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Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

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Nithya Subramaniam on 25 Mar 2015 10:16:45

Ability to build reports/dashboards pointing to a data source (database in the Development / UAT machine) and then use the same reports/dashboards pointing to another data source (in the Production machine.

Comments (36)
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51127913 ff25-4b26-a6a6-190d0a574595 on 05 Jul 2020 22:47:39

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

I need this. I have built a report based on data in a dev but will need rebuild/model everything using prod data once they move the data to production. Would be nice to just re-point to the prod data sources once it is migrated and not have to re-build anything.

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f1d9c811 209c-4408-b14d-7481008de4ff on 05 Jul 2020 22:47:34

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

Absolutely the most important feature for us. We would like to display the same budget analysis displays for over 30 departments, each with a different data source. And being able to either template a page, and create copies to attach to different data sources is a real killer, as we have to recreate all the reports over and over again for each department. So either allow copying reports and attach to new data or allow saving and applying some kind of template report to new data sources.

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9160e023 badf-4e38-9833-124b18aa0574 on 05 Jul 2020 22:45:53

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

The current organisation of many companies needs this feature.
It was a basic standard for ODBC reports to just have to replace the name of the database used in an editor.
For example, in our company, we have 28 different databases (28 countries) and unfortunately, we are not able to share our works between us.
I would appreciate to be able to do it very simply.
Thanks in advance to the developpers.

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59783f99 859c-4ecb-b9d2-dbe0989699b9 on 05 Jul 2020 22:42:16

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

This is very important for my company's use case. We need to create a set of standard dashboards, then duplicate it and populate it using different client data sources so we can push the dashboard to them, seamlessly populated with their data. The datasets match identically in terms of table structure but each client has different data in the tables. A report can be repointed to a new datasource which covers changing datasets, however, dashboards cannot be duplicated and repointed to a different report, instead they would have to be recreated every time.

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a287a699 f2bd-4c85-b9f9-c89fabdf12cd on 05 Jul 2020 22:31:02

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

We have a SQL Server database for several countries. Re-pointing a pbix is a manual and laborious process. Please fix this painful process or give us the tools to do it.

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3434c37d 2228-4eca-8fcb-136ae883ecb2 on 05 Jul 2020 22:27:17

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

So, what's the bottom line? Can the same dashboard serve multiple clients?

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e0a44988 9536-404f-a054-85cbc5d1e27f on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:00

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

Or a situation where there might be two datasets in online Power BI with the same schema, representing for example sales data in different organisational units. There is no way to interactively or programmatically make a report draw from one or the other.

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b16018fe 96ca-4d3f-a6c4-10dcfb6506c8 on 05 Jul 2020 22:24:14

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

'@Miguel.Llopis Will this maintain all the same tables, etc including renames?

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355a81e2 0dac-47d2-a1b9-e63ff15e5227 on 05 Jul 2020 22:23:27

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

We have experienced this same issue. Once you understand the issue, you realise the problem. In Excel, I can create a connection to an SSAS cube, then build out a suite of reports that point to the data source. Down the track, if I need to change the data source, I can simply go in and repoint the connector to the new data source.

In Power BI it doesn't work this way. Here is a use case.
1. I create a content pack connected to a SSAS cube (via Gateway)
2. A user connects to the content pack
3. The user then copies the content pack so they can create their own reports
4. The user invests hours of effort and builds out personal reports
5. There needs to be a change to the Power BI PBIX file to repoint to another cube (for what ever reason). The change is made and the PBIX file is deployed, the content pack is updated.
6. But the copy of the content pack no longer works because it points to the old connection. And there is no way that the user can over-ride the original connection and point it to the new connection.

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4cecc129 9542-4244-ada5-1701afedb0cf on 05 Jul 2020 22:22:46

RE: Re-pointing reports/dashboards at different data sources

We have 2 subsidiaries in other location with replicas of the software stack (databases...). When view reports, we need to be able to switch the database we're reading from using the UI.