Passing a parameter to a URL

[eyeball]

Hi,

I'm just starting out in Power BI and was wondering if it's possible to pass a patameter from one tile to another that is getting its data from a web URL.

So, what I'm thinking is that on a report there would be a list of funds that is sourced from an internal system and when one is selected the fund code is passed to a web url and real time web data is brought back and displayed in the report in another tile.

Hope that makes sense,

Thanks!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @eyeball,

>>I'm just starting out in Power BI and was wondering if it's possible to pass a patameter from one tile to another that is getting its data from a web URL.

I haven't found a way to use tiles to achieve your requirement . In my opinion, you can use the power query and parameters to get data from web content.

For example:

Creata parameter from other query.

Write a custom function to call api:

let
    CallAPi= (
        URL as text,
        Token as text,
        optional Timeout as number
    ) as any => 
let
    WebTimeout = if Timeout = null then #duration(0,0,0,100) else #duration(0,0,0,Timeout) , 
    WebResponse = Web.Contents(URL&"?Token="&Token, 
        [Headers = [Authorization="xxxxx",
                    #"Content-Type"="application/json",
                    Accept="application/json"],
         Timeout = WebTimeout]),
    
    output = formatfunction(WebResponse) //format the response
in
    output 
in
    CallAPi

Add new query to invoke this function:

let
    Source = CallAPi("URL", ParaList, 10000)
in
    Source

After above steps, you can modify parameter to change the source table.

Reference link:

Web.Contents

Is it possible to dynamically update the source URL with Power Query ?

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @eyeball,

>>I'm just starting out in Power BI and was wondering if it's possible to pass a patameter from one tile to another that is getting its data from a web URL.

I haven't found a way to use tiles to achieve your requirement . In my opinion, you can use the power query and parameters to get data from web content.

For example:

Creata parameter from other query.

Write a custom function to call api:

let
    CallAPi= (
        URL as text,
        Token as text,
        optional Timeout as number
    ) as any => 
let
    WebTimeout = if Timeout = null then #duration(0,0,0,100) else #duration(0,0,0,Timeout) , 
    WebResponse = Web.Contents(URL&"?Token="&Token, 
        [Headers = [Authorization="xxxxx",
                    #"Content-Type"="application/json",
                    Accept="application/json"],
         Timeout = WebTimeout]),
    
    output = formatfunction(WebResponse) //format the response
in
    output 
in
    CallAPi

Add new query to invoke this function:

let
    Source = CallAPi("URL", ParaList, 10000)
in
    Source

After above steps, you can modify parameter to change the source table.

Reference link:

Web.Contents

Is it possible to dynamically update the source URL with Power Query ?

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@eyeball,

I think the suggestion from @Anonymous is a neat approach to this issue, but there may be a couple of points to note that I've hit recently:

1. I don't think you can edit parameters in the Power BI service, only in Desktop - so if your clients are only using the PBI service, this won't work;
2. Even on Desktop, once you click through the several steps to edit a parameter, you then need to "Apply Change" to force a refresh on the new dataset - so the user interface is pretty clunky just now; and
3. Using a parameter based on a query to form a URL for a (second) external query will invoke the "Formula.Firewall" error about mixing internal and external data sources - you'll have to be prepared to turn on the "Fast Combine" option to work around that by checking: "Ignore the Privacy Levels...." under Settings -> Options -> Privacy - see http://www.excelguru.ca/blog/2015/03/11/power-query-errors-please-rebuild-this-data-combination/.

There is some discussion on this sort of issue in this idea -https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/11723658-allow-publish-time-parameters

I recommend voting for this, or another, idea to help get improved support for this sort of requirement.