Data Science | Automate PowerBI Reports

PowerBI is a powerful data visualization and business intelligence tool that helps organizations make informed decisions by visualizing and analyzing large amounts of data. However, keeping PowerBI reports up-to-date can be a time-consuming task, especially if you have multiple reports that need to be refreshed and published regularly.

 

In this article, we will show you how to refresh and publish PowerBI reports automatically using Python and PowerShell. Automating the report refresh and publish process can save you time and ensure that your reports are always up-to-date with the latest data.

 

How to refresh PowerBI reports automatically using PowerShell scripts? 

 

To refresh PowerBI reports automatically with Python, you will need to install the PowerBI REST API. The REST API allows you to interact with PowerBI programmatically and automate tasks such as report refresh and publish.

Machine Learning

Read more on how to use machine learning algorithms, tips and tricks to make your life easy while you’re at it, and how to get the results you want. 

Automation

Automation

Read more on how you can use Python, PowerShell, PowerBI, and Javascript to automate your work stream. 

 

Here’s the code to refresh a PowerBI report using Python:

 

import requests
import json

# Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with the actual access key of your PowerBI report
headers = {
'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_KEY',
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

# Replace GROUP_ID and REPORT_ID with the actual values of your PowerBI report
refresh_url = 'https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/groups/GROUP_ID/reports/REPORT_ID/Refresh'

response = requests.post(refresh_url, headers=headers)

if response.status_code == 200:
print("Report refreshed successfully")
else:
print("Error refreshing report:", response.text)

In this code, we first set the headers for the API request, which includes the authorization header and the content type header. The authorization header is set using the access key of the PowerBI report, and the content type header is set to ‘application/json’.

 

Next, we specify the refresh URL of the PowerBI report and send a POST request to the API using the requests library. If the API returns a status code of 200, it means that the report was refreshed successfully. Otherwise, an error message is displayed.

 

How to publish a PowerBI report automatically with PowerShell?

To publish PowerBI reports automatically with PowerShell, you will need to install the PowerBI PowerShell module. The PowerShell module provides a set of cmdlets that allow you to interact with PowerBI and automate tasks such as report refresh and publish.

Here’s the code to publish a PowerBI report using PowerShell:

Import-Module MicrosoftPowerBIMgmt

Connect-PowerBIServiceAccount

# Replace "REPORT_NAME" with the actual name of your PowerBI report
Publish-PowerBIReport -Name "REPORT_NAME"

Write-Output "Report published successfully"

In this code, we first import the PowerBI PowerShell module and then connect to the PowerBI service account. This is necessary to authenticate the PowerShell session and perform actions in PowerBI.

 

Next, we use the ‘Publish-PowerBIReport’ cmdlet to publish the PowerBI report. The cmdlet takes the name of the report as an argument, which we replace with the actual name of our report. If the report is published successfully, a message “Report published successfully” is displayed.

 

It’s important to note that in order to use the PowerBI PowerShell module, you need to have administrative access to your PowerBI tenant. You can verify if you have the necessary permissions by checking the ‘PowerBI Service administrator’ role in the Azure Active Directory for your tenant.

 

Conclusion

In this article, we showed you how to refresh and publish PowerBI reports automatically using Python and PowerShell. Automating the report refresh and publish process can save you time and ensure that your reports are always up-to-date with the latest data. Whether you prefer to use Python or PowerShell, both methods allow you to easily integrate PowerBI into your data pipeline and automate your reporting tasks.

 

 

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THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY SYED LUQMAN, A DATA SCIENTIST FROM SHEFFIELDSOUTH YORKSHIRE, AND DERBYSHIREUNITED KINGDOMSYED LUQMAN IS OXFORD UNIVERSITY ALUMNI AND WORKS AS A DATA SCIENTISTFOR A LOCAL COMPANY. SYED LUQMAN HAS FOUNDED INNOVATIVE COMPANY IN THE SPACE OF HEALTH SCIENCES TO SOLVE THE EVER RISING PROBLEMS OF STAFF MANAGEMENT IN NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICES (NHS). YOU CAN CONTACT SYED LUQMAN ON HIS TWITTER, AND LINKEDIN. PLEASE ALSO LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

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