Connect to web data source like a folder?

[Anonymous]

I have some files published using apache and I am accessing them in Power BI with a Web connector. This works fine as long as I know the exact name of the file I want. But in some cases I need to import all the files in the web directory and don't know their names or how many there are.

E.g. my files are at  https://myserver/files/  and I am trying to access all the files in that web server directory in the same fashion as I coudl if using a FOLDER connnector, where I could read all the files in a Windows folder I can't seem to find any references to how to do this. I've see reference to accessing a SharePoint folder but this isn't SharePoint.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

I'm not sure if this is the same issue that I have: I'm trying to use a function like "Folder.Files" to access a list of files that I have in my web server folder.

Do you have any idea?

All best.

[Greg_Deckler]

Not sure if there is a solution. You could just sync the files locally. Oh, yeah, Apache doesn't do that. 😉 Not easily I guess anyway. https://www.liquidweb.com/kb/how-to-sync-two-apache-web-servers/

@ImkeF any ideas here?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, @Greg_Deckler  and @ImkeF however I don't need to sync multiple Apache servers. I have files being stored in one server and I can do a scheduled refresh with Power BI re-reading the data periodically.  My challenge is trying to find a way to treat that server directory as if it were a folder on a Windows OS, and have the functionality of a folder connection. That would allow me to get all the files in it, without knowing in advance how many there are, or their exact names. There may not be a way to do it like that.

[gracez]

Hi Gitouttatown,

Have you found the solution? I have the same problem getting all files in our server folder. Thank you.

Grace Zhang

[Anonymous]

Hi Grace- sorry for the very delayed reply. I didn't find a solution in the way I hoped. Ultimately I solved the problem by algorithmically generating all the file names I expected I might find, and then querying for each and doing error handling for items not found. That is, I'm looking for files that will be generated each day with a predictable pattern based on the date it was generated. So I look for each specific file. It's more work, but it does what I need. I would still like to be able to get a list of all files that are actually in a folder on a web server but I didn't find that sort of soltuion.

[ImkeF]

Hi @Anonymous ,

I'm not familiar with it, sorry.