URL parameters to Power BI parameters in Power BI service

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to pass parameters from a URL to a Power BI report in Power BI service to a Direct Query and load data and report based of those parameters?

I have reviewed the URL filter documentation, but as far as I understand this only works on imported data. I cannot import the data then filter it because it is too big. I need to pull a small subset of data on demand using Direct Query from Power BI service. I cannot for the life of me figure out if this is possible and how to do it.

This would be baffling if Power BI can't do this as it is not a difficult task in Tableau. Hoping someone from the community can assist.

[v-alq-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

Based on my tests, the URL filter works in Direct Query mode. Here is my sample data.

Then you may add some filters like follows.

?filter=Student/Name eq 'Mike'

Result:

I'd like to suggest you pay attention to the considerations and troubleshooting in the document .

Best Regards

Allan

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

[Anonymous]

Are you certain you are actually refreshing the query and not just filtering pre-loaded data? I did try this. If the data is already loaded into Power BI, this works, but it will not refresh the query. In fact things just go blank because Power BI cannot find the data for the given filter since it is not actually refreshing the query. The considerations have nothing about using parameters instead of filters. Can you clarify what considerations you're referring to?

Default Client value before attempting filter:

After adding to url ?filter=Client/Client eq 'UNIV_MO'. As you can see Client is blank because the value does not exist in data set and Direct Query did not refresh with new value.

[v-alq-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

My data source is Sql Server database with Direct Query mode. I add a new record where name is 'S'. 

Then I add a url filter as below.

?filter=Student/Name eq 'S'

Result:

Best Regards

Allan

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

[Anonymous]

Any chance you can show me what your query looks like? It will help me verify mine is set up correctly because I can't get this to work.

[v-alq-msft]

Hi, @Anonymous 

The query is simple.

Best Regards

Allan

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing. My issue is not using URL filters in direct query mode, it is using parameters. I would like to take a parameter from the URL (parameters are different than filters), feed it into my query in Power BI, and have Power BI refresh with new data based on those parameters.

Since your loading the entire data set into Power BI your simply filtering the pre-loaded data. As explained in original post, this won't work for me as my data set is too big. If you add a parameter into your direct query based on name you will see the problem I am having.