector Service
- Right Mouse Click to reveal Properties
- Click the tab Log On and select the checkbox This Account and enter a user name who can access network drives and enter the user's password - it's best for you to use a user name that does not have password expiry set.
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- Click OK. A dialogue warning that you must restart the process then displays.
- Then Stop and then Start the Service
Choosing a file with Universal Naming Convention (UNC)
A Windows Service does not see files shares or network drives. The location of the server needs to be provided. The notation for this is \\<server_name\<file_name>. So if the server was called Kalisto and th file was CompanyX_2015 then the UNC name is
\\Kalisto\CompanyX_2015
This is easier that it sounds. When you are choosing the file connection using the BI Connector you choose the Browse button. In the example below the files are on a server called vmware-host.
After you press Browse The file system is then shown.
If you then click on Network then the file names will be prefixed with the appropriate server name. Choose the field and press OK
Then the files on the Network can be seen.
and you will note that the path name now includes the server name
and once you select a file the returned name will contain the server path.
although you will still receive a warning message which can be ignored if you have correctly setup the windows service above.
