Forum Discussion
Publish to Web URL Maintenance
The steps we have taken:
1) Uploaded a report to Power BI Service (let's call it "Report A".
2) Completed a "save as" of the report to build a new report ("Report B") off the same dataset.
3) Created a Publish to Web URL.
4) We need to modify a calculated measure and downloaded the report.
5) Even though we did not change the Power BI file name, when we re-uploaded the report, it created a new file in the Power BI Service. Ultimately, we needed to make the measure update and have the update exist on the URL that was built for Report B.
Questions:
- Is there a workaround in order to keep the same URL or update the file linked to a URL?
- If I wanted to change a data source for a report on the Power BI Service (specifically MySQL), can I maintain the same URL for a previously publish dashboard?
We have a large number of reports in this scenario and would greatly appreciate any advice that would help solve the problem.
After additional testing, I have found that you can maintain these URLs! You will need to rename the dataset associated with the Power BI file to match the file name before you download the file. Then, you can make changes and re-upload without the Power BI service making a copy of the file. The solution ended up being quite a bit simpler than expected.
4 Replies
v-yulgu-msftMicrosoft Employee
Hi Anonymous ,
Based on my test, the name of copied report (generated by "Save as") on service is not conflicting with the name of original published report. In other words, if there existing a copied report called "Report B", you can still publish a report called "Report B" from local to service, without replacing the existing "Report B". While if there existing an original report called "Report B", it would ask you whether to replace that report when you attempted to publish an other report with the same name.
In your scenario, I would suggest you download "Report A" and update the measure, then, save it with the same name so that it can replace the original one when publishing. That way, "Report B" and the "Publish to Web" report will automatically refresh itself. You should be aware that "Publish to Web" generates reports auto refresh about 1x every hour. There will always be a delay of refreshed data in the publish to web report.
Best regards,
Yuliana Gu
Thank you for the reply Yuliana! If the measures in "Report A" were fine, but we wanted to modify only the measures in "Report B" (note, Report B already has a publish to web link). Is there a way that we can do this without creating a new web link for Report B? It seems that Power BI then separates the data source for Report B when it is re-uploaded (no longer associated with Report A) and creates a new report in the Power BI service, which then requires a new URL to be created.
Regards,
Grant
- v-yulgu-msft
Hi Anonymous ,
It seems that Power BI then separates the data source for Report B when it is re-uploaded (no longer associated with Report A) and creates a new report in the Power BI service, which then requires a new URL to be created.
As you mentioned above, re-upload ReportB would create a new report in Power BI service. We are not able to change this behavior now. As a workaround, rather than make a copy of Report A via "Save as", you could firstly download ReportA locally, and rename it as Report B, then, publish Report B to Service. After that, you can make any chnage to Report B and generate a Web URL based on Report B.
Regards,
Yuliana Gu