Some of the necessary features of the software program improvement life cycle is to have management over totally different variations of an answer, particularly in a undertaking the place there may be a couple of developer concerned within the implementation. Similar to once you usually create a undertaking in visible studio and also you commit the modifications again to a supply management system like GitHub or Azure DevOps, it’s suggested to maintain the historical past of various variations of your Energy BI reviews. What we anticipate from a supply management answer is to maintain monitoring of all modifications occurring within the supply code whereas growing a undertaking. So you may simply roll again to a earlier state in the event you wish to. 

The opposite profit of getting a supply management course of in place is when a number of builders are engaged on a single undertaking. Each single certainly one of them makes modifications within the supply code then they commit all of the modifications into the supply management server with out overwriting every others’ work. 

With Energy BI issues are a bit totally different although. Energy BI report recordsdata are PBIX recordsdata that are saved in binary format (nicely, PBIX is mainly a zipper file isn’t it?) which on the time of penning this put up, there isn’t any official method to implement Energy BI supply management in any supply management options like GitHub or Azure DevOps (YET). 

Microsoft introduced a implausible characteristic final week (6/05/2020) named “Deployment Pipelines” which does precisely what we’re after, however it’s at the moment a preview characteristic which is simply obtainable solely to organisations with Energy BI Premium. So it’s out of the sport for almost all of us.

Having stated that, there may be nonetheless a method to maintain historical past of modifications within the form of various variations of PBIX recordsdata. That is known as Model Management.

There are a number of methods you may allow model management over your PBIX recordsdata whereas growing the report. Whatever the model management platform it is advisable to take into consideration having a number of environments and who can entry them for doing what.

Model Management Choices

In case your organisation doesn’t have a Premium capability then “Deployment Pipelines” characteristic is just not obtainable to you. So it is advisable to give you an answer although. On this part I identify some Model Management choices obtainable to you

• OneDrive for Enterprise
• Microsoft Groups/SharePoint On-line

Model Management with One Drive for Enterprise

Within the absence of an official supply management mechanism, the inherent supply management functionality of “One Drive for Enterprise” can be utilized for model management. It will be good to create a undertaking listing, then 4 sub-directories, one for every atmosphere. We then copy recordsdata to every undertaking listing in related atmosphere listing. We then share the undertaking directories and their sub-folders with related folks.

Suggestions:

• It’s endorsed to have separate Workspaces in Energy BI Service for every atmosphere. After copying PBIX recordsdata to the subsequent atmosphere, the reviews have to be printed to the related Workspace atmosphere in Energy BI Service.
• Information connections should to be switched to the proper knowledge supply when deploying from Dev to UAT.

Restoring an Older Model

Restoring an older model may be very easy. The consumer with the proper stage of entry must login to “OneDrive for Enterprise” on-line, navigate to the corresponding listing, click on on the ellipsis button on the appropriate aspect of the file then click on “View Historical past”.

A “Model Historical past” web page reveals a full historical past of modifications within the file. Now you can click on on the ellipsis button of an older model then click on “Restore”.

Preserve the Reviews Up to date After Publishing to Energy BI Service

One of many coolest options of utilizing OneDrive for Enterprise at the side of Energy BI Service is that you just publish the report only one time, then Energy BI Service retains the reviews undated immediately from OneDrive for Enterprise. Because of this you actually don’t must republish the reviews a number of occasions. You simply make the modifications to the file and reserve it. By default, OneDrive updates recordsdata each hour, you may choose to maintain the recordsdata updated from the dataset settings.

Tip:

• DO NOT publish the reviews to Energy BI Service from Energy BI Desktop. As an alternative, get the report immediately from Energy BI Service out of your OneDrive for Enterprise. In any other case you lose the automated file updates characteristic in Energy BI Service.

Publishing the Reviews From Energy BI Service

• In Energy BI Service navigate to a workspace
• Click on “New” then click on “Dataset” (you too can click on “Get Information” on the button left of the web page)
• Click on “Information”
• Click on “OneDrive for Enterprise”
• Click on a Energy BI report file (PBIX)
• Click on “Join”

Setting Auto Replace on the Dataset

After publishing the file to Energy BI Service navigate to Dataset settings and examine that “OneDrive refresh” is enabled. That is enabled by default anyway, by no means the much less, it’s good to know the place to search out it.

• Click on the workspace
• Hover over the specified dataset
• Click on “Schedule refresh”
• Broaden “OneDrive refresh” to see if automated refresh is enabled

Notice:

You will need to know that the OneDrive refresh is totally different from Schedule refresh. After we join to a Energy BI report file (PBIX) saved in OneDrive for Enterprise from Energy BI Service, each time we edit the PBIX file in Energy BI Desktop and save the modifications again to our OneDrive for Enterprise, the related dataset (knowledge mannequin) and report shall be mechanically refreshed if we setup the OneDrive refresh. So, if we added a brand new measure to the mannequin, the change shall be propagated to the related dataset within the Service. That is DIFFERENT from the Schedule refresh setting or after we manually refresh the dataset from the Service. If we require the dataset to be refreshed mechanically from the related knowledge supply(s) then we have to setup the Schedule refresh. On this case the dataset from the Service will get knowledge immediately