Gateway will not connect to an Excel File due to naming convention

[KarlCullimore]

Has anyone else had the same issue , I had an error connecting to an Excel sheet on a local drive. So I checked it was not pointing a a hard coded drive C;\ but at the actual link \\ .  I managed to fix it by amending from '20170101 – ABC.xlsx' to 20170101_ABC.xlsx has anyone else come across any naming conventions that caused an issue ?

[gotnvols37932]

The issue I have seen is when the report name ends with a blank space.  When trying to connect many semantic models, it will give a connection error

[Bordalos]

@KarlCullimore do you have spaces before and after the dash? 

Data Management Best Practices for file naming  recommends to:

• Avoid Special characters such as  ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ` ; < > ? , [ ] { } ' " and |
• Do not use spaces. Some software will not recognize file names with spaces, and file names with spaces must be enclosed in quotes when using the command line. Other options include:
• Underscores, e.g. file_name.xxx
• Dashes, e.g. file-name.xxx
• No separation, e.g. filename.xxx
• Camel case, where the first letter of each section of text is capitalized, e.g. FileName.xxx

Thats why when you changed it to a 20170101_ABC.xlsx it worked.

BR

BR

[KarlCullimore]

Thanks @Bordalos it did indeed have spaces before and after.  As I need to update my company docs for our self service contingent, I could do with knowing whihc microsoft site this comes from so that I can add it to company documentation on the Power BI gateway. If you have a link that would be very much appreciated.

[v-yuezhe-msft · Accepted solution]

@KarlCullimore,

What error message do you get? I have no issues connecting to the Excel file which has spaces in file name under gateway, please review the following screenshot.



Regards,
Lydia

[KarlCullimore]

Hi Lydia,

I cannot reproduce , the error message was an unable to connect issue. But it currently reading as connection succesful. Im blaming the hidden character issue. 

Thanks