Questions about connectivity between data source and report

[TermsOfService5]

Hey all,

Context

I am new to Power BI. I am working as intern at a company and after some time, all my access to company resources will be revoked.

I have created a Power BI report, which I will publish on company’s power bi reporting server. I have created this report on Power BI desktop and through company’s provided laptop, which will be given back.

I have a PowerBI pro license for 1 year (It is owned company: not my own).

I have 3 data sources/files.

1) .xlsx (includes all the tables not related to data)

2) .txt (includes prior years’ data). It is static in nature.

3) .txt (it is available on a sharepoint folder to which I have access)

The first 2 files will be in .pbix file itself. The last file (.txt) will be refreshed weekly and linked through a share point folder.

Questions

1) whether my users will face any issue in using the dashboard

2) would there be any issues relating to breakdown between datasource (.txt file via sharepoint folder) and dashboard?

3) How does a published report refresh its data sources? Do you have to configure settings to instruct the report to refresh its data sources periodically or does it do it automatically?

4) Are there any considerations that I should take into account before publishing the report?

Thanks!

[v-yingjl · Accepted solution]

Hi @TermsOfService5 ,

1. If your users using the shared dashboard, a Power BI Pro or Premium license is required. If you have set RLS in the report and the users dont have access or have no data about them in the report, the dashboard they used will show blank. About dashboad, you can refer this document: Dashboards for Power BI service consumers 
2. The visualizations on a dashboard come from reports and each report is based on one dataset. The dataset is based on the datasource to model of the report.
3. To refresh data source, you can choose refresh on demand or configure scheduled refresh for it. For on-premiss data source, you need a gateway to configure scheduled refresh. For web data source like sharepoint, just grant credentials instead of using gateways. This document can help you understand it better in details about data refresh in power bi service.
4. When you publish reports to power bi service, if you are a Pro user, you can publish it to Myworkspace and Appworkspaces(classic workspace and new workspace); if you are only the free user, you can only publish it to Myworkspace. In addition, any changes you make to the report in Power BI won't be saved back to the original Power BI Desktop file. When you change the contents of the report, you need to re-publish the report to power bi service. You can refer this document: Publish datasets and reports from Power BI Desktop 

Best Regards,
Yingjie Li

If this post helps then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[amitchandak]

@TermsOfService5 ,

Try to create star schema using your file. Consider RLS. Share point is a better idea for a refresh. You can schedule refresh in service.

https://radacad.com/power-bi-basics-of-modeling-star-schema-and-how-to-build-it

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/star-schema

RLS - Row Level security
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/MBAS-Gallery/Microsoft-Power-BI-Unleash-row-level-security-patterns...
https://radacad.com/dynamic-row-level-security-with-organizational-hierarchy-power-bi
https://www.blue-granite.com/blog/using-dynamic-row-level-security-with-organizational-hierarchies
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-admin-rls
https://blog.tallan.com/2018/04/10/row-level-security-in-power-bi-part-1-roles-and-users/
https://radacad.com/what-do-you-need-to-implement-dynamic-row-level-security-in-power-bi

sharepoint
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Import-Data-from-an-Excel-sheet-in-SharePoint/td-p/47223
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIz50pftZ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJF2e_43FRY
https://whitepages.unlimitedviz.com/2018/07/excel-files-power-bi-desktop-sharepoint/
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-excel-workbook-files
https://powerbi.tips/2016/09/loading-excel-files-from-sharepoint/