Power BI Dataflows Legacy. What does it mean for us

[DebbieE]

Just noticed PowerBI dataflows has been changed to Power BI Dataflows Legacy and We use these alot.

Ive googled this and come up with nothing.

can anyone tell me what the implications are? Should I be creating a task to move everything over to something else (Thats a lot of work) or can I just carry on using Depreciated because it wont go away?

[raphaelsimao]

Hi, I have noticed that only the legacy dataflow connector supports Direct Query.

Any idea if other dataflow connectors are going to support it ?

As tagged "legacy", i am not very confortable using those now.

Thanks

[raphaelsimao]

I finally found the documentation that explains it:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-factory/dataflows-gen2-overview#feature-overview

Not easy to find though.

[alexgor87]

Hi all, I already started using the new "Dataflow" connector, and today I got the error:

DataSource.Error: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.
Details:
https://api.powerbi.com/powerbi/globalservice/v201606/clusterdetails

When i check the connectors, I can only see "Power BI dataflow (Legacy)" now. Does anyone know what happened with the new "Dataflows" connector? Was it removed?

[otravers · Accepted solution]

@DebbieE, are you referring to the name of the connector in Power BI Desktop?

The Legacy connector enumerates only Power BI workspaces and their dataflows, while the newer "Dataflows" connector also lists PowerApps environments and their dataflows. Don't worry, dataflows are not going anywhere, this is just a way to differentiate the older and narrower connector. I haven't heard anything about Microsoft phasing out the older Power BI dataflow connector.

The old connector uses the PowerBI.Dataflows M syntax while the new one is PowerPlatform.Dataflows. You can't simply substitute PowerBI with PowerPlatform in your M source step as the subsequent navigation step is different. If you want to future proof, you may want to start using the new connector, documented here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/dataflows

[ArtJulieMiller]

I DO think something has happened regarding Power BI dataflows (legacy). Many of my dataflows suddenly stopped refreshing a couple of weeks ago. The refresh history gave absolutely no indication of a problem. After days of troubleshooting, I recreated a small dataflow and realised the only difference was using the legacy vs the new connector. I went back and changed a couple of other dataflows and voila!!! VERY irritating!!! There is nothing on the internet or in the documentation.

And, as a collegue above said, it is a LOT of work to go and change all of the queries in dataflows. I'm looking for a way to change all without having to change each query in each dataflow separately.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!!!