Template that refreshed PowerBI report that contains data from BlackBaud connector

Mike Pasqua
Mike Pasqua
Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in SKY Developer General Discussions

I have a Power BI report that takes data from the BB connector. I can refresh the report within PowerBI just fine. But I've tried, and failed, several times to create a Power Automate Flow that will automatically refresh a Power BI pbix file stored in Azure, using Refresh a Dataset action. Also tried to do this using a button in Power BI to trigger the flow. The flow runs, but the dataset doesn't refresh. Does anyone have a sample or instructions how to do this?

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  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong Community All-Star
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 5 Facilitator 3 bbcon 2025 Attendee Badge

    @Mike Pasqua
    If you are using the Blackbaud connector (unofficial) for Power BI, then did you create a “gateway”, if not, your published Power BI will only be able to refresh on your local computer. (keep in mind when when you “created” the Blackbaud connector file (.mez), it is saved to your local computer only, it is not available to the Power BI service on the cloud.

    If you want to avoid creating and using a gateway, you can try using this method: https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/586/70826

  • Rebecca Sundquist
    Rebecca Sundquist Blackbaud Employee
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    @Mike Pasqua, it sounds like you have not published your Power BI report to the Power BI Service. The Refresh a Dataset action under the Power BI connector in Power Automate is referring to refreshing a semantic model published to the Power BI Service. Once published to the service, you then have the issue Alex mentioned where the custom Power BI Connector has to be installed on a server that also hosts a data gateway. The .mez file and the gateway work together to securely access the data using credentials you save on the gateway. This is detailed on GitHub - blackbaud/powerbi-connector: Blackbaud data connectors for Power Query and Power BI under the ReadMe section “Scheduled refresh in Power BI Service.”

    It is worth looking at Alex's link in his last comment: Sharing my Power Automate and Power BI template: Power BI use of Query API via Power Automate.

    Alex's method uses Power Automate to leverage SKY Query API to execute and retrieve query results as a flow. Once the Power BI Report is published to Power BI Service, you can set up a refresh schedule that executes the flow(s) to populate the query(ies) in your semantic model.

    Perhaps you are avoiding Power BI Service. My guess is you are looking for a work around because you cannot use the “Refresh” option in Power BI Desktop with the custom Power BI connector in when you open the .pbix file from the Azure location. This is because your Azure file location does not have access to your local .mez file for the custom connector. Since Alex's flow doesn't rely on a custom connector, you should be able to hit the “Refresh” icon to execute the flow and return query results. We noticed that the flow executes multiple times when executed from Power BI Desktop, but is more streamlined when executed from Power BI Service. Some weirdness to watch for.

    Please let us know how it goes!

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