Forum Discussion

Gazzer's avatar
Gazzer
Icon for Resolver II rankResolver II
8 years ago
Solved

Web Connector to Xe.com

I have a web connector which goes to xe.com to get the current list of currency exchange rates. It works fine in Desktop, but once uploaded it is not possible to set a scheduled refresh as there is no gateway.

 

This appears to be a simple, publicly available site and I unclear why this would not be possible to refresh. I may be wrong on this, of course.

 

The steps:

let
    Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents("http://www.xe.com/currencytables/?from=GBP")),
    Data0 = Source{0}[Data],
    #"Changed Type1" = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Data0,{{"Currency code ▲▼", type text}, {"Currency name ▲▼", type text}, {"Units per GBP", type number}, {"GBP per Unit", type number}}),
    #"Renamed Columns" = Table.RenameColumns(#"Changed Type1",{{"Currency code ▲▼", "Currency Code"}, {"Currency name ▲▼", "Currency Name"}})
in
    #"Renamed Columns"
  • I guess you will need to install the Power BI Gateway (on a server that is running when you want to run your refresh) and then you need to add the website as a source when you manage the Gateway in the service and then you will be able to schedule a refresh.

     

    It seems like an odd requirement because it's a source available to everyone and you don't need any login to access the data, but I guess Power BI need to know that this source doesn't require any login, hence you need to set authentication method to anonymous when you setup the data source.

4 Replies

  • Greg_Deckler's avatar
    Greg_Deckler
    Icon for Community Champion rankCommunity Champion

    That is odd. I was able to recreate this. In the past, if it is a publicly available website and you use the Web Connector, the Service has been able to refresh these on its own. Something changed.

  • sdjensen's avatar
    sdjensen
    Icon for Solution Sage rankSolution Sage

    I guess you will need to install the Power BI Gateway (on a server that is running when you want to run your refresh) and then you need to add the website as a source when you manage the Gateway in the service and then you will be able to schedule a refresh.

     

    It seems like an odd requirement because it's a source available to everyone and you don't need any login to access the data, but I guess Power BI need to know that this source doesn't require any login, hence you need to set authentication method to anonymous when you setup the data source.

    • sdjensen's avatar
      sdjensen
      Icon for Solution Sage rankSolution Sage

      I just made a quick test using your query and without adding the source to my gateway i was NOT able to schedule refresh for this dataset, but once I added it to my gateway I could schedule it.

    • Gazzer's avatar
      Gazzer
      Icon for Resolver II rankResolver II

      Greg_Deckler Thanks for the info - always good to know someone else can replicate the issue.

       

      sdjensen I guess you are right, I'm going to have to install the gateway. I appreciate you testing out the theory.