Forum Discussion

cbhoffm1's avatar
cbhoffm1
Advocate I
6 years ago

OkViz Bullet Chart Version Mismatch

I am trying to update to the latest version of the OK Viz bullet chart.  Both the marketplace description and the filename contain version 2.2.3.0; however, after importing the visual either directly...
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dm-p's avatar
dm-p
Super User
6 years ago

Hi cbhoffm1,

OKViz put this much more succinctly on their website than I do underneath:

Yes, we submit our components to Microsoft. The publishing schedule for the Marketplace is beyond our control, so components will be available there days or sometimes weeks after we release them.

I'll try and elaborate a bit more on this.

The update process for custom visuals is a bit weird for everyone involved, but it ensures that there aren't any specific upgrade paths for users of reports when new versions are published, and a consistent support process for authors of custom visuals.

What doesn't work well is the communication of the update process from submission to availability, both for authors of custom visuals, who want to be able to guarantee an availability time and for people waiting for updates to take effect.

To address your initial challenge, published custom visuals have a unique ID. If you upload a version of a particular custom visual manually, Power BI will check the ID of the visual against the one in the Marketplace and always deliver that version to you. The issue here is that desite the Marketplace listing being updated, it actually isn't...

Due to the way AppSource (the hosting platform) works, the listing is immediately updated with the latest version whenever an authour submits it and it's approved.

However...

Once the listing is updated here, it takes an indeterminate amount of time for the visual that is delivered into the marketplace itself. Based on my experience, this is typically the following steps:

  • Custom Visuals Team tests the approved visual for compatibility
  • Once verified, the updated (published) visual file is uploaded to their CDN and then matches the AppSource listing. All your reports will then use the latest published version of the visual.

The team have had a code freeze on over the holidays and there is a delay to all current submissions; I found this out while chasing one of mine.

Except for waiting, there are two ways around this if you want to use a specific version of a published visual:

  1. Change the visual ID so that it's unique. OKViz do this with 'beta' and 'previous' versions of their visuals
    • I notice they are still offering 2.2.3 as a beta on their site, so are probably aware of the fact that this version hasn't made it all the way through yet
    • When it does, the 'stable version' link will point to the Marketplace (this currently shows for 2.2.2).
  2. Load the visual using the organizational store for your Power BI tenant. This will allow you to use specific versions outside of the Marketplace, as it auto-tags these visuals with a unique ID.

Hopefully this clarifies things, but you're probably better checking with OKViz directly via their support if you have any further specific questions.

Regards,

Daniel

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