Using DirectQuery to access a file in a network drive

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am trying to use DirectQuery to connect to Excel files that are saved onto a network drive. We have been just importing this data into PBI using the Excel option but we are trying to automatically refresh our reports while avoiding Gateways to setup auto-refreshes of the data and wanted to test using DirectQuery. Which option under "Get Data" should I be using to be able to directly link to the sheets.

Here's an example of my file path:

\\aaa.companyname.com\home\ops\pltraining\matt's folder\section meetings\plant A\plant A utilization.xlsx

and I have files in several other folder locations branching from the Section Meetings folder if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

[v-lid-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

We can use the web Connector (Web.Contens function) to get the online excel and then we can convert it into a excel file. In most cases,  using Web Connector in Import mode can configure scheduled refresh without using gateway. But we cannot using Direct Query with Web Connector based on this document.

Best regards,

[littlemojopuppy]

I don't believe Direct Query will work for this.  Direct Query is intended for connections to databases, will pass a query into the database as users manipulate visualizations.  You're going to want to use Import.

See this link.  Quote: "DirectQuery is only feasible when the underlying data source can provide interactive queries (less than 5 seconds) for the typical aggregate query, and is able to handle the query load that will be generated."

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