Hey everyone, I’m stuck with a PowerBI problem. I made a dashboard that pulls data from Jira using an API and JQL queries. It works great in PowerBI desktop when I hit refresh. But after publishing, I can’t refresh manually or set up scheduled refreshes.
I know gateways might fix this, but that’s tricky to set up in my company. I’m not looking to buy anything from the marketplace either.
I tried exporting the data to a SharePoint folder as a workaround. That lets me refresh and schedule updates, so it seems the issue is with the direct Jira connection.
Has anyone found a way to make this work? I really need the dashboard to update automatically with the latest Jira data. Any tips or tricks would be super helpful. Thanks!
hey, have u tried using Power Query? it’s built into powerbi and can handle jira data pretty well. u could set up a query that pulls from jira, then save it as a csv or excel file somewhere accessable. then just connect powerbi to that file instead of directly to jira. might solve ur refresh headache without needing fancy gateways or buying stuff.
Have you considered using Azure Data Factory (ADF) as an intermediate step? It’s a robust ETL tool that can handle Jira data extraction and load it into a database or data lake that Power BI can easily connect to. Here’s the basic workflow:
- Set up an ADF pipeline to pull data from Jira on a schedule.
- Store the data in Azure SQL Database or Azure Data Lake Storage.
- Connect Power BI to this Azure data source.
This approach solves the refresh issue as Power BI can readily access Azure data sources. It also provides more flexibility in data transformation and allows for incremental loads, potentially improving performance for large datasets.
The downside is the additional Azure costs and setup complexity. However, if your company already uses Azure, this could be a scalable, long-term solution that addresses your current problem and future data integration needs.
I’ve dealt with similar issues integrating Jira data into Power BI. One solution that worked for me was using Power Automate (formerly Flow) as an intermediary.
I set up a Power Automate flow to periodically query Jira and save the results to a SharePoint list or an Excel file in OneDrive. Then I connected Power BI to that SharePoint list or Excel file instead of directly to Jira.
This approach solved the refresh problems because Power BI can easily connect to and refresh from SharePoint/OneDrive. It also gave me more control over the data refresh schedule.
The downside is it adds an extra step and slight delay in data freshness. For most use cases, updating every few hours or daily is sufficient. It does require some initial setup, but it’s easier than configuring gateways in my experience. Might be worth exploring if other options aren’t panning out.