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Get data for Activator from Power BI

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You can get data for use in Fabric Activator from many sources. This article describes how to set alerts from data in Power BI reports.

You can use Activator to set alerts when conditions are met in data in a Power BI report. For example, if you have a report displaying daily sales per store, you can set an alert to notify you if daily sales for any store fall beneath a threshold you set. You can send notifications to yourself or to others in your organization. This section explains how to define and create alerts.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

  • You need a Power BI report that is published online to a workspace.
  • The report must contain live data.

Create an Activator rule for a Power BI report visual

Open a report and select a visual to monitor. Create an Activator rule that sets conditions for sending a notification. The notification can be sent in email or in Microsoft Teams.

  1. Open your Power BI report.
  2. Choose a visual on the report for Activator to monitor.
  3. Select the ellipsis (…) at the top-right of the visual, and choose Set alert. You can also select the bell icon in the visual, or use the Set alert button in the Power BI menu bar.

The following image shows an example of how to set an alert from a visual that displays daily sales by store:

Screenshot of sales by store in Power BI report.

  1. Enter the condition to monitor. For example, select Sales as the measure and set a rule to notify you via email when the value drops less than $1,000.

    • If your visual has multiple series, then Activator applies the alert rule to each series. In the example shown here, the visual shows sales per store, so the alert rule applies per store.
    • If your visual has a time axis, then Activator uses the time axis in the alert logic. In the example shown here, the visual has a daily time axis, so Activator monitors sales per day. Activator checks each point on the time axis once. If the visual updates the value for a particular point in time after Activator checks it, then Activator ignores the updated value.
    • You can create alerts on tables and matrix visuals. Activator applies the alert condition to each row in the table, or to each cell in the matrix. If your table or matrix has a column containing timestamps, then Activator interprets that column as a time axis.
    • Activator uses the filters in place at the time that you create your alert. Changing the filters on your visual after creating your alert has no effect on the alert logic. Select Show applied filters to see the filters on your visual.

  2. When you're ready to save your alert, select Create. Selecting Create saves the alert condition in an Activator item. Optionally, you can select Show save options to specify the location of the Activator item. After you create your alert, Activator monitors the data in the visual once per hour. You receive an alert within one hour of your alert condition becoming true.

    Screenshot of create an alert window showing daily sales rule.

Optional: edit your rule in Activator

When your rule is ready, Power BI notifies you and gives you the option to open your rule in Activator for further editing.

Screenshot of rule successfully created.

Use Activator to fine tune your rule and set complex conditions that are more granular than is possible in Power BI. Another reason to use Activator is if you want to trigger a Power Automate flow when your rule is activated. Refer to Create rules in design mode for information on how to edit rules in Activator.

Related content

You can also learn more about Microsoft Fabric: