PowerBI Templates

[jabbott]

When I export a PowerBI report to a template I understand that it removes the data that was saved with the report, but how do I remove the data source as well? We are preparing templates to be distributed to customers and we don't want our internal data source to show when they first open the template. I would have expected the template to be void of any data or connection info.

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @jabbott,

As @hugoberry suggested, you can use query Parameter to define the data source connection string. For example, if you want to get data from the SQL Server database, you can create two parameters Server and Database. Then export to .pbit files. When open the .pbit files by client users, it will prompt the user to enter values for parameters Server and Database. For more information about create query parameters, please refer to links below:

Deep Dive into Query Parameters and Power BI Templates

Power BI Desktop Query Parameters, Part 1

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[pierredelareux]

Hi,

Is it possible do you it for Excel spreadsheet as well.

I would like to create a report then a template and give it to different users.

They will just have to "import"/"connect" their own excel file to view thei data into the report.

Thanks for your help

Pierre

[hugoberry · Accepted solution]

Try adding the connection string as a parameter in your workbook. And in Power Query queries reference this parameter for the connection.