Updating Power BI Dataset After Adding a New Column in Dataflow

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

I’m facing an issue with my Power BI setup and I hope someone can help me out. Here’s the situation:

I have a dataset in Power BI that pulls data from a dataflow, which in turn gets its data from an ODBC source. Recently, a new field was added to the source table that the dataflow is pulling from. I can edit the dataflow in the Power BI service and refresh the table to include the new column. However, I’m struggling to figure out how to make the dataset reflect this new field without having to refresh it in Power BI Desktop.

I’ve tried several methods, including executing a full process on the table via SSMS, and I’ve also experimented with Tabular Editor, but nothing has worked so far.

The main challenge is that my dataset is quite large, and it has incremental refresh enabled. Refreshing all the data in Desktop takes a significant amount of time, which I’d like to avoid.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to update the dataset to include the new column from the source table without a full refresh in Desktop? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous]

It worked with ALM toolkit, sending metadata changes from desktop to service. (Dataset on desktop needs to be updated too)

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

However, I’m struggling to figure out how to make the dataset reflect this new field without having to refresh it in Power BI Desktop.

Your only other option is to use ALM Toolkit but I am not sure it will actually pick that change up.

[Anonymous]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I will try with ALM Toolkit. Although I think that the metadata of the dataset that has incremental refresh cannot be modified from the service, I understand that it is not a rare case that I am raising, and a tool like Power BI should be able to do it.

Thanks 🙂

[lbendlin]

 I think that the metadata of the dataset that has incremental refresh cannot be modified from the service

who says that?  You can use the XMLA endpoints to push the meta data changes. ALM Toolkit makes that (relatively) convenient.

a tool like Power BI should be able to do it.

Your scenario is far beyond the standard Power BI functionality. Way too dangerous to include in a standard tool.