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Maeaex1's avatar
Maeaex1
Frequent Visitor
2 years ago

Best Way to let user upload/update data in data model / underlying source

Hi community,   what's the best way that users can upload/update data (e.g. an Excel File in Sharepoint) that is reflected instantaneous/real-time in a published PowerBI online report? I read about...
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Jonvoge's avatar
Jonvoge
Most Valuable Professional
2 years ago

Hi Maeaex1

If you need real-time data updates, the key is to use a data source which supports DirectQuery.
This rules out Sharepoint as an option, and rather suggests using a SQL database or similar.

My personal go-to is to build a simple Power App as the user-facing application to accept inputs.
The Power App can easily be secured, and can be embedded directly in your Power BI reports as well for some pretty nice interaction. 

I published a step by step guide about this here: Guide: Add Write-Back to Power BI reports with Power Apps - Part 2: Display write-back data LIVE in Power BI reports (linkedin.com)

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Maeaex1's avatar
Maeaex1
Frequent Visitor
2 years ago

Hi Jonvoge,

 

Thank you for your help & reply!

 

Do you know if Power Apps can be programmed in a way that Copying the values of let's say 40-50 rows with 2 columns of an Excel Spreadsheet into the Power App would be possible? Or does the user then need to copy/paste every indiviudal value? The number of rows would be variable.

 

I wish you a great day ahead!

Max