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Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

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Tom Marek on 08 Jan 2015 08:12:27

If you setup a data source using the Power BI Analysis Services Connector that shows up in the Power BI online Dataset repository you should allow the use of that dataset directly from the Power BI Designer.

This will allow you to publish reports using the already shared dataset and it also gives you a better experience querying a tabular data source then the Power BI Designer does now when connecting directly to the tabular instance.

I would say this should also apply to any other 3rd party data source created there for the likes GitHub, Salesforce, etc.

You should also be able to open reports that have been published and edited in the service in the same way.

Administrator on 14 May 2016 04:13:06

We are currently working on the support to re-open pbix files from desktop.

Comments (22)
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bfbe08c2 d824-437e-a9fa-8a9d877efecb on 05 Jul 2020 22:49:26

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Can this be marked complete, given the release of this functionality in April 2017?

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ed4b2203 8372-4d39-8874-a3a1869e1a53 on 05 Jul 2020 22:49:00

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/7679961-download-reports-to-a-pbix-file

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5ff3fd12 4a66-494a-bb76-685afd9f2b72 on 05 Jul 2020 22:39:53

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Any further update on this. We are in need to edit the data in Sales force from PowerBI

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a0de7936 aaad-406b-b444-752db7c2047d on 05 Jul 2020 22:37:05

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Whats the point of single sign on and cloud hosting when online reports and datasets can't be accessed from Desktop.

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307f7a11 88c4-4e46-a376-acfa04c88a15 on 05 Jul 2020 22:35:06

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Any news????

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e1c7b51b 24ff-48da-9800-dd4110fb4164 on 05 Jul 2020 22:30:44

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Since we are already signed in to the Power BI online repository to publish reports from Power BI Desktop, it should be a simple task to add an option under file to "Open File From Power BI Online" as in other data visualization programs (e.g. Tableau).

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fd0c30f8 c0ec-41e7-8ae4-946a8ea934e2 on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:45

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Spent alot of time putting together all the pieces of the DW/SSAS/PowerBI stack, got gateway and data source setup, only to find that PowerBI Desktop doesn't leverage the gateway or data source.

This results in several very disappointing realizations:
1) Desktop users need DIRECT access to SSAS. Not all users are on the same local network, and so PowerBI was a great option to create a common cloud based reporting portal. SSAS is on a VM that is not on the same network as the users, so without a lot of additional networking they will not be able to access SSAS directly. The whole point of the Gateway installation was to give PowerBI access to SSAS without any complex networking/VPN setup.
2) Lay users have to know server names/database names to connect to SSAS. If they could simply browse to and select an existing Datasource/Gateway that was configured in the portal by IT, they don't need to know any "magic values".
3) Decentralizes management of the datasource/connection, taking management out of the hands of IT. As other commenters point out, DB or server name changes will disrupt a multitude of published reports/dashboards, and since they were not created from a centrally managed datasource/gateway, it will be difficult to update them all easily.

The data scientists/experts who would be creating and publishing reports/dashboards do not have direct access to SSAS. Why bother creating a gateway if it is not going to be leveraged?

Desktop right now doesn't fit into an Enterprise architecture. As DrJohnT points out, you are not giving IT proper control over the datasource. Generally with this type of platform you have a few data scientists/analysts creating dashaboards, and publishing those for business users to consume. IT needs to be able to expose a common data source for those analysts to use. Thus allowing IT to modify the properties of the data source later if needed. Having users create their own data sources is going to quickly turn into a main

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fd0c30f8 c0ec-41e7-8ae4-946a8ea934e2 on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:45

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

I want to point out that it's not just being able to edit datasets/reports published previously, but when creating a new report, the user should be able to select the existing gateway/data source instead of specifying server/database names for SSAS.

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0c4703ba 798e-4d88-ad1b-c09595d8e3ef on 05 Jul 2020 22:21:23

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Please update with news on this feature. This is very important to the user community

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fd0e287d 57e3-4b60-b485-53da5c454491 on 05 Jul 2020 22:18:25

RE: Allow Power BI Designer to open a Dataset or Report published in online Power BI repository

Will, we need this functionality please as it is important that one can get the file in a .pbix and have it worked on by external consultants.