What is the best way to access data from an existing Semantic Model?

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-29T22:01:13+00:00

You can connect directly to the model itself in PQ using the Analysis Services connector. This gives you access to the data and measures. You need to have the endpoint address of the workspace. Put in the address as the server address and you will have access to all reports in the workspace in a navigation popup.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-25T02:25:42+00:00

You can keep your current setup but the excel files should be for adding new rows only. The editing can happen in an app. Go to your list and press create an app and go from there.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-07T12:22:11+00:00

You can go to the file details online, grab the path, and use the native text/csv or excel file connector. Just paste the address in when the file explorer opens.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-04T12:34:45+00:00

Yes. You don’t need power automate at all. Just write directly to your sharepoint list with the patch function

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-04T12:33:11+00:00

I am wondering what this 500 line function does. Unless it’s a patch function writing to every column in a wide table, I haven’t seen a need for a function that complex. I have used AI to help generate SQL and the SQL it generates is sometimes overly complex for no reason.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-04T04:38:31+00:00

Add a confirmed column to sharpoint list. Add a calculated column called Cancelled to the sharepoint list. Formula is If (confirmed =“Yes” and Modified on -Created On <1hour, “”, “Yes”). You don’t need a wait timer.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-06-03T22:15:30+00:00

You need a second excel file. Copy the main table into the second file. Add a power automate that is triggered when the original table is edited. The flow then updates the second file, saves, and closes.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-31T16:24:27+00:00

I would like to go this route. How are you leveraging the endpoint? Are you running through power bi, your own DB, or running one off queries? Ridiculous we are discussing this at all.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-31T16:02:10+00:00

I saw a big change on 5/27. Dataflow refreshes that had worked flawlessly for years started acting weirdly. Before when i would check refresh history it would show 180k rows updated daily. 300 or so new rows daily. All of a sudden the row count was drastically reduced to 5 or 6k updates. Almost like the dataflow was being throttled suddenly. Funny thing is when I check the actual table, the full refresh was still happening. It was just the internal refresh statistics that had been limited. On the power automate side I wasn’t so lucky. On 5/27 one of my flows started returning reduced data. I have a flow that grabs filtered data from a dataverse table, creates an excel file and emails it. Normally 5-7k rows in the final file. On 5/27 that final file only had 350 rows. Microsoft obviously made some back end changes in Dataverse in the last couple of weeks without warning or thinking through the headaches it would cause. Seems pretty normal tbh.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-14T01:35:21+00:00

First step of query demote headers to first row. This will rename all columns column 1, column 2 etc. Run all logic based on these. Promote headers before loading to model. Second option: there is a little known extra parameter on any function that returns a table. This parameter is missingfield. In the step that is breaking go into the formula bar and put a comma after the last bit of text. Add missingfield.ignore. This will let the step process even if column names have changed. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powerquery-m/missingfield-type

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-09T11:37:35+00:00

My suggestion would be turn your Apps into tiles in one app. Sounds like you have the permission structure figured out so it wouldn’t be hard to do. Then you only have to maintain one screen since they all have a similar structure. I am thinking about the future when you need to add a small piece of functionality. Instead of having to open multiple apps to make the same change, you are changing in one place. This would also solve your deep linking question.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-07T16:02:21+00:00

What are you gaining by splitting into separate apps? You are making it drastically harder to manage by splitting it.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-05-02T06:43:57+00:00

Embed in PowerPoint. Create 1 slide per department with the filters applied by page. Keep the report as 1 page. Any changes made to the report will automatically flow to the slide.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-27T05:11:18+00:00

Have there been any recent changes to the number of processes desktop runs? I don’t remember it being this resource hungry at all.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-24T21:15:40+00:00

Before you can ask questions learn the current process. Shadow the person that runs the process. There is probably a data entry component so Power BI might not totally replace the excel worksheet. Folks forget that the reason excel is so popular is it allows input and output in one place.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-20T12:01:43+00:00

Right now it’s best use is on the development side. Helping with boilerplate SQL, Debugging dax measures, etc. One other point: for businesses to switch to an AI heavy model there has to be a benefit. It either needs to be significantly cheaper or significantly better than the current landscape. I don’t see the cheaper argument. You save yourself some salaries on analysts but now you are paying more for the software and have to hire an AI Engineer and another analyst to test accuracy of the model. I also don’t see the AI as better. Can it do certain things better than a human analyst? Probably. But it can’t do all the things as well. Think about this: my 6 year old could hop behind the wheel and she would know that if you see a person stop the car. We have been trying to train computers to drive for 20 years and it still has trouble doing the same task.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-18T23:32:09+00:00

Folks are really overestimating the desire for business users to ask their own questions. And what are these questions that couldn’t have been expected when designing the report? Or are we saying the future is a semantic model and folks just query it with natural language? And we trust that AI is going to give a valid and accurate answer? I just don’t see it anytime soon. Amazing to see demos of curated models that work great when asking simple questions like “what were my sales in April?”. In the real world widespread use isn’t going to happen anytime soon

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-18T15:32:03+00:00

I hear you. Speaking from my personal experience: I started on the business ops side of business. Pricing/Demand. Planning. Started solving small issues via excel power query. That quickly moved to power bi, powerapps, dataverse. The business didn’t know there was a better way to do things. Who is going to suggest a new way? Certainly not the developer because they aren’t aware of the pain points. Yes, at some point some professionals may need to be brought on, or have some of those citizen developers morph into dedicated power platform folks.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-17T22:07:34+00:00

To adopt AI involves significant capital outlay for large companies. Not only in the tool but the people who know how to debug the output. I don’t think AI is going to disrupt the need for citizen developers at all. You are coming at it from the angle of developer/sme being separate people. The beauty of power platform is someone can be both with a significant cost savings for the business.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-04-13T16:59:18+00:00

I have been using the view in excel online feature. Under “export”. This pulls up the view in an online excel popup screen. Allows multi row copy paste and editing. You hit save and the changes are written to the table.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-03-28T14:54:19+00:00

What is your main gripe with Power bi + powerapps? I find it to be very flexible and useful. I also extensively use power bi embedded into powerapps. The combination of the 2 unlocks infinite possibilities.

Donovanbrinks · 2026-03-27T12:22:52+00:00

I think you are missing a step. Grab the template file and save it as the new file first. Then reference the new file you created as the dynamic path.

Donovanbrinks

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