Enjoy data refreshes when using Power BI. Your reports are updated automatically, and there's no need to refresh every time a new report is generated.
1. Scheduled Refresh (Power BI Service): This feature offers a convenient way to keep your reports updated. Once a Power BI report is uploaded to the cloud-based Power BI Service, you can set a schedule for automatic data refreshes. It's like setting a clock alarm- You choose when and how often you want your Power BI to be refreshed. This is the preferred method for most users, especially if your data is already in a cloud-based environment.
For instance, consider using an Excel spreadsheet located on OneDrive or accessing a cloud database. A data gateway is computed to establish a connection between Power BI and local computers or company-based data servers.
2. Power Automate (Flows) Power Automate allows you to configure an application and its operations within an organization. It is simply 'Whenever I have some fresh data, I will update the Power BI report, and please do it promptly so that when I come back, the report is current.'
This is particularly helpful when a refresh is needed after certain tasks, such as uploading a new version of a document. It does not require programming, though you may provide some rules or logic when you want things set to a certain order.
3. Power BI REST API (For Developers) If you are a developer, you may take advantage of the Power BI REST API and devise different approaches yourself. Because of their API, scripting in Python or Powershell to empower Power BI on-demand report refresh becomes possible.
Consider it as a user interface for the tool. You act (execute the code), and the tool performs the given action regardless of whether it is to refresh the data once a day or after an event has occurred. To wrap things up, for straightforward schedules, stick with Scheduled Refresh. For more advanced approaches based on circumstances, employ Power Automate. In cases where you wish to code, there is the Power BI REST API.
