Content pack sharing

[piterab]

If i share a content pack, and other users pin items to a dashboard, or create filters and pin those items, they no longer have the latest reports unless they go back and get the content pack again.

At that point they need to recreate their pinned dashboards.  Requiring users to go get the new content pack and re-pin when updates happen isn't optimal.

Am i missing something, or will there be an update to address this?

[SDP]

Management of the content packs is an important step for adoption. Right now most of our users are using SSRS and we control the report creation, distribution, etc. Our BI consumers are not the most tech savvy people--these are c-suite types who barely have enough time to wipe their own a$$ much less learn how to use Power BI. We need to be able to create a content pack that we can share with a user, with reports that allow the user to pin content to a dashboard of their creation without breaking the link to the original content. Right now, when a user pins content they break the link to the original content pack so any updates to the content pack are lost to them (as somebody already mentioned in this thread). Again, these users are not going to keep modifying thier own reports, they will depend on the BI team to provide those changes, but they need to be able to create their own dashboards off published content packs. Creating dashboards is the big draw for our users, but this can't break the chain to original content pack.

[pedramr]

Hey,

This is Pedram Rezaei, the architect on the Power BI team here at Microsoft.

Thanks for the feedback. Our content pack will soon change to be read-only. That means a publisher of the content pack can update the pack and the users will always get to see the very latest version. 

Thanks,

-Pedram

[rayishome]

What about the Dataset.  It seems users are not able to create new reports from the Shared Dataset within a Content Pack.  Is this by design? 

[meysun]

The users always get the latest refreshed data and dataset/model even when they personalize. Only when the author publishes nee version of the content pack they can decide to go and get the new version or stay with the old dashboard / report definition. The data is still the same and one version of the truth.
Merging author changes with user changes is cumbersome and no amount of auto merge will help. It's better to leave this to the user and often they are simple ui changes. Note that in both cases they get the same data and model.

[Anonymous]

Hello Meysus

I am still not able to understand how one can republish an edited report from a published content pack. Does it mean that one has to recreate a report from scratch rather then reuse a published report from a content back and then create your own content pack? This way there will be so many content packs to choose from and a lot of rework.

 Thanks

[ashishrj]

@meysun What are the steps to republish the dashboard/report after changes as I was unable to find the option ?

[meysun]

https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/651631-managing-updating-and-deleting-organizatio...

Select the View content pack under the settings gear/cog icon and Edit the content pack that you would like to update and follow the steps in the above document.

[muvanni]

I am totally confused: when I share a dashboard a user (in our domain) apparently cannot see in PBI (web site version) as they don't have a full O365 account to click the link in the email. If they just log into PBI with user name and trial license (pro) they don't see the shared dashboard. If I creat a 'Content Pack' they can see that but also all the reports, etc. with it. Further I removed the content pack but they can still see it and use the dashboard??

Question: how does this work? I want to share a dashboard with our Board Members, they have domain user names (logins) and PBI trial licenses yet when I share a dashboard they can't see it; I have to publish a content pack...... Further what are "free" PBI licenses for? What can they do? I realize this is documented (limited) but most of the documentation, at least regarding sharing, etc. seems to be incorrect and or BPI is not working as expected.... any help is appreciated.

[meysun]

Let us first clarify Sharing vs Content Pack.

1. When you share, the users will get an email notification. The user has to click the link in the email to activate it. Without clicking the email, if they go to PBI.com directly they won't see the Shared dashboard. To receive email, you don't need full O365 account. You just need a valid business email account.

2. When you publish content pack, users will see it under Get Data -> My Organization. There is no emailing in this scenario. When the content pack author deletes the content pack, it goes away from all the users.

https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/651631

If a group member has not customized the original content pack, then the content is automatically removed, and the dashboard and reports associated with that content pack will no longer be available (and won't appear in the Navigation Pane).

If a group member has customized the content pack, the next time she opens the customized dashboard all tiles from the original content pack will be gone.  But tiles pinned from other reports will still render. The original content pack reports and dataset will no longer be available (and won't appear in her Navigation pane).

[KristinaBakic]

So all the refresh schedules still apply even if the user has made some small personalizations to the content pack, even after the creator has published an update?

I'm mainly talking about some filtering and visual changes, not changes that affect the data sources.

[meysun]

Yes. You always get the latest data same as the original content pack even when you personalized. By personalization you are only changing the dashboard and report which are UI/Visualization elements and you are not taking a snapshot of the data or model. The dataset is still shared with the original one, so you will get the latest data.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way for another group memeber to make modification to the reports under my organization content pack? Looks like other group memebers can only personalize the report locally. there is no way for them to upload their modified version back to the content pack. For some of the members I dont mind give them admin access to make modifications. is there a way to achieve this?

[andre]

Free licenses allow users to use content that is not using Pro features (refresh, live data access, etc.).  So if you create a dashboard using Excel or Desktop and then manually upload it to powerbi.com and then either create content pack or share it, then free license users will be able to use it.  The minute you set up refresh using the Gateway, the content starts using Pro features and Free License users will not be able to see it.

If you delete a content pack, then my expectation would be that it disappears from all the users who subscribed to it, if it does not, my guess is that it's a bug. When you deploy your dashboards using a content pack, all content artifacts are deployed with it (dashboards, reports and datasets). When you share a dashboard only the dashboard appears in users workspaces and they have to click on a tile to see the underlying report.

[andre]

this post covers how to share and update content organizational content packs

http://businessintelligist.com/2015/07/27/the-definitive-guide-on-collaboration-in-power-bi-tutorial...

[ajanson]

Hi piterab,

Please, read following article here you got all detail about content pack management:

Managing, updating, and deleting organizational content packs