Power BI refresher manualy

Script for automation of refreshing Power BI workbooks. Built on Python 3.6 and pywinauto.

Installation

Install using pip

pip install powerbirefreshmanual
pip install pypiwin32

Usage

powerbirefreshmanual <WORKBOOK> [-workspace <WORKSPACE>]

where <WORKBOOK> is path to .pbix file
      <WORKSPACE> is name of online Power BI service work space to publish in. Default is My workspace

Scheduling in Windows Task Scheduler

Please keep in mind that this script uses GUI of Power BI Desktop and it needs that a user is logged in Windows session. You should also deactivate lock screen time. Ideally you should schedule the script on a computer where the GUI is not used to not interfere the scripting, for example dedicated Virtual Machine.

1. Open Task Scheduler
2. Click Create Basic Task
3. Fill a Name and click Next
4. Set a trigger and click Next
5. Pick Start a program as an action and click Next
6. in Program/script type absolute path to powerbirefreshmanual.exe in your scripts folder in Python installation path (for example "C:\ProgramData\Anaconda3\Scripts\powerbirefreshmanual.exe") in Arguments type file name of the workbook (for example "sample.pbix")
   in Start in type absolute path workbook (for example "C:\workbooks")
7. Confirm and Finish