I am trying to query a Salesforce Datasource using the Salesforce API in Power BI.
The issue I am having is that the Salesforce API requires the SOQL to either contain a WHERE clause on the specific query being performed, by using an explicit value "=" or a IN operator.
If I use something like the following
each ([Column] = "value")
It works, however if I try and pass a list like the following:
each List.Contains(myList, [Column])
It fails with an error because the SOQL query being executed in the background clearly does a filtering AFTER all the data has been returned (i.e being filtered in Power BI after its been retrieved and not at source) and the Web API is expecting a IN operating with a list of values.
With regards to the first query, this works because the SOQL in the background is WHERE (MyField = 'someValue')
Does anyone have any ways around this? Can Power BI pass a collection into a where clause some way?
If not, I thought about querying the records by a single value and looping through this but it will have performance issues and not the best way of doing such query!
I have also tried joining the tables on the field I need but it also looks like the joins are performed after the data is retrived and not before (using SOQL).
I cannot modify the Web API to support other queries.
Thank you!
Related
I am working on a PowerBi project and I need some advice/questions on the best way to approach this project. I am tasked to create a dashboard for employee metrics pulled from an onsite SQL Server database. The managers here are going to have access to the PowerBi cloud, so I will end up uploading this to the cloud. There are 10 or so metrics that need to be shown on the dashboard. We have 5000+ employees. My first thought was to create a table and dump all the metrics into a table and set the PowerBi report to import the data, but that seems excessive and a waste of space to upload all that data to the CLOUD because all of the managers don't need access to every employee. They may want to see 1 or 2 employees' metrics on the dashboard.
My second thought is to (and if this is possible) create a stored procedure that will take the employee id and output a dataset for PowerBi to create a visual for. On the dashboard, have a list of employees and when a manager selects one, PowerBi will call the stored procedure with the employee id and the dataset will be returned for PowerBi to decipher into a visual based on my measurements. I guess I would set the PowerBi report connection type as DIRECT QUERY?
Here are my questions:
Is this possible? Is it possible to what I am thinking for my second plan? Is this how DIRECT QUERY works?
If so, how does DIRECT QUERY work with the PowerBi cloud?
What is setup like? Do I just install the PowerBi Data Gateway/configure it like IMPORT DATA and PowerBi does the rest?
A couple of queries:
What is the frequency of data update ?
In case if it is a batch job, it is ideally preferable to import that data from source into powerbi model and do reporting on the imported data as
a) The performance would be quicker
b) There would be no to and for of data across on prem database and cloud
c) the source would not be impacted constantly
So is the ask to have RLS wherein the managers should see only the employees under them?
Then it is pretty easy to implement RLS in imported version rather than in case of direct query.
Also you won't be able to pass parameters to stored procedures, and you can't execute them in direct query mode. You can however, create table valued functions which give you the ability to use table variables and perform other functions that are more complex in nature in Direct Query mode
you can refer this for additional details :
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Can-i-call-Stored-Procedure-with-Direct-Query/m-p/267141#:~:text=%40Pallavi%20you%20won't%20be,nature%20in%20Direct%20Query%20mode.
I'm trying to build a simple report in Power BI based upon data published on a website.
Here is what I want to achieve
This website publishes data for COVID cases in the country.
The number are just the current numbers, without any time-series.
I want to fetch these numbers from this website daily and build a report on
top of it (with time series kind of analysis).
So I fetch these numbers (Get Data > Web > URL) and get this into a query I then add
a custom column with a timestmap (M's DateTime.LocalNow() function)
and get this data with the required timestamp.
Now I want to refresh this query daily, so that I get daily results in this query.
6. As expected, PBI simply overwrites the existing rows with new data,
with the latest timestamp (my custom column).
I tried few things like:-
Creating a new query and appending data to it, it doesn't seem to work, existing data gets over-written (maybe the way I have created the new query).
Explored incremental refresh functionality, it doesn't seem to fit my use case.
Tried looking at other similar posts, none seem to help me resolve this.
Questions:-
Is there a simple workaround to circumvent this (point#7) and have PBI append new data instead of overwriting existing data.
Am i correct on point#2 above (incremental refresh)?
Appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance!
There is no simple workaround within Power BI.
Power BI is not designed to be used as a database where you store historical data. It's designed to connect to data and create reports from that, so you'll need to store the daily data somewhere external.
There are tons of ways to store the data. E.g., you could save them as CSVs in a folder that Power BI loads from or you could write them to a database table and connect to that.
