An incremental data refresh performs a partial update of the data source by adding new or modified data to the cached model. It is suitable for refreshing or reloading the entities where new data rows are added to the table frequently, and the existing rows do not change often. This will significantly improve the loading performance of your data as only new rows are added after the last cache update. Unlike the full data refresh where all data rows are added to the cache each time.

To use incremental refresh on a cached model, you must configure the incremental update attribute for the selected entity. In this article, you will learn how to set the incremental update attribute for an entity in a cached model. Since a cached model consists of multiple entities, they can be updated based on different attributes.

Note:

1. By default, when you reload the data in a cached model, the data is fully extracted from the data source, which consumes a lot of time and resources.

2. If the existing rows are modified or deleted, you need to do a full refresh before performing incremental refreshes on the model data.

To Configure Incremental Update Entity

To refresh the model data incrementally, you need to specify an attribute in the entity that will be used to recognize new rows. For example, you can refresh the data incrementally in the OrderDetails entity based on the OrderId attribute. This will add all the new rows since the last data extraction.

1. In the data model designer, select the entity for which you want to load the data incrementally.

   
   

2. Go to the Properties tab and specify the Incremental Attribute property. This property should be set to a valid attribute, say OrderId, based on which you can refresh the model data incrementally.

   
   

3. Navigate to the Incremental Update Entity tab to view all the incremental update entities in the current model along with their attribute name.

   
   

To Delete Incremental Update Entity

Follow the basic steps to delete the incremental update entity from a cached data model.

1. Navigate to the Incremental Update Entity tab in the model designer.

2. Click the Delete icon next to the incremental update entity you want to delete.

   
   

Limitations

1. A custom SQL entity does not support incremental updates.

2. An entity can refresh based on one chosen attribute.

3. The incremental attribute property does not support attributes of bool and GUID data type.

4. An entity can only set one incremental update attribute.