Forum Discussion
Community ChampionWays to share Power Query queries between PBI, Excel, SSAS: Copy/paste, templates, Data Catalog?
Community ChampionHi otravers,
which advantages of custom connectors do you see in comparison to extensions to host/share PQ functions?
Community ChampionHi ImkeF, I didn't mean to imply one method was better than the other (behind the scenes extensions are pretty close to custom connectors anyway), I just posted about custom connectors to document the various ways people have been managing their PQ functions so far. I could see how loading a connector through Get Data would be a bit more friendly than dealing with .mez files behind the scenes and having to restart PBI Desktop, but this is minor.
I could try extensions as you're suggesting on your blog, but for my use case that will be of limited value because I often go back and forth between Excel and Power BI. Hopefully Excel support will be added soon, from your post it sounded like this was on the roadmap.
On Github they state that "We are currently working on enabling a central marketplace/distribution mechanism for Data Connectors." We'll see what that looks like and if it only supports public connectors (like getting custom charts from the Office Store / AppSource) or also private connector/function catalogs.
- ImkeF
Currently we cannot use custom connectors in Excel as well.
Extensions use .mez-files just the same way like custom connectors: You have to have them on your local machine and once you change them or add a new one, you have to restart PBID.