Connecting to Web Data (Get Data – Web)

Connecting to Web Data (Get Data – Web)

When connecting to web data (Get Data – Web), connecting to a web URL does not imply any specific format. The file being accessed via the web may be in any format: CSV, XML, JSON etc.

However, be aware that accessing web data using its native connector (instead of using Get Data > Web) will cause Power Query to download the file and then import the downloaded file.

This means that an on-premises data gateway will be required to refresh the data source.

By contrast, when data is imported using Get Data > Web, no data gateway is required to access and refresh the data (provided that all data sources in the dataset are web-based).

Scheduled refreshes are created in dataset settings in the Power BI service.

You can add up to 8 scheduled times in a Power BI Pro workspace, and up to 48 in a premium capacity workspace.

Web Page Scraping

As well as connecting to a web URL, Power BI also allows you to “scrape” data directly from a web page and import any tabular data the page contains.This operation uses the standard web connector: Get Data > Web.

The Navigator window displays a preview of the tables retrieved from the web page and lets you specify the required table.

The Navigator also lets you switch between the standard “Table View” and a useful “Web View” which provides a preview of the web page.

The same data refresh rules apply to web page data as to any other web-based data source.
No data gateway is required to access and refresh the data (provided that all data sources in the dataset are web-based).