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Microsoft Idea

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Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

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Botz on 08 Feb 2016 01:24:30

In order to make Direct query more useful it needs to support data from more than one source.

Administrator on 17 Nov 2018 02:49:10

Composite models, which lets you combine multiple direct query sources in one model along with import sources, is now generally available with our November release: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-november-2018-feature-summary/#compositeModels

Comments (51)
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Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:23:14

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

This is a most!

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John Hidey on 05 Jul 2020 23:20:38

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

This is a required feature. Being able to directly query multiple sources WITHOUT the need to import all the data is an absolute requirement.

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Michael Foss on 05 Jul 2020 23:20:15

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

This can already be done is just your connection becomes an import rather than a direct query. if you are consuming your reports in Power BI Desktop the refresh will update your data sources. If you consume this on Report server you can then schedule a refresh at whatever interval you desire and your data source will be refreshed when report is consumed.

I think the confusion in this idea is it is not specific enough. I believe the need is to be able to connection to different types of data sources within a PBIX for example an SSAS and SQL connection at once.

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Jelena on 05 Jul 2020 23:20:15

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

Agree, allowing multiple data sources is key feature, really essential. You need that virtually for every analysis. Seriously. This is such a basic thing.

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Power BI Ideas Admin on 05 Jul 2020 23:19:30

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

Seriously, Microsoft. Your slow action on conceptually simple ideas such as this is a huge factor in why companies are looking at competitor's BI products.

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Mark on 05 Jul 2020 23:17:52

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

You can do this in Microsoft Access for years but not Power BI?

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Power BI User on 05 Jul 2020 23:17:21

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

We are developing a production reporting solution in our company and use different data sources (databases) where some of them already have an established access control.
It would solve some issues for us if we could combine the databases and use the access control by using direct query in our solution.

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Jesse Glidden on 05 Jul 2020 23:17:05

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

Come on MS, it can't be that hard!

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Azad Naik on 05 Jul 2020 23:15:19

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

This feature might be useful to have

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Dylan Morgan on 05 Jul 2020 23:14:47

RE: Allow more than one data source for Direct Queries.

I’m curious about how this would be implemented. If there were relationships between tables from different data sets this could result in very expensive queries and quite a lot of traffic. Would you be ok with limiting relationships across tables from different data sources?