Data Activator Not Activating

[Mat42]

I'm trying out the data activator and I just can't seem to get it to work.

My dataset is a simple table of names and numbers:

I created a chart like this:

and created a simple alert like this to alert when numbers go above 200 (you can't see on the example, but the current highest is 130):

After adding new data and refreshing, so the chart now looks like this:

I get no alert. I set it to email and tested it and the test email arrives. What am I doing wrong? is there a fundamental step I'm missing? I've checked the Reflex and everything seems to look OK there (to the best of my limited knowledge). It's set to 'Each Time' which I assume means 'Each time a figure goes beyond the threshold send me an email'.

Any ideas?

N.B. Apologies for the layout, it just doesn't seem to want to format nicely.

[Ylreeb]

Hi All,

facing a similar issue with data of an on-premise Oracle-DB in "Direct-Query" mode. The related dashboard respectively visual displays changes in the data in near-realtime as expected but linked Activator Triggers on these particular visuals/measures do not work.

When activating a "Scheduled Refresh" each time the actions got triggered according to the configured Action conditions/rules.

I had read something about potential issues in terms of UTC and the format of datetime values (DAX) and tried to modify it - but didn't work out.

Any idea?

Thinking about getting in touch with the MS support.....

Thx in advance

[jameshutton]

Hello @Mat42 . In your example, Data Activator will alert when the value of "Number" for any "Name" becomes greater than 200. This means that it will alert when the Number for a given Name was previously less than 200, and then becomes greater than 200. In your screenshots I can see that there's a value for "Jeff" in in the second chart, but I don't see a value for "Jeff" in the first chart. If "Jeff" only appeared for the first time in your second chart, then it won't trigger an alert, because the value was never less than 200. If you instead update the value of "Dave" to, say, 250, then you should get an alert.

[zzthatcher]

I can confirm that this functionality plainly does not work for me as well. It seems like this functionality is completely broken and I am not sure why people are not talking about it more. 

To give more color to it, the value stays exactly the same for me in all of the shown datapoints on the data activator design page for the trigger. But the card that I set the alert on clearly updated to new values a long time ago. I should also say that I am using a directlake connection and that the card is a basic card showing a single sum of integers on a tiny table that I have set up just to test the most basic functionality.

It seems like the thing that is broken is the connection between the data and the alert mechanism. 

I similarly had it work a single time, but now it is stuck. 

This would have been a killer feature for using the powerbi portion of fabric for my team. Without it, I don't know if it is worth it to adopt this tool in a big way.

[jameshutton]

Hello @zzthatcher . You mention that you are using a Direct Lake dataset. At present we have a known issue with Direct Lake datasets, which is that you must refresh the dataset manually in order for Data Activator to notice changes in the data. This is a bug and we are working on a fix. In the meantime, if you refresh the dataset manually then you should see the values change in your Data Activator item.

[frithjof_v]

I am experiencing the same.

It seems to me that we need to refresh the direct lake semantic model (sounds very unintuitive) in order for Data Activator to detect changes in the direct lake report.

And it only checks the Power BI data once per hour. 

I agree, it would have been such a great feature.

[Anonymous]

Hi there I have same issue. I created the Reflex, I get the test alert but when do i receive the actual  alert?

i'm testting with a report  in a premium space, i have powerrbi pro,  and I change data and refresh my dashboard in the service but get no alert. 

thanks in advance

[Mat42]

Thanks for all your replies. I've tried all suggestions and followed instructions/guidance on every link and am still not getting anywhere.

Oddly, I did receive an alert that was obviously triggered by some changes I'd made, but it was only 1 and correlated with only a single time I'd changed things to hit the trigger. I received it about 3 hours after I'd made the change and I did nothing differently, but this time it took for some reason. I couldn't get it to happen again.

I can see on the Reflex that it's registering the changes (a nice little line graph dipping and rising), but nothing seems to be triggering (except for that one time for reasons best known to PBI).

My main problem is that the whole process isn't intuitive, so fault finding just confuses me. Setting the alert up seems straightforward enough, but when it doesn't work...it just doesn't. I could do with a simple summary (written in crayon if possible) explaining exactly what I've set up. At least PowerAutomate has the good grace to say 'Hey, it didn't run'.

I'll keep trying.

[v-xuxinyi-msft]

Hi @Mat42 ,

Please check this page in Data Activator and ensure the trigger is working:

If it is working, please confirm that the "recipient" section of your action card is you. When you click "send me a test alert", the alert always goes to you, regardless of who the recipient is on on our action card.
Solved: Reflex Trigger action not working, but test alert ... - Microsoft Fabric Community
If the recipient of the email is confirmed to be yourself, please confirm that the email address you provided belongs to the organization that owns the Fabric tenant. Also, check the maximum data throughput and maximum number of triggered operations for event stream data.Data Activator has limitations in these two areas.
Data Activator limitations - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
And the timing difference between when the trigger was started and when the matched event was send to Data Activator will be one possible reason.
Data Activator Set-up Complete - No email received - Microsoft Fabric Community
If none of the above helps you, take a look for any error codes. If you can find the error code, you can try to find a solution in this document:
Troubleshooting errors in Data Activator - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _Yuliax

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[aj1973]

Hi @Mat42 

What number and for what categorie the alert is set up ! that's what Power BI needs to know.

You need to create a measure and display it into a card. from the card you can set up the Alert.