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.
Related
We are having difficulty finding a method of sharing a dataset and allowing users to use that dataset to create and publish their own reports. This would include ability to create new measures (Dax) and then publish themselves. Using the "service" live connection does not seem to allow that and if not using that there seems to be an issue of refreshing the data once that dataset is downloaded and modified with new columns/measures etc.
Greatly appreciate any help on this. So far I have seen nothing that shows how to do any of this so I have to assume it may not be possible? Thank you.
Live Connect to a Power BI Dataset allows for local measures.
If you need more modeling changes when working with a remote Data Set, the DirectQuery for Power BI Datasets and AAS feature (currently in preview) enables you to mash-up remote Data Set tables, with local tables, and allows for adding calculated columns to remote tables.
But you should use this with some care, as the query processing is split between the local model and the remote model(s), which can cause performance issues.
I have a power BI dataset that takes its data from a software made by the IT team in my organization.
I was wondering if it was possible for me to "freeze" all the data in the PBI dataset (like, taking a picture of the data for exemple today) and use this dataset for further analysis (I have another power BI file linked to that Power BI dataset). I know the data won't refresh, but it's not important for what I need to do, as I only need to have the past info.
The reason why I need to know if that's possible is that I'm going oversea for one month and won't have access to the original dataset. Downloading all the data into one excel is impossible as it is way to big.
thanks
It sounds like you're after some sort of snapshotting functionality
If you just wanted to keep the file as is, then you can download the pbix and just not refresh it provided its in import mode.
However one approach you could take if you want to continue doing development without worrying about accidentally refreshing is to use a power bi dataflow
You could copy your power query queries to a dataflow. Refresh them all as at today. Then don't refresh the dataflow anymore
You can then point your power bi dataset to your dataflow
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/dataflows/dataflows-create
That way if you wanted to do further transformation of data, you wouldnt be getting new data from the data source (so long as you dont refresh the dataflow)
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.
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.
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.