If you are new to Dataflow, here is a very brief explanation:
POWER BI DESKTOP AUTOMATIC REFRESH HOW TO
I have previously explained about Power BI dataflow and use cases of it, I also explained how to create your first dataflow.
The Solution: Push the Transformation to Dataflow Now instead of us waiting for a long time to get this refreshing, and seeing a message like below, we want to speed it up You can apply the same method of refresh processes that take hours long. I’m just showing how to make it faster, even for a refresh that takes 5 minutes. and I created that sample model for training purpose here. Note that 5 minutes for refresh is not a long refresh time. For example, the Power BI report below takes 5 minutes to refresh. Having a long refresh time can cause a log of challenges, for example, you are doing a refresh to develop some changes, but due to the long refresh time, your development speed also reduces, and many other reasons. The long refresh time can be because the data source is slow, or the set of transformations steps used are heavy and makes the process of data preparation a lengthy process.
You have a Power BI file that takes a long time to refresh. To learn more about Power BI, read Power BI book from Rookie to Rock Star. I have previously explained some of the benefits of dataflows, and here is another one in action, let’s see how it can help. Copy your POST URL from Power Automate and paste it into the top URL bar.Does it take a long time to get your data refreshed in your Power BI model? Should you wait for hours for the refresh to finish because you have complex transformations behind the scene? Does the long refresh time make it hard for you to develop your solution? The good news I have for you in this article is how to use Power BI dataflows to help with reducing the refresh time of your Power BI models.
Without further ado, create a new API by navigating to /api. WrapAPI is perfect for our purposes because it will allow us to create a separate API endpoint that we can trigger with a GET request that can call our Power Automate flow via a POST request!
POWER BI DESKTOP AUTOMATIC REFRESH FREE
They have a very generous free account which allows you call an API 30,000 times per month for free. Head over to and sign up for an account. In order to send a POST request, we need a bit of help from WrapAPI. In short, if you call the URL from a web browser you are sending a GET request which will not work. This is the URL that you need to call to kick off the refresh action, BUT it needs to be a POST request. You can see in the above screenshot that there is an “HTTP POST URL.” Click the little copy button and paste it in a browser to see its contents.
Once you save the flow, click on the HTTP step to expand its details. Throwing the new column into a card and then adding a button for the eventual refresh action, our simple report looks like this: This logic is necessary because your Power BI Desktop client will return your current time when using the NOW() function while Power BI Service will return UTC time. The DAX needed for the calculated column uses the UTCNOW() function and subtracts 5/24 to return Eastern time (change accordingly depending on your time zone). I then created a calculated column to provide the last refresh time to verify that method works properly. Instead of telling them to navigate to Workspaces, then click on Datasets, find the dataset with the same name as the report, click the little refresh icon, etc… You can give them a button within the report to kick off the refresh! This trick involves using both Power Automate and another awesome technology called WrapAPI.įor this demonstration, I have connected to a web data source that refreshes virtually instantly. It is sometimes difficult to explain where the user should go to manually refresh the dataset behind the report. Here’s a fun trick: Using Power Automate (Previously called Microsoft Flow) to refresh a Power BI dataset via button click in a Power BI report! Let’s say that a user needs to kick off a refresh for some reason.
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