I have uploaded a report to PBI Cloud with several bookmarks and different data models like tables and different charts. Now I made some changes to this report and published it by replacing the existing one. Some charts were deleted and some new were newly added. When navigating directly to the report in PBI cloud I can see the changes. But the changes are not applied for the App which is connected with that report.
Is there any further step needed to perform so that the models in the PBI Cloud "App" get also updated?
In the workspace there is an Update app button, that you need to click,
This will take you through the process of republishing the app
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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.
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.
I am in the process of creating a dashboard in power BI with multiple people. Currently I have 4 entities in a Dataflow that move to a dataset which are then visualized in reports. I recently added a column to one of my entities that I would like to show up in a report that is already created. However, despite the column being added to the entity (it shows up when I try to create a new report), it isn't displayed in the older report. How can I get my new column to display in an already created report?
You need to get the old report, go to the Query Editor and refresh the preview for it to pick up the new column.
You may have to go through the steps to make sure it is not removed, by for example reducing the columns down via a selection. When you create a new report you can see the column as it is getting the dataflow table structure with out any history in the query. Note this is not just for Dataflows, but for most types of connection where the structure changes, for example CSV, Excel etc.
Check if the source data set is set to private by the person who published the report. Changing this might grant you access to the source dataset.
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'm using Power bi service along with power bi desktop version.
What I'd like is to spend less time on setting up UI for my charts.
Let's say I have multiple accounts with power bi datasets in them (hybrid dataset to be able to display data in real-time).
Currently I have to create report on each of them, set up charts etc. I expected to create pbix file once and then just publish it to different accounts. But when it comes to reports bound with power bi datasets, it is no longer possible. Even if account already has exactly the same hybrid dataset.
Any ideas on how to implement portable reports?
If I got your point correctly, you have multiple accounts and in each of them you have the same dataset. You want to create open report, which you will publish to all of these accounts. I do not understand why do you need to create a new report for each of your accounts. Why not just change the data source of your report prior publishing it to each of these accounts?
Also it is not clear, how these datasets are created. I think there are two possible options here - these datasets are published with your report, or they are existing datasets not published with this report.
In the first case, just design your report, getting data from your database, and publish the report in each of your accounts. You could change the data source prior every publishing, if your different accounts/datasets should get data from different databases.
In the second case, when you design your report, do not get data from the database, but connect the report to the Power BI Service itself:
and pick the existing dataset:
Before each publish change the account you are logged in, change the data source of the report and select the dataset from the corresponding account. This way when publishing the report, the dataset will not be overwritten, but will be shared between this report and any other report who uses it.
To change the data source of your report, in the drop down of "Edit Queries" button, select "Data source settings" and then click "Change Source..." button.
In both ways you will design your report only once, but it will be published in different accounts using different data.
Are all of your users in the same tennant/company?
If so, create a workspace. Create your report which uses another power BI dataset as its source. Turn on row level permissions. Share the new report to all people. They will only see the data relevant to them and you will only need to maintain one report.
Row level security in power bi
I have used Power BI Service with Multiple Reports/Users in Same Organization with Shared Data Sources using different Reports for each user using the same Datasets.
From your Admin Account (eg. it#contoso.org) Publish all the Reports and once its working from Online (after configuring Gateway and DataSources). Download the PBIX Report File from Power BI Online.
Using Admin Account go to Dataset Settings and Allow the users who will use reports using this datasets to Publish Reports using this Dataset (further security to use dataset i.e. Even if they get the source PBIX File and upload it they wont get access to the data).
Login using the Users Power BI Account (must be within Same Organization, eg. contoso.org) then upload the Same PBIX Report File which was downloaded Earlier from Power BI Web Portal (do not publish via the Desktop App), its more efficient and cleaner on Accessing the Data through Web/Devices.
Now the reports as already they are using the same shared Datasets, the reports will be running fine and the data source settings only have to be done once from Admin User.
And for any further databases Administration only One Admin Account need to be used to access and modify the Data Source Settings.