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joyl
New Member

Opening Report in Desktop

How am I able to open a report in Desktop that was shared with me in Power BI Service? I prefer to use Desktop because of it's enhanced features, but when I am viewing the shared report in Service, there is no option to save it so that I can then open in Desktop. Thanks!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Correct.  Without Edit (or Admin) permission, you can only view in Power BI Service.

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jeffshieldsdev
Solution Sage
Solution Sage

You'll need Edit permission in a Workspace to export a PBIX for a report.  Either you have to be an Admin in the Workspace, or the Workspace configured to all Members to edit.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-manage-app-workspace-in-power-bi-and-office-365

Thanks @jeffshieldsdev So does that mean that I am not able to open and view a shared report using Desktop? Are you only able to view shared reports in Service? 

Correct.  Without Edit (or Admin) permission, you can only view in Power BI Service.

This doesn't answer the question in my opinion - how do we open a published report in Power BI desktop (yes, we have edit and admin access) without having to download the file?  We can connect to the dataset, why can't we connect to the report instead of downloading it?  Is there no concept of connecting to a published report?

It's not possible to open and edit a published report in Power BI Desktop...you have to download the PBIX, edit, and re-publish.

Exporting the PBIX isn't always an option, so I think it's better not to make Power BI Service the repository for your reports.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-export-to-pbix#limitations

This does run the risk of overwriting hot-edits people make to published reports.

I'd like this ability as well. I'm using a deployment pipeline. I'd like to be able to open a PBIX from the test environment, edit it in Power BI desktop, and save it back to test. I don't want to have to maintain a copy somewhere else and then publish it to test. Maybe this isn't best practice?

There are limitations being able to export PBIXs from service--so I think you're better off maintaining your PBIX in a local folder (or OneDrive for version control) and then publishing to service.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-export-to-pbix#limitations

Especially if you're using Deployment Pipelines.  I maintain my DEVELOPMENT version PBIX, and then publish to the DEVELOPMENT Workspace in my deployment pipeline.  I use a Parameter in my dataset "IsDevMode" that when True only loads 10 records from my data source to keep my PBIX small to store and fast to import.  When promoting to TEST, a rule changes this to False to import all the data.

 

#"Kept First Rows if IsDevMode" = if IsDevMode then Table.FirstN(Source, 10) else Source,

I use a simlar appraoch with RLS data--a "IsRLSEnabled" Parameter and rule to only Import all the RLS data when promoting to PRODUCTION.

Obviously, all this can be configurable.

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