Forum Discussion
Creating Multiple sub report Reports from the same Report
Hi,
I have built a big report with 20 odd tabs (master file). Now I need to create a number of versions (5 or 6) targetted at specific groups of users. For example, team heads should see tabs 1,5,7 only, directors should see tabs 10-15, etc.
First I published the entire report and made a copy for the Team heads and deleted all the tabs apart from 1,5,7. The problem is as far as I can tell, copies of report do not update when I make changes to the master file (which I do a lot as still developing). I.e. these copies loose the connection to the datasource (master file) - a bit like an excel file with links deleted.
What is the best practice to create a number of "trimmed down" versions of the reports (i.e. only certain tabs), so it is easy to maintain. Ideally, I want to keep all development / code) in a single file.
(p.s. I considered building a dashboard for each type of users but it appears that you cannot have persistent (user saved) filters in dashboards, so went down the multiple reports route.
Thank you,
RY
You might look into the (relatively) new "what if" parameters, which can be changed by the user but are stored as part of the model.
https://medium.com/dm-p/dynamic-filtering-with-power-bi-what-if-parameters-43ab4953de68
You could also look into shared datasets (if you're using the service)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets
You can also do all the data modeling in one power bi file and then use that as a datasource for different report front ends. You can share a source file by using OneDrive
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-desktop-files
You might also be able to use a power bi template
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-templates
As you can see, there is not a standard way to "develop in one file" and then distribute variations on that file.
3 Replies
You might look into the (relatively) new "what if" parameters, which can be changed by the user but are stored as part of the model.
https://medium.com/dm-p/dynamic-filtering-with-power-bi-what-if-parameters-43ab4953de68
You could also look into shared datasets (if you're using the service)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets
You can also do all the data modeling in one power bi file and then use that as a datasource for different report front ends. You can share a source file by using OneDrive
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-desktop-files
You might also be able to use a power bi template
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-templates
As you can see, there is not a standard way to "develop in one file" and then distribute variations on that file.
Hi kentyler kentyler. Thanks for your suggestions. As you say, there seems no easy / quick way to do what I wanted. I followed your suggestion to use the master file as the data source. I created a new file, picked my master file as the data source and copied the visuals that I need from the master file (CTRL+A to select all visuals on a page, so I fairly quickly replicated the tabs that I needed on the new report – probably not the neatest solution but an interim quick fix). I am hoping this new file will update when I update the master file without having to “publish” it again. Will explore Row Level Security in the future – sounds like a mega project right now as I am fairly new to Power BI
Hi RY33 ,
If i understand you correctly, it seems you want something like Row-Level security.
Here's a simple example for Row-Level security.
Once you have managed roles in Power BI Desktop and publish the report to Power BI Service, you can assign a role to users.
For more details, please refer to the documents below.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-rls.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-admin-rls.
Best Regards,
Jay
Community Support Team _ Jay Wang
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