Anybody else seeing strange Power BI refresh errors all of a sudden?

Adam Dunigan

Hello!

We have a Power BI report that runs on a scheduled refresh each day and up until this weekend it's worked without issue. All of a sudden, I get an error that says “The 'type' column does not exist in the rowset. Table: dimFund.”

“dimFund” is the friendly name of the “Fund” table from SKY API. I've not altered it beyond renaming it in the Power Query editor. In my model, the “type” column is clearly included and contains data, though it's not used in my model. I can refresh the data in Power BI Desktop without issue. It's only when it's published or refreshed via the service that the error shows up.

To make things more confusing, I created a completely blank Power BI report and pulled in only the Fund table into that report without any changes to the data or names. When I publish this test copy, I still see the same message, so that leads me to believe it's not an issue with my previous report specifically.

I am hoping someone else in this community has seen this issue as well so that we can potentially elevate it to Blackbaud support. I just spoke with them and they mentioned this being outside of the scope of RE support, which I understand, but at some level, we need to be able to talk with someone on the Blackbaud side who understands the technical aspects of the API so that we can rule out things as we work through these issues.

Thanks,

Adam

Alex Wong

@Adam Dunigan
SKY API is working ok, I don't have problem pulling the data (fund type) directly from SKY API and use it.

The issue here is the Power BI Blackbaud connector is not an officially Blackbaud “product”. I think it was created by other user to more “easily” access SKY API from Power BI directly as a custom connector (not certified).

So first question is, is the refresh failing from power bi service? or refresh on your local power bi desktop? if power bi service, check the gateway that you have built. if power bi desktop, check the custom connector power bi in C:\\Users\\%user_login_folder%\\Documents\\Power BI Desktop\\Custom Connectors\\Blackbaud.mez

if you simply copy the pbix file and use in different computer, you need to make sure you are using the same Blackbaud.mez file in the folder location mentioned above.

Adam Dunigan

@Alex Wong - Thanks for the reply! To answer your questions, the issue is with the service, not the desktop. When I omit the fund table from the refresh, the service will successfully refresh the report. I have not tried using a different computer, but rather just opening a blank Power BI report with no data connections in it at all and trying to connect only to the Fund node in the API. It connects fine, but once I publish it it will not refresh and gives me the error I posted about. I will check in with my IT department tomorrow about making sure the gateway is running the latest version and that all machines utilizing the Power BI Blackbaud connector are using the same .mez file.

Alex Wong

@Adam Dunigan

Power BI service will not work with custom uncertified connector. So meaning, you probably followed instruction here:

to create a personal gateway. As you said, check with your IT team if they are the one that setup the gateway for you, and make sure the Blackbaud.mez file is one that exposed the fund type property from Get Fund List SKY API endpoint.

Adam Dunigan

@Alex Wong I did indeed install the connector per the instructions you linked. We had set up a gateway on one of our servers and it's functioned well up until now. I do think I may have two different .mez files between my computer and the server. I'll confirm with IT and post back if it gets resolved, in case this helps anyone else in the future.

Adam Dunigan

Quick update: the issue was resolved by ensuring that the Blackbaud.mez file that was on my computer matches with the .mez file that's on the server running the gateway. I had updated the .mez file on my computer and forgot to update the corresponding file on the server, which led to the errors. Hopefully anyone who may run into this issue can find this post and use it as a reference!

Thanks to @Alex Wong for asking the questions that led me to this answer!