Today is a great day for the Power BI Designer – We have just enabled refresh (either โRefresh Nowโ or โScheduled Refreshโ) for Power BI Designer files uploaded to the Power BI service.
This enables support for refreshing data, reports & dashboards coming from the following data sources:
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Azure SQL Database.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Azure Blob Storage.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Azure Table Storage.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Azure HDInsight.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Azure Marketplace.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Dynamics CRM Online.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Facebook.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Google Analytics.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Salesforce Objects/Reports.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย OData feeds.
–ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Web (HTML & Web APIs).
This has been one of the most frequently requested features from our users and weโre very excited to light it up. Refresh support for additional data sources, including on-prem data sources, and the ability to overwrite uploaded files are also coming very soon. Please stay tuned for updatesโฆ
How can I refresh my Power BI Designer reports?
First of all, you will need to create your report using the Power BI Designer. You can find plenty of examples to get you started with the Power BI Designer in our Help Articles.
After creating and saving your report, you can upload it to the Power BI service by using the โPower BI Designer Fileโ option in the โGet Dataโ page.
Once you have uploaded your file, the dataset and report will show up in your Navigation pane, located to the left of your dashboards.
There are two ways you can refresh a dataset, Schedule Refresh and Refresh Now. Either way, youโll first need to specifyย credentialsย soย Power BIย canย connect to the data source. Once specified, they are retained in that datasetโs settings and you wonโt have to enter them again.
Toย specify credentials:
1. In the Navigation pane, in Datasets, select a dataset > Open Menu.
2. Click SCHEDULE REFRESH or REFRESH NOW.
3. In Edit Credentials, click Edit.
ย 
4. Select the type ofย Authentication Method, and enter account credentials. The type of authentication and credentials depend on the type of data source being connected to.
To setup a refresh schedule
1. In the Navigation pane, in Datasets, select a dataset > Open Menu > SCHEDULE REFRESH.
2. In Settings forโฆ > Schedule Refresh, set Keep your data up-to-date to Yes.
3. Selectย Refresh frequency,ย Refresh between, andย Time zone settings, then clickย Apply.
To refresh now
In the Navigation pane, inย Datasets,ย select a dataset > Open Menu >ย REFRESH NOW.
Thatโs all you need to know in order to keep your Power BI Designer reports up-to-date, but if you want to learn some more details about it, please check out this article.
As mentioned earlier, this was a very frequent request from many of you and weโre very excited to enable you to keep your reports up-to-date. There are several other exciting features coming to the Power BI Designer this summer, and if you think weโre missing something important to you please let us know.