Edit: That said, there is a non-simple workaround if this is something you really must do.
Though not recommended, you can use incremental refresh to trick Power BI into doing what you want.
Is it possible to change SQL statement of the dataset via API call?
My Scenario: I have data in multiple tables in SQL Server. I have created a SQL query with joins to fetch the required data. I created a SQL server dataset by providing that query in the SQL Statement section and published it on the Power BI workspace. Now, I want to modify that SQL Statment programmatically.
I want to import this same .pbix file to create different datasets. The Idea is to use import date set api to import this dummy dataset and then programmatically change the db source and the SQL Statment, to customizes it for my different report need.
Any pointer or help is much appreciated.
For server name and database name, you can simply use parameters. Click the button to the left of the field to do this. You can make some changes in the query using parameters too, but this isn't very flexible. This can be done by defining text parameter and using it in in the M statement associated with the dataset’s Source step. For more information you may see this article:
https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/sql/bi/power-bi-introduction-working-with-parameters-in-power-bi-desktop-part-4/
Then you can use the Rest API to modify parameter values and refresh your datasets. You will need Update Parameters In Group and Refresh Dataset In Group API calls.
At of this writing, this is not supported by the Power BI REST API.
Possible workaround: Given you're using SQL Server, I'd suggest you create a VIEW in SQL Server with the statement you defined in your Power BI report, and change your report to point to that view instead.
Then, to modify the SQL statement, you just have to ALTER the view in the database.
I have a client that has a large number of customers, and I have reports that can accept parameters and pass to a REST-based Web API to pull, for example, customer-specific records. This, of course, is easy using Power BI.
The challenge is, there could literally be 500,000 records out there, so filters and passing filters is not really an option. What I need to do is pass a value via Power BI Embedded to the report that will update the parameter of the Web API dynamically.
Such as https://services.server.com/api/customers/{customerId}
.
I have read and experimented with about every technique possible, and yet I still can't seem to pull this simple (and common) scenario off. To confirm, this is would work fine if I allowed a user to filter these values manually, but the goal is to have the Web.Content value be dynamic (like via a parameter) and then the parameter (like CustomerId) get fed to the report externally, like in a Power BI embedded parameter to the report.
Again, this can't be a filter, I just want to do what you used to be able to do with SSRS or Crystal Reports and send something like {parameter} = (or eq) '{some value}' and have the report use that as the datasource JSON feed.
Any thoughts on this frustrating situation?
You can do this with RLS:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/embedded-row-level-security
Bring all the 500,000 records to your pbix.
Define a role which will filter based on an username.
When embedding, pass the role and the desired username to the embed token.
I am using Power BI API.
I've got a dataset with some tables and rows.
From Power BI API Console I don't have any issue when retrieving datasets or tables.
However the PUT verb on a table resource to update its schema always returns a 504 - Proxy request timed out
It's the first time I use Apiary IO so it might be its problem and not Power BI update, but that leads me to some questions:
Is there any workaround to test Power BI with, for example, Fiddler? I can type the url and body but I will need an Authorization header with the OAuth2 token if I'm not mistaken. How can I get that? ApiaryIO seems to hide it.
As per Update Schema Documentation the URL with the resource is https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/datasets/{myDatasetId}/tables/{myTableName}
and the verb is a PUT. What is then the meaning of the "name": "???" parameter that goes in the JSON body? Is it the table's name or something else? I am assuming it's the table name but it seems redundant as I am already accessing the resource {myTableName} as per the given URL.
And my last related question is how to rename a specific table's column without modifying its data? This is what I'm trying to achieve by updating the schema but I don't understand how does Power BI know what column I am trying to rename.
Thank you!
Sorry that you're having trouble. You can get a token in two ways -the right way is to create an app in AAD (here's how). The wrong way ;) is to open the Power BI.com service, in a browser then open fiddler, then press F5 to reload. You should be able to see the Access Token in various requests. If you register an app, you can plug in your App's information in one of the samples we have https://powerbi.microsoft.com/developers, see client app or web app.
The name you provide in the table is the friendly human readable name that appears in the UI when you're building a report. Without it the system is unusable by humans :).
Let me get back to you on #3.
Calling PUT table will attempt to save upgrade the table without loosing any data (unless you removed columns). If it can't, it will return a conflict error. If you still want to update the table schema, you would have to delete the rows and call PUT table again. There is currently no direct way to rename a column. PUT table would treat it like a delete and add for that column. You would loose the data in that column but not the whole table.