Data Activator Power BI Report Alert Refresh Rate

[AlexWuhoo]

Hello,

I have a Power BI Report setup with a table that reads from an Azure SQL table which gets refreshed in real time from a Synapse pipeline run with logging data. I have an alert set to listen when New Data Arrives, which should be only a handle of rows at a time. But currently there are two issues or limitations which I wanted to clarify.

1. The Reflex is triggering for every row of data in the table within the report every single hour, instead of it triggering for only the new rows. How can I set up the data to only trigger for the new data, or is there an issue here being that we're in preview?

2. The refresh rate for Data Activator reading data from Power BI Reports is defaulted to 1hour? Is there anywhere I can get this closer to real time or making any changes. I know that when this was first introduced last year the option to select refresh rate was there however it isn't anymore? Ideally I want a way for the Data Activator reflex to trigger in real time as soon as the Power BI report gets refreshed and there's new data there.

[jameshutton · Accepted solution]

Hello @AlexWuhoo 

I'll answer your 2nd question first: yes, Data Activator checks Power BI data hourly at present; we are looking to allow more frequent updates in a future release.

Regarding your 1st question: If your table has a timestamp column, then Data Activator will use the timestamp as the event time for each event. It will use that timestamp to remember which rows it has already seen, and then it will only look at new rows each time it polls the table. I can see from your screenshot that your table does indeed have a timestamp column, called "SubmissionDateTime", but it appears that Data Activator hasn't recognized it as a datetime column. Are you by any chance doing some string conversion on the column that is precluding Data Activator from recognising it as a datetime? If so, try removing the conversion and see if that fixes it.

[AlexWuhoo · Accepted solution]

Fixed it with this 

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Query/Convert-Date-Time-in-UTC-to-Local-Time-with-Da...

[jameshutton · Accepted solution]

Hello @AlexWuhoo 

I'll answer your 2nd question first: yes, Data Activator checks Power BI data hourly at present; we are looking to allow more frequent updates in a future release.

Regarding your 1st question: If your table has a timestamp column, then Data Activator will use the timestamp as the event time for each event. It will use that timestamp to remember which rows it has already seen, and then it will only look at new rows each time it polls the table. I can see from your screenshot that your table does indeed have a timestamp column, called "SubmissionDateTime", but it appears that Data Activator hasn't recognized it as a datetime column. Are you by any chance doing some string conversion on the column that is precluding Data Activator from recognising it as a datetime? If so, try removing the conversion and see if that fixes it.

[Christophe93100]

Hi

Are you sure for 1st question

Souds , there is no incremental EVALUATE()  DAX query trigerring  on Reflex  .. based a datetime columns

Your need to manage depth of analysis   , on the DAX measure

- All rows

- last non empty

- current hour

etc... 

[Christophe93100]

Hi dears

Yes sadly , your MS Fabric Data Activator Reflex Alert is triggered every hour

Waiting for more frequencies

Don't forget Reflex trigger your Visual the underling DAX query to fill in

Then "all logic"

SUM/MAX/MIN/AVERAGE all rows

SUM/MAX/MIN/AVERAGE last hour rows

ETC .. needs to be carried by your DAX Measure ( used by your visual under alert)

Example : 

-- A KPI value for last time point
-- Evaluation each hour via Reflex alert
-- email notification if value on Refrex is >= 80%

Last_Nblk_Interactive Delay % = CALCULATE (
        SUM(CUDetail[Interactive Delay %]),
        LASTNONBLANK (TimePoints,CALCULATE( SUM(CUDetail[Interactive Delay %]))
)
)

[AlexWuhoo]

Hi James,

I have fixed the issue with the datetime not being recognised properly but now when it is recognised, data activator interprets it as UTC time when the time is actually in AEST. Is it a bug that its not recognising it properly?

Because this is being recognised incorrectly if something had a time stamp  at 12pm AEST(2amUTC) , it will think its 12pm UTC and then you basically have to wait till the actual 12pmUTC time which is a 10hour delay AEST before it triggers.