Can you refresh data in a Power BI dashboard if you've moved the underlying data source to a different folder? My colleague built a dashboard using data on his desktop. I have to refresh the dashboard, but the updated data now sits on my desktop. Is there any way to do this?
The best solution is to always import source file from SharePoint using the SharePoint folder connector.
As a quickfix you could also change the path to a local source file by going to the table/query in the PowerQuery Editor. The first ETL step is "Source" and in the formula bar you can see something like
Source = Csv.Document(
File.Contents("C:\Users\login\Downloads\data.csv")
)
This is the place where you can simply change the path to the new location.
Related
I'm new to power bi. I have developed a dashboard on power bi desktop. It reads some .csv files as data source. Now I need to move it to another machine, names of those csv files are the same, path is the only thing to be updated.
Is it possible to change the path only, instead of rebuilding this dashboard? Thanks.
In Power BI Desktop:
Go to File - Options - Data Source settings
Select your csv-file
Click the Change Source ... button and change the file path
In this scenario, I am using on premise data source like excel file in power bi. Here I have made some ETL process and Calculations as well. Now the problem is, my client want me to do migrate all on premise data sources into sharepoint. For that, If I change the file path in power bi, can I have all the changes I made earlier?
You don't have to change any transfomations if you read Excel via the web connector. However, if you're using the SharePoint Folder connector (recommended), you'll probably have to add an additional another navigation step to access the sheets.
I have an existing PowerBI report that imports data from an SQL Server analytics services database. This is working fine and I can schedule automatic refreshes using the Gateway provided by my organization.
I would now like to add some additional, but rarely changing data, that I only have in a local Excel file. When I do add this data, the report stops refreshing automatically and complains, that it has no gateway to refresh this Excel file.
What I would like is that Power BI is refreshing the data of the SQL Server analytics services database, but just keeps the existing Excel file without updating it. - I will upload an updated version of the PowerBI report if I need to change the data in the Excel file.
Is that possible? I couldn't find out how. I was trying to upload the Excel file to a different dataset to the Power BI service and reference this dataset in my report. Just to find out, that I cannot access a different Power BI dataset and SQL server analysis services database from the same report.
Three things I can think of
Upload the file to onedrive/sharepoint so that it's accessible online (per Dev's answer)
If the data is simple enough, you can add the data directly into PowerBI itself and skip the Excel file entirely.
You can disable the Excel file refresh so that PBI does not try and refresh(and thus access) the local Excel file. (Not sure if this will work)
I had a similar issue I came across. Yes, you can just use Enter Data to add a table, but you can only build something with less than 3000 cells, so you'd have to merge several tables if something was larger than that.
Turning off the report refresh in the suggestion above (#3) still requires a gateway, unfortunately.
I just created a dataflow and plopped the data from my csv there. You'll have to create a connection and refresh it, but you don't need to schedule a refresh there, so no need to create a gateway.
Then just link the dataflow as a source to your .pbix file and setup your gateway to point at the dataflow.
I have a problem:
I have a PBI file containing three data sources: 2 SQL Server sources + 1 API call.
I have separate queries for each respective data source and an additional query that combines all three queries into a single table.
Both SQL Server sources have been added to a gateway and I can set scheduled refresh for each source, if I publish them in separate PBI files.
However, I cannot set scheduled refresh for the file that contains all three sources - both the data source credentials and scheduled refresh options are greyed out.
The manage gateway section of the settings page also shows no gateway options. If I publish the SQL Server data (with no API data) I can clearly see my data source and gateway under the gateway heading.
screenshot of dataset settings
Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?
Thank you,
I had the same problem.
I have a PBI file with different data sources : SQL Server sources and APIs.
On The PowerBI Service the Data Source Credentials was grayed out, so here's what I did :
Downloaded the file
Refresh the file locally and signed up on all data sources (the Server of DB Server name changed but not for the APIs)
published in the PBI Service
It worked for me.
Same problem here. After additional poking around I learned that the "Web Source" (API call) was the reason for the inability to refresh and can cause "Data Source Credentials" to be inaccessible. This was annoying to learn after diving down several rabbit holes.
Several (weak) workarounds
Using Excel's Power Query to connect to the web source. Learn more about Excel's Power Query.
Make any needed transformations.
Put the Excel file in SharePoint Online folder or other PBI accessible directory.
Connect to the Excel file using the appropriate data source (i.e. SharePoint Folder).
Alternatively, if the data is static, you can directly copy/paste values into PBI (if you just need to get this done and move on with your life):
Copy target values
Open Power Query Editor
Home tab -> Enter Data
Paste values into table
Hopefully this will save some poor soul a little of their life.
I need to refresh the dataset on a powerbi desktop file. The data source is an excel file placed on my onedrive for business folder - to which I have access to. I also saved my pbix file in the folder, however I am using a Mac as of the moment and the only way I'm thinking of is to share the pbix file from one drive to my colleague from work. Will that work, or is there any other way to refresh the data without connecting to the desktop file?
P.S. I've check the refresh, but since my work laptop is offline - I can't schedule a refresh
In powerBI without sharing the pbix file you can share the dashboard with your colleagues just by selecting 'share' on the dashboard.
For the data source you can use an online database instead of the oneDrive file.
The way to allow PowerBI to refresh data from your Onedrive for business is to "share" the file in Onedrive for business. https://medium.com/#Konstantinos_Ioannou/onedrive-powerbi-desktop-use-valid-paths-to-import-data-stored-in-onedrive-for-business-60089848e594#.e9wn6kqjn
Then you can share a) either the PBIX file (refresh will be enabled; authentication to the file is "oauth2"). Or you can upload it to the PowerBI web service and share the dashboard there. You need to reauthenticate the data source and then also scheduled refresh will work.
I would publish your report to the PowerBi online service. Here you can then share the report with your colleague and setup a schedule refresh using the data gateway.
This would require a network connection though.