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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
7 years ago

Dataflow +Dataset = NEED more Clarity!

Hi All, I have successfully built an Enterprise Dataflow that loads all my tables in PBI service. Its incremental, scheduled and all is good! Now I use PowerBI Desktop to consume my Dataflow: PS: I...
dataflow
Need Help
Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
6 years ago

Here is another shining example of how the way Dataflow fetches data on Desktop forever and ever. Not an ideal way to start development of a report. Why cant it just give us a preview or sample of few 1000s?

 

MAKE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE to download every data to the desktop!

 

  • jeffshieldsdev's avatar
    jeffshieldsdev
    Icon for Solution Sage rankSolution Sage
    6 years ago

    I would start in Power BI Service, create a derived Dataflow that filters to the data you need and then connect to that new Dataflow from Power BI Desktop.

     

    You could also create a "Sample" Dataflow, with a few hundred records to enable report creation and then switch to the full Dataflow before publishing the report to service.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      6 years ago

      Thanks. But the problem is every-time you switch it starts downloading the data again right?

      • jeffshieldsdev's avatar
        jeffshieldsdev
        Icon for Solution Sage rankSolution Sage
        6 years ago

        Correct, Anonymous you'll eventually need to download all the data to Desktop to publish--but at least this eases report creation.

         

        I'm pretty sure DirectQuery is coming to Enhanced Dataflows Compute Engine, so maybe there will be options to limit data during report creation too :)

         

        EDIT: Actually, no--you don't have to download everything to Desktop if you don't remove the filter from the derived Dataflow until after publish.  From MatthewRoche 's blog

         

        "Quick Tip: Developing with large dataflows

        1. Develop and test the dataflows in the Power BI service
        2. Add filters to the too-large dataflow entities’ queries[2] to reduce the number of records in the entities
        3. Refresh the dataflow
        4. Develop the model and reports in Power BI Desktop
        5. Publish the model and reports to the Power BI service
        6. Remove the filters from the filtered dataflow entities
        7. Refresh the dataflow
        8. Refresh the dataset"