New Tables/Columns in SSAS not Showing Up In Report Field Well

[TravisKale]

I have added new tables and columns to my on prem SSAS tabular database.   When I goto the PBI Service, and edit a report that uses a live connection to the SSAS server, these new tables/fields are not showing up. 

I have tried clearing cache and using the pbi refresh button.   Still not showing up.  

If I goto Get Data, Databases, SSAS and explore the database, the tables/fields do show up here.  

How do I force the existing reports to list the new Tables/Fields?   I have a feeling if I wait long enough some magic will happen behind the scenes and they will show up but I want to force the issue now.

[TravisKale]

It has now been over 24 hours since I added tables/columns to my SSAS model.  They are still not showing up in my previously existing PBI Service reports field well section. 

I have tried entering my browser into private mode to ensure the browser isn't holding on to anything, hit the refresh button several times again, no love.

Any other tricks to try other than waiting?  

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@TravisKale When I said wait a bit, I was thinking an hour at the most. Did you create your reports in a Desktop file and publish? Or does all of this exist in the Service only? I would definetely open a service ticket with your issue, even if you find a way to work around this. That is bizarre that the data set is refreshing on it's own, but the data set in the report isn't...

[TravisKale]

It was originaly part of a content pack that the end user personalized.  I could publish over their report from desktop but their modifications to the report would be lost. 

Yes, other data from SSAS is refreshing just fine,  the field well just won't display the newly added tables/columns.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@TravisKale ...ok, there is the curve ball.

So, this data set that won't refresh is part of a Content Pack? And the end user is not getting the updates? This is expected behavior for the way Content Packs currently work... And the reason I rarely use them. After you initially expose that Content Pack, any changes you make to the structure of the source model will alter the original Content Pack, and you most likely got a warning that you modified the Content Pack. This requires the end users of the Content Pack to go get the latest version which includes the new model/changes... and, by doing so, it will invalidate or make any work they did personalizing the Content Pack...pretty much dead if they want to encorporate the new changes...

Long Story short. Any additional model changes to the structure will not automatically push downhill to end users if they are accessing that model via a Content Pack. 😞

[TravisKale · Accepted solution]

@Seth_C_Bauer Thanks for the help, I was able to resolve the issue and your response finally got something to click in my head.

I was thinking that since the report was using a live connection to SSAS that it should just see SSAS as it is right now, hence the name live

Even though the content pack had been personalized, the dataset still shows as a shared data set (globe icon) which I assumes links back to some type of metadata about the SSAS database.

What I did to fix the issue is to simply go to the content pack and publish an update.  This fixed the issue. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing the content pack update updated the metadata that the personalized content pack is pointing to.  Only the user of the personalized content pack needed the new tables/columns so updating the content pack was not at the top of my mind.

So where I went wrong in thinking was that because the content pack had been personalized, that updates I made to the content pack would not affect the personalized versions.  This is unfortunately true for most parts of personalized content packs, but not for the datasets, well at least for live SSAS connections.

Thanks Again Eno1978,  and I agree with you, content packs need a lot of work in terms of updates and enhancements to the service but for our circumstances, we need to use them at this time.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@TravisKale Glad you got it sorted out! One other point, that you didn't make, but probably know at this point. Any change you make to the Content Pack Structure, won't automatically flow downstream - you have to manually update the Content Pack to "push" those changes to the end consumers. Then they have to deal with the "get new version", etc, etc.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@TravisKale Yeah... The refreshing of changes is not immediate sometimes... This is a really generic answer, but I would suggest giving it a little time. Based on other threads there may be some sort of caching of the model going on that it doesn't pick up changes immedietly on occasion. While other times it does.