Data Sources for Reports build in the Power BI Service

[ckapp]

Please change the dataset related to a report built in the Power BI Service to use a live connection to the Power BI Dataset when the report is exported to PBIX instead of downloading a copy of that dataset. Our company wants to push the reuse of datasets in Power BI which works in Power BI Desktop when you use a live connection to a dataset. However one limitation we see is that if a user created a report from within the Power BI Online Service against a dataset, and then choses to download that same report to PBIX it downloads the entire contents of the original dataset and not with a live connection to the dataset. This means that if a user starts creating a report in the Power BI Service but later wants to make a change in the Power BI Desktop and publish them up it creates a dataset with the report which is not intended.

[kevhav1]

Yes -- now that we have Power BI Service live connections, this just seems like the natural/intuitive thing that "Download report" should do. Currently, "if you build a dataset using import mode, it would be import model when you download the .PBIX copy. If you build a dataset using direct query mode, it would be direct query when you download the .PBIX copy." I think that in EITHER CASE, it should be an OPTION to download the report with a Power BI Service live connection.

[lindenberg1]

'+1 this would really help a lot. The way it currently works is an important option though.

[Andrew19]

Actually I have found the situation is "worse" than I expected. If I create a report using Power BI Desktop with a live connection and then publish it to the web, then in the web open the report and do a "save as" the new report goes back to using the old dataset - so when you download it, it has the dataset embedded so you can't then edit it and publish it back. I find this rather confusing - yes the solution is to develop ALL reports in Power BI desktop - but that is not what I would "naturally" expect.

[Andrew19]

The "natural" way one would expect it to work is that if you download a REPORT, then you get a report with a Live connection to the dataset. As it works at the moment, if the user has created a report using the Web interface and then wants to work on it in Power BI Desktop (for example to create a similar report perhaps for a different Department), they have to recreate the whole report in Power BI desktop which is highly frustrating.

[ptacquet1]

Users can create reports on the service from shared datasets. That's great for end users !

But, we need to be able to change the dataset used in this report !!

I had to delete a dataset that had a problem.

I made a new one. But users reports are all broken, we can't change the source and we can't download pbix...