We have a web application which is installed on customer sites.
They get to choose the name of the web server and the port that it runs on.
The web application exposes some data via an OData endpoint.
The web application also serves some template Power BI files (.pbit)
At the moment, when the customers run the pbit files for the first time, the data refresh fails and they have to relink their data source.
We use data source referencing and store the location of the endpoint in a parameters table but it's still a pain for the customers to have to change this value, and, since we (the web application) know the endpoint URL, we'd like to be able to update the pbit file with the appropriate setting.
Ideally we'd like an API to be able to manipulate the pbit file, or maybe to be able to supply parameters to Power BI desktop, or even load the pbit file (which is a .zip file as I'm sure you know!), and alter the appropriate part within it.
Has anyone actually managed to do programatically or dynamically change a data source URI without needing manual intervention?
Thanks.
I would use the Query Parameters feature for this (more details in the link below). Note as of the July 2016 update, the source for parameters can now be another Query.
So I would build that "parameter allowed values" query by pointing at an Azure SQL instance or some other web-visible source that helps them choose the right value.
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-query-parameters-and-power-bi-templates/
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-july-feature-summary/
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.
I am looking for an answer regarding report data storage concept in Power BI.
I have published 3 reports to Power BI service (cloud):
Report1 with Excel source
Report2 with onpremise Sql server source
Report3 with azure sql source
Around 200 users in my organization will be accessing these reports. I want to understand whether:
The first time a particular report is accessed, will the data be fetched from the source and shown in the report or will it be stored to some cloud location from where the data will go to the report?
Suppose a user opens a report that was already viewed by another user, then will the data be fetched from the source again or is there any concept of cross user shared cache?
Suppose a user opens the report for the 2nd time (example: after having already accessed it, suppose user refreshes the web page), will the data will be fetched again? Or is there any concept of shared cache?
Does the answer to any of the above change if I had used the Power BI reporting server (onpremise) and deployed the report on the PBRS?
With the service, you typically upload a PBIX, which contains the report pages and all of the underlying data. Unless you set up a data gateway to accommodate DirectQueries and/or scheduled refreshes, the cloud service does not access your original data sources at all. With a scheduled refresh, it only accesses the original data during the refresh. A DirectQuery connection does access a server "live" but has many limitations.
The data is fetched when you load it into your Power BI desktop application and then loaded into the cloud when you publish the report to a workspace. Once it's there, the data shown to the user is fetched from the cloud copy, not the original data source.
Same answer as above regarding where the data is fetched from (the cloud copy). I don't believe there is shared cache between users but rather each user has some temporary caching individually. This type of caching saves the calculation results (computed on the underlying data) that are needed to populate the report visuals.
There is some caching done temporarily so that if a user switches among slicer combinations to one previously chosen you may see much quicker loading than when selecting a new configuration since it cached the results and doesn't need to recompute them. As far as I understand, this kind of caching is short-lived and not shared among users. Remember, this type of cache is not the same as the underlying data in the cloud copy of the PBIX.
I've not used an on-premise server, but I would expect the behavior to be similar with the exception that the service is on the local server instead of a could server somewhere else.
The upshot is that traffic in the service is separated from the requests to the original source data (assuming no DirectQuery connections). Those original sources are only accessed during data refreshes, which are independent of end-user actions (under the same assumption).
I have developed a Power BI report using Power BI Desktop, pointing to a private on premise development database as the datasource so that I was able to develop and test it easily. Then, I published it from my Power BI Desktop pbix to the work area of my customer.
As a result, the work area contains the published report and the dataset. Later, my customer has changed the dataset so that it now points to the correct on premise production database of their own. It works perfectly.
Now, I want to publish a new report for my customer using the previously published and reconfigured dataset. The problem is that I can't see any option in Power BI Desktop to have the report point to the published dataset, nor I can't see any option to avoid creating a new dataset each time I publish a report, nor any way to reconfigure from the web portal the new published report to point to the same dataset as the first one.
Is there any way to do this or any work around for this scenario? I think the most reasonable solution would be to be able to change the dataset of any report, so that the datasets of any report could be interchangeable.
Update:
I had already used connection specific parameters, but I'm not given rights to change the published dataset, so thats a dead end.
Another thing I have come up to is that in Power BI Desktop you cannot change the connection parameters values to those of production enviroment and publish the report if you can't access the target database from your computer, because PowerBI Desktop ask you to apply changes first, and when it tries to apply the values it tries to connect to the corresponding database and, obviously, ends with a network related error or timeout error trying to connect to the database server, therefore cancelling changes and returning to the starting point.
It's always a good practice to use connection specific parameters to define the data source. This means that you do not enter server name directly, but specify it indirectly using a parameter. The same for the database name, if applicable.
If you are about to make a new report, cancel Get data dialog, define parameters as described bellow, and then in Get data specify the datasource using these parameters:
To modify an existing report, open Power Query Editor by clicking Edit Queries and in Manage Parameters define two new text parameters, lets name them ServerName and DatabaseName:
Set their current values to point to one of your data sources, e.g. SQLSERVER2016 and AdventureWorks2016. Then right click your query in the report and open Advanced Editor. Find the server name and database name in the M code:
and replace them with the parameters defined above, so the M code will look like this:
Now you can close and apply changes and your report should work as before. But now when you want to change the data source, do it using Edit Parameters:
and change the server and/or database name to point to the other data source, that you want to use for your report:
After changing parameter values, Power BI Desktop will ask you to apply the changes and reload the data from the new data source. To change the parameter values (i.e. the data source) of a report published in Power BI Service, go to dataset's settings and enter new server and/or database name:
If the server is on-premise, check the Gateway connection too, to make sure that it is configured properly to use the right gateway. You may also want to check the available gateways in Manage gateways:
After changing the data source, refresh your dataset to get the data from the new data source. With Power BI Pro account you can do this 8 times per 24 hours, while if the dataset is in a dedicated capacity, this limit is raised to 48 times per 24 hours.
This is a easy way to make your reports "switchable", e.g. for switching one report from DEV or QA to PROD environment, or as part of your disaster recovery plan, to automate switching all reports in some workgroup to another DR server. In your case, this will allow you (or your customers) to easily switch the datasource of the report.
I think the only correct answer is that it cannot be done, at least at this moment.
The most closest way of achieving this is with Live connections:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets
But if you have already designed your report without using the Live connection but your own development enviroment and corresponding connection parameters then you are lost, your only chance is redo all your report with the Live Connection, or the queerest one solution, to use an alias in your configuration matching the name of the database server and the same database name that in the target production environment.
So, currently I'm having difficulty understanding how Power BI Embedded can be setup so that each customer can access data from their own separate Azure Analysis Service, this is an App Owns Data situation. Analysis Services will be running in In-Memory mode and it will be accessed from Power BI via Live Connect.
Ideally I would like the Power BI Report to be ignorant of the data set/data source until the embedded report is provided with a parameter (e.g. connection string) which the report interprets so that it knows which server to connect to. So, ideally have: one Workspace, one Report, and zero (or a fake) Dataset.
The following is roughly what I'm looking to do (note the Red and Blue flow access a different server):
It looks like if I created both a Report and Dataset per customer I can achieve my goal but this seems like a poor approach since if the Report needs to be updated this involves updating, potentially, hundreds of reports. Also creating hundreds of Reports seems like unnecessary overhead when all Power BI needs to change for each request is the connection string pointing to the data source.
So is it possible to share the Workspace and Report across all customers but having completely separate data sources? Or is my approach in conflict with the way Power BI expects to function?
To date, I've tried using Query Parameters when configuring the data source in Power BI Desktop but I get the following error:
The connect live option for this file is disabled because it already contains data from another data source. You cannot explore live data and connect to another type of data source in the same file.
Please note,
Every report in Power BI can be connected to only one Dataset.
There is NO ability to dynamically change a connection string on the fly.
Currently, and in the foreseeable future, you'd have to clone the report & dataset per customer (or per connection setup) and modify the new dataset's connection string to match.
You can then dynamically choose which report to display based on your customer's needs.
Cloning a report can be done using:
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/reports/{report_id}/Clone
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/{group_id}/reports/{report_id}/Clone
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt784674.aspx
Changing the connection string would be done using:
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/datasets/{dataset_id}/Default.SetAllConnections
(similar API for groups)
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt748181.aspx
using the C#.NET library provided by Power BI team, you'd use
Reports.CloneReport(string reportKey, CloneReportRequest requestParameters)
Datasets.SetAllDatasetConnections(string datasetKey, ConnectionDetails parameters)
I have a URL that returns a json object with everything I need for my power bi embedded report. I get the data for the report by adding a new web data source and pasting the URL in. a few transformations later and tada! sexy report. the report shows lots of charts and graphs etc... however I need to be able to change the datasource URL depending on who is looking at it.
The report shows data for a single organization. You can only look at it if you're in that organization. how can I pass an organizations ID when embedding the report so that the datasource will show different data?
for example if my datasource is defined in the originating pbix as
Json.Document(Web.Contents("http://www.testdata.com/api/json?orgId=1"))
how can I change it to
Json.Document(Web.Contents("http://www.testdata.com/api/json?orgId=2"))
when I'm pull the report to embed on a page?
I know you can filter data but that means I have to make the datasource URL pull ALL the data which would be huge and intensive just to have bi filter out something.
In short, I'm embedding a report on a website and tat report's only way to get data is via a json endpoint. That endpoint requires the org id of the user so how do I pass it to bi which in turn uses it in the data source url?
Your only option for this scenario is to pull all the required data into your dataset. Then you can use either Role Level Security (RLS) or the new JS API to filter the data for each user.
You should probably look at an Azure SQL data source as a more efficient, flexible and scalable back-end for PBI Embedded.