Can I share a "linked dataflow" hosted in another workspace?

[fred31330]

I have created a dataflow in workspace 1, and linked some of its entities into another dataflow in workspace 2.

My intent is to share access to these linked entities from workspace 2 so that my end-users can build reports. I gave them Contributor access to this workspace 2 and while they can see the name of the dataflow from their PBI desktop environment, they cannot see any entity below it.

I tried giving them Member and Admin access, to no success.

I also crafted a PBI template file embedding those linked entities hosted in workspace 2, and shared it with my end-users. However they are not able to refresh anything either.

So is it possible to share dataflows that have been linked from another workspace with end-users?

Thanks for your help!

[Icey]

Hi @fred31330 ,

You need to give access of source dataflow to end users.

Best Regards,

Icey

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[fred31330]

Hi @Icey 

Thanks for your feedback on this. But how can I grant someone access to the source dataflow without providing access to the underlying workspace? I have created another workspace to purposefully segregate those access rights.

So here, I understand that the only option I have is to give Member or Contributor access to the workspace where the source dataflow resides, right? Which is a problem for me, since I intend to resrtict access to reports, dashboards and other stuff stored in this "parent" workspace...

[fred31330 · Accepted solution]

OK, I found out a very simple workaround that would avoid sharing access to the source dataflow: it is enough to create a reference of all linked entities in the shared workspace, and use those references down the line to build new reports from this shared workspace.

It works like a charm on my side, and my end-users can now leverage what I shared with them without needing to access the parent workspace!

I hope this will help others.

[Timaru_Golf]

@fred31330  appreciate some time has passed but could you please elaborate a liitle on what you mean by creating a referance.

I am trying to get the same setup but obviously not going about it the right way.

Thanks

[fred31330]

@Timaru_Golf,

To reuse my previous example:

Say you have 1 dataflow in parent workspace 1, which contains 4 entities, and you only want to share 2 entities with another user that does not have access to this workspace 1. To this end: create another workspace 2, create a dataflow, link the 2 entities from the parent workspace you want to share, eventually perform additional transformations on top of them, and save. Now, share access to this workspace 2 with this other user by giving him/her Contributor access rights. And you're all set!

Benefits:

• Access to the parent workspace is still restricted to a predefined set of users
• Refreshing the parent dataflow will automatically propagate updates to all linked entities, whether they are located in the same (#1) or different workspace (#2).

Hope I clarified!

[venal]

@fred31330 

Hoping that it is not possible.

Please refer the link and vote for this, they will consider for development in the future.

[fred31330]

Thanks @venal for your feedback. On my side, however, I don't seem to have issues refreshing a linked dataflow. And I can also load a PBI report that uses it. I simply do not seem to be able to share it though.