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.
Related
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.
This is what I am trying to do: I have various SQL server databases with data. I created views in all of them. All views will need to be imported, and I specify their relationships. I want this to be refreshed nightly. I want to build various reports of the same data source.
Do I have to use a PowerBI desktop application to import data into PowerBI Report Service? [I have done this so far, but then can create new reports in the cloud on existing data. It would make sense to connect directly from PowerBI report service to my SQL servers.]
Once I uploaded data using a desktop application (as I have done so far), how can I view the data model in the report service once it is uploaded in the cloud?
In order to get routinely refreshed data I need to setup a gateway. Is the local PowerBI desktop application still involved in this process, or could I [in theory] delete the local desktop application that pushed the data in initially?
For your questions:
You have two options, use PBI Desktop to connect to the data using import/direct query, then load it to the service. You can use dataflows to create an import based on your views, but you will then need to create reports from those. Using dataflows, you'll have to set up a refresh schedule, then for the dataset(s) built on top of those, you'll have to set another refresh schedule.
You will be limited to the dataset sizes of 1GB for the workspace if importing data. You cannot use direct query on dataflows (unless you have enhanced compute with PBI premium). Once the dataset is loaded, you can then create new reports in the service or via desktop on top of that dataset. If possible it is recommended to use direct query.
To see the data model, you can use desktop to connect to PBI Service Dataset. This will connect in 'Live Connection' mode, and will be limited to that one dataset, you can't add others to it, Excel, CSV, SQL etc. You can also use Analyse in Excel, a plugin for Excel, that can connect to the data model. You can create new reports in the service for existing data models as well.
When creating the report in PBI Desktop it does not use the Gateway, you connect to your data sources as normal, then once you load the dataset to Power BI it will match the data sources in the file to the ones set up in the Gateway Admin settings. So you will still need PBI Desktop to create reports, but the gateway is there for the refreshing. The Desktop is not used in the process for refreshing. You could delete the workbook or application, but if you have to make changes, what will you refer to? (You could download a copy of the report from the service).+ It is easier to make changes in the desktop app, then the service, as there is a feature difference between dataset creation in the desktop vs service.
So, I created dataset that can be used to generate multiple reports and dashboards.
I would like to publish to the web portal and allow report designers to create their own reports and dashboards. Which works great until I need to update the model. If I update the model and push the data set via Publish function it deletes the reports.
So is the only option for everyone to use PowerBI Desktop? What is the web-based report designer for? Is this only for datasets that will never change?
If your Power BI file has reports in it, it will over write them. What I think is happening is that your users are updating the report in your dataset, for example adding a new tab, so when you load changes it overwrites them.
You need to decouple the Dataset from the reports. You can load your dataset with out any reports. You can then build reports using two methods.
1) Connect to the dataset using Power BI Desktop, using the connect to Power BI Dataset connection. That links to the dataset in a Live Connection, so you can build your reports from that. You can then publish your report. Any changes to the dataset will not overwrite it.
2) For the Web builder you can do the same, create a new report in the portal and select a dataset from that workspace to build your report. What the user needs to do then is 'Save as' and give that report as a new name.
Both methods just link to your dataset, not build a report directly in the file
I have an excel sheet stored in a OneDrive Business Folder, which is updated continuously (approximately every minute). I am trying to show a live count of the number of entries in the table, as below, on a powerBI report:
From here I have tried two options:
1.Created a PowerBI Desktop File which shows the total count on a single card. I have then published this to PowerBI Service as a report.
2.Imported the excel file in via "Get Data->Files->OneDrive-Business" on PBI Service:
I loaded in the data and then created a report as below:
However, when a change is made to the excel file on the onedrive, the report data does not update automatically when any change is made. Instead, the only way that it updates is via the "refresh now" option in datasets on PBI service:
Then once that is refreshed, I have to manually refresh the data in the report window also.
The connection between the report and the excel file is therefore available to allow the manual update, but for some reason does not automatically update when I make a change. Are there are solutions available to get this to update automatically.
I saw this cool idea, but I can't seem to get it to work:
https://bigintsolutions.com/2019/03/29/refresh-power-bi-report-every-min-and-show-on-a-tv/
I have also read many threads, with some people having the same issue I am having:
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Power-Query/Automatic-Refresh-not-working-when-connecting-to-SharePoint/td-p/546308
I know that there should be an update every hour for PowerBI-OneDrive connections, but I was hoping there was a way for updating live.
Goal: PowerBI Service Report to update automatically, for live data feed to a TV screen, when a change is made, say every minute.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Where are you sourcing your data? Updating each minute to an Excel file seems like something that won’t scale in the long term. This sounds like a better scenario for a real-time dataset that is in hybrid mode. Then you could build a dashboard over the data and it would automatically update as the data updates. I’ve used Power Automate to push data into a real-time dataset as well.
Treb Gatte, Power BI MVP
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.