PDF data automated

[MFester]

Hi all, 

Hopefully you can help me.

Each month I receive a PDF where I want to take one table of data into Power BI.

I can use the PDF converter and read the data no problem, but I have two questions.

1) Is there any way to automate the proces, so I dont have to manually load up the PDF in Power BI and all that.

2) How do I get some sort of date on the data? Again - with at least manual labour as possible. I can make a new column where I can write for instance 2018 or something, but every PDF opens as a new datasource, and I cant get them to work together. Perhaps they need to be in 1 datasource, but I dont know how to do that.

Hopefully someone can help me.

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

There is a preview feature that can take the PDF as the data source. Please refer to /desktop-connect-pdf. 

1. Maybe you don't need a PDF converter anymore. 

2. What's the "sort of date"? Where is it from?

Best Regards,

[MFester]

thank you for the answer.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough. When I wrote PDF converter, i meant the beta-feature in Power BI.

So I can get the data in.

Each month I receive a PDF report with data for the current month. The report is exactly the same each month with differents numbers of course.

There is no indication of time in the data, but maybe I can add a new variable each time i load in the PDF.

What my problem is, is making it into one dataset, so that I can see it over time. Preferably I should just the new months figures to some sort of dataset and then it would run smoothly.

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

Since the Connectors read data from the source, I'm afraid they can't add dates automatically. But you can add them manually. 

Maybe you can the Folder connector. You can get the new data by refreshing.

Best Regards,

[MFester]

Thank you @v-jiascu-msft

But if I add them manually, then how do I get them into the same datasource instead of multiple.

I assume thats what I need to compare month after month?

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

What did you mean "get them into the same datasource instead of multiple"?

Maybe you can name the file with dates and then use the Folder connector.

Best Regards,

[MFester]

Thanks again for helping me.

Maybe I still can't explain myself very well.

The table in PDF is like this

               Sales          Customers           Employess

North      411               etc

South     564

East        7965

West      7984

next month I get a new PDF with the same figures in.

What I want to do is to be able to see a graph of for example sales over time - compare different months to each other and so on.

If I load in the tables one after the other I get multiple sources, but I cant seem to get them to work together, so that I can do that.

I have recently made the shift to PowerBI from Tableau and in Tableau I would have merged the data, but I dont know if PowerBI can do that and if so, how?

Perhaps there is a better way, that I dont know.

Hopefully it's a better explanations.

Thank you in advance for your help and patience 🙂

Kind Regards

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

Power BI has the exact feature. Please refer to the gif animation below. We can combine the source file, PDF here, into a single query. We can get the new data by refreshing the query when new data has been added. I would suggest you name the files with dates. Then we can extract it as the date column.

Best Regards,

[MFester]

When I follow your steps it gives me an error.

"COMBINE FILES

We didnt't recognize the format of your first file (112018.pdf). Please filter the list of files so it contains only supported types (Text, CSV, Excel workbooks, etc.) and try again"

What can I do about that?

Because looking at the gif, that's exactly what I want.

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

I would suggest you upgrade your Desktop first. It's version: 2.65.5313.1381 (December 2018) now.

Can you import 112018.pdf using PDF connector?

Best Regards,

[MFester]

Hmm..

I can see the IT department updated to new version - 2.65.5313.1421 (januar 2019). In that version I can't seem to find the PDF connector at all. Has it been removed from the newest version or do I have to do something to get it back?

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @MFester,

I don't have that version for now. Please check it on https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=45331.

Can you use that version (2.65.5313.1381) instead for now?

Best Regards,