Using external libraries about powerbi-visuals-tools

[raananzvi]

You should follow the steps in this GitHub sample visual: https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerBI-visuals-sampleUsingExternalLibraries

[SuperBobb]

Thank you for your answer.
I have followed this sample and have followed the article for referencing the d3 library (https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerBI-visuals/blob/master/Tutorial/Typings.md).
Those steps are working fine for those libraries however they are not helping me with the request module. Apparently its definition or implementation differs somehow.
Could you try to create a new visual project, do the same steps and use that library in the visual.ts file?
Or maybe you know another library that could help me with HTTP GET requests?

[raananzvi]

Several things:

1. Did you include the request library in the tsconfig.json file?
2. What API version are you targeting? Starting from API 1.2 you will not have D3 included in the IFRAME web page, and you will have to compile with D3 (add it to the tsconfig.json file)
3. Even if you will be able to properly compile and run with this library, I'm not sure the browser or remote server will allow you to invoke the HTTP GET request. Currently, custom visuals are sandboxed in such a way that they don't have a defined origin (origin = null), this will cause most servers to reject your requests.

[SuperBobb]

1. Yes, here an extract from my tsconfic.json file:

  "files": [
    ".api/v1.2.0/PowerBI-visuals.d.ts",
    "typings/index.d.ts",
    "node_modules/request/request.js",
    "src/visual.ts"
  ]

And from my typings/index.d.ts as well:

/// <reference path="globals/form-data/index.d.ts" />
/// <reference path="globals/node/index.d.ts" />
/// <reference path="globals/request/index.d.ts" />

1. The pbiviz -V gives me 1.2.1 version number.
   The problem is not with the D3 module but with the request one.
2. OK, I was afraid of something like that.
   Still I would like to try it first.

[SuperBobb]

I've made these screenshots to be sure that I explain everything properly.
Here is the screenshot from VS Code when the import statement is commented out.
You can see that there is no objects from the request library even if it is referenced in the index.d.ts file:

And here I uncommented the import statement. You can see that the default request function is there and referenced properly.

But those red squiggles mark those error messages I've mentioned in the first post here:

error TYPESCRIPT /src/visual.ts : (4,36) Cannot find name 'IVisual'.
error TYPESCRIPT /src/visual.ts : (8,30) Cannot find name 'VisualConstructorOptions'.
error TYPESCRIPT /src/visual.ts : (14,32) Cannot find name 'VisualUpdateOptions'.

The request's index.d.ts is there and looks fine:

// Generated by typings
// Source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped/658d360c6a8611e76f7cc75c07fcd0f02055ffc4/request/request.d.ts
declare module 'request' {
    import stream = require('stream');
    import http = require('http');
    import https = require('https');
    import url = require('url');
    import fs = require('fs');
    import FormData = require('form-data');

    namespace request {
        export interface RequestAPI<TRequest extends Request,
            TOptions extends CoreOptions,
            TUriUrlOptions> {

            defaults(options: TOptions): RequestAPI<TRequest, TOptions, RequiredUriUrl>;
            defaults(options: RequiredUriUrl & TOptions): DefaultUriUrlRequestApi<TRequest, TOptions, OptionalUriUrl>;

            (uri: string, options?: TOptions, callback?: RequestCallback): TRequest;
            (uri: string, callback?: RequestCallback): TRequest;
            (options: TUriUrlOptions & TOptions, callback?: RequestCallback): TRequest;
............
    }
    var request: request.RequestAPI<request.Request, request.CoreOptions, request.RequiredUriUrl>;
    export = request;
}

So how should I reference that library in my code?

[AviSander]

Please try to see if this blog helps http://blog.jongallant.com/2016/09/how-to-create-power-bi-custom-visual.html

[mmaitre314]

Cross-posting from https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerBI-visuals/issues/99 since that might be a better place: Power BI seems to break external libraries like vis.js that try to attach themselves to the window object.

[sfuchickie]

@helen508light were you able to resolve this? I am running into something similar but cannot find a straightforward answer.

[helen508light]

@sfuchickie what issue do you have?