Anyway of scheduling Power BI Desktop PBIX file refresh?

[amir_tohidi]

Hi,

Because of my companys' policies, we are not allowed to use to PowerBI.com and we don't have an on-premise SharePoint server either. In other words, we use Power BI Desktop (PBD) and share the PBIX files using a shared network drive.

Given the above scenario:

1. Is there anyway I can get a PBIX file to refresh itself automatically e.g. nightly? 
2. Does PBD have a programming model similar to Excel+VBA?

[v-sihou-msft]

@amir_tohidi

1. No. PBIX is just offline file, it can't update until you open it and refresh the dataset manually. But you can schedule refresh on Power BI Service.

2. There's no programming model within Power BI Desktop. It only supports Power Query and DAX to retrieve and transform data.

Regards,

[ankitpatira]

@amir_tohidi 

1. unfortunately i don't think there is any way to refresh pbix files automatically.

2. PBD has data modelling feature where you can use DAX to be able to do data transformations.

[sornavoor]

Apart from Power Update,  given your constrains, see if either of the  below is an option for you

a) Pyramid Analytics Server is an option of you. 

b) Alternately, if the data set  is not too large, see if you can get the data into some  dierct queriable database and use direct query. 

[kcantor]

I don't think that is a built in, out of the box feature but you could try PowerUpdate. Here is a link:

http://www.powerpivotpro.com/2015/02/introducing-power-update/