Power BI Dataflow Updates But Dataset and Reports Do Not - powerbi

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.

Related

Refresh data in PowerBI to bring in new columns

I'm using PowerBI Desktop Version: 2.87.762.0 64-bit (November 2020).
Reading data from ADLS Gen 2.
I have been trying to refresh the data in PowerBI to bring in new columns but can’t seem to do it.
I have data on ADLS which I imported into PowerBI.
Now in the source ADLS table I have additional columns.
I would like to refresh the data in PowerBI for it to read the latest tables and hence bring in the new columns.
I have tried refreshing but it doesn’t seem to work.
Tried clicking on “Refresh” in the “Report” view – (which reading online will not work)
Tried refreshing in the “Power Query Mode”. (Steps shown in the figure below, which I think should have worked)
But the new columns don’t show up in PowerBI.
I can download the data from ADLS and confirm that new columns are present.
What am I missing?
There is a few things you can check:
can you see the new columns in the power query editor? try a go a few steps back in transform history.
fx. Sometimes if you "expand" a column it will not add new columns and you will need to add those afterwards ie. do the expand-transform again.
btw. the "Refresh All" in the power query editor is only refreshing the example data.
if you see the data in the power query editor, try and hit refresh in the pbi editor.
if there is no data in the power query editor. use another tool to look at the source to confirm that the data i actually present in the stream that pbi has access to.

Switching the Data source in a Power BI Report

I have an Existing report in Power BI with Oracle Data Source from which I had directly access the Table.
But now I need to Change the Data Source of the Report using SSAS.
By Using SSAS, we can access the oracle Tables and deploy the SSAS in Azure Service.
Now through this Azure Service we can access the Data.
My Question is Without any Changes in the Report, Can we Simply Change the DataSource? Because I'm Showing Lot of Graphs in that Report.
Since I'm New to Power BI , Is this possible?
There will likely be an unpredictably large amount of other issues (character encoding, date formatting, etc.) that you'll have to work through.
The way I might approach this problem is, if the tables are exactly identical, or you didn't make any changes within power query (like removing columns, merging tables, etc.) you may be able to modify the M code within the advanced editor, and try to swap the data sources to see if it works.
Go into "Transform Data"
Select the table you want to modify
Click the "Advanced Editor" icon in the ribbon.
Here, I imported an excel file, but for you, it should show some kind of "AnalysisServices" line. I don't have an SSAS database to connect to so I can't validate. Try replacing this line with the connection string to your SSAS datasource and see if it works.
Save, apply update, and see if it works?
Again, this is not really advisable, but if you want to give it a try, and the data sources are identical, this is how I might approach the problem before just re-making the report whole-cloth.

PowerBI Dataset and Report replacement

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

Portability of Power Bi reports containing power bi datasets

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.

Publishing from Power BI Desktop always replaces the datasets

If I update the modelling in Power BI Desktop and then publish, I get the following message:
"You already have a dataset named 'xxxxx' in Power BI. Do you want to replace the existing dataset with this one?"
How do I get it to update rather than replace the dataset?
There is no update option. You can only replace, or, if you want to keep the existing dataset, rename the one you are trying to publish so it is unique in the workspace you are publishing to.
A dataset is a query against a source system and, if you are not in direct/live query mode, the associated data. The report you are publishing requires the dataset it is sourced from. The dataset is not separable from the report.
Even if there were no changes between the old dataset and the new dataset (i.e. you just made a cosmetic change to the report), PowerBI.com would have no way of knowing that unless it uploaded the new dataset and compared it to the old dataset. That would take so much longer than a replacement that I'm not sure what the value would be.
Sidenote: if you're looking to do an incremental update (e.g. only load new rows, and not re-upload existing rows), Power BI doesn't support this yet, but there is an idea you can vote on to get this feature added: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/7288623-incremental-data-loads. However, you specifically asked about publishing the report, so I doubt this is what you are looking for.