Power BI json for dataflows - what are ConnectionOverrides?

[dbeavon3]

I have a support ticket with Microsoft right now about a feature of their REST API - uploading dataflows.

Insofar as uploading an updated dataflow, they claim the functionality was supported in the past but is becoming "unsupported".  They will now start disallowing the use of "overwrite" and "createoroverwrite" for the "conflict handler".

The only way to upload a dataflow going forward is to delete and re-create from scratch.  In other words, the conflict handler mode has to be set to "abort", meaning that you can either create a dataflow if it doesn't already exist, or the operation must abort.

Given this change, I must now try and find a way to create and configure an entire dataflow from scratch using supported operations.  This includes the configuration of the gateway connection, data sources and schedule.  I'm not that optimistic that this stuff is possible, especially given the fact that Microsoft is arbitrarily switching the functionality in these API's to "unsupported" (and is doing so part-way thru my CSS support case).

I'm hoping I will find clues to making this stuff work....  One thing I had noticed in the dataflow's json is something called "connectionOverrides".  See below.

Does anyone know what this means?  Can I find the guid that corresponds to the "connectionName" in the Power BI portal?  Will the service respect my json, if I modify this stuff locally, before upload it via the REST API?  Will this serve as a way to configure both the gateway and datasources used in my dataflows?

Any help with these dataflows would be greatly appreciated.  I've spent many, many hours looking into this stuff.  It is all pretty cryptic and undocumented.  Even the stuff that seemed to have been fully supported in the past is not supported anymore.  That isn't very encouraging.  I'm shocked that the team is so cavalier about removing functionality that customers rely on.

[Acroustique]

Hi,

From what I understand, it just keeps track of the connections that have been used in the dataflow, adding any new ones at the bottom of the list. I don't personally see the benefit (and rather confusing) and would be happy if there were an easy way to edit the JSON in the Power BI service to remove old connections...