4.2.5. Export Settings and Automatic Page Refresh
💡 First Principle: Two report settings control how data leaves and how fresh it looks. Export settings decide whether readers can take data out of visuals and at what level of detail. Automatic page refresh decides how often an open page re-queries its source, which matters only when the source can change between scheduled refreshes.
Export data settings (Desktop: Options > Current file > Report settings > Export data; service: report settings) choose what readers may export from visuals:
- Allow end users to export both summarized data from visuals and underlying data from the semantic model. "Underlying data" exports row-level detail behind the visual and requires the reader to have Build permission on the semantic model.
- Allow end users to export summarized data from visuals only (the aggregated values shown in the visual).
- Don't allow end users to export any data.
Tenant admins control the outer limits (export to Excel, CSV, PowerPoint, PDF, and image), and sensitivity labels carry protection into exported files (5.2.4). Visual-level export behavior respects these settings, so the report-level setting is the right place for "users must not export detail." Export of the whole report to PDF or PowerPoint is a separate option in the service's Export menu.
Automatic page refresh (APR) refreshes visuals on an open page without a full semantic model refresh. It requires a source that's queried live: DirectQuery (and composite models with at least one DirectQuery source), Direct Lake, and live connections. Import isn't supported. Two types:
- Fixed interval: refresh every N seconds/minutes. In shared capacity (Pro workspaces), the minimum is 30 minutes. In dedicated capacity (Fabric F SKU, Premium, or PPU), the capacity admin sets the minimum (default 5 minutes, can be as low as 1 second).
- Change detection: a measure is evaluated at an interval, and visuals refresh only when its value changes (for example,
MAX(Orders[OrderID])). Available only in dedicated capacity, with one change detection measure per semantic model, evaluated with the author's credentials.
Configure APR in the page's Format pane (Page refresh), and keep the interval only as short as the business needs, because each refresh queries the source for every viewer.
⚠️ Exam Trap: An Import-mode report can't use automatic page refresh, however short the requirement. If visuals must update every few seconds from an operational database, the model needs DirectQuery (or Direct Lake for Fabric data), and sub-30-minute intervals need dedicated capacity.
Reflection Question: Why is change detection often a better choice than a 10-second fixed interval for a DirectQuery dashboard watched by 200 people, and what capacity requirement does it add?
