A power BI report that displays its own metadata, including refresh history

[avatorl]

A crazy Power BI idea is in my head. It rather doesn’t make much practical sense, but such crazy ideas sometimes lead to useful solutions for the different problem.

A power BI report that displays its own metadata, including refresh history, including the most recent refresh error if refresh failed.

Crazy enough? Ha!

1) A composite model report with main data sources in import mode and one special table in direct query mode. Published into Power BI service.

2) A scheduled PowerShell* script that uses Power BI Cmdlets / REST API to get the refresh history and to insert it into the database table. Yeah, into the table that already connected to the report in direct query mode.

3) Now the report can display it’s own refresh history, including error details if refresh failed.

Am I crazy enough?

Just a quick test (not fully parsed/formatted):

https://powerofbi.org/2021/02/01/a-power-bi-report-that-displays-its-own-metadata-including-refresh-...

[v-lionel-msft]

Hi @avatorl ,

It is an interesting idea, thank you for your sharing.

Best regards,
Lionel Chen

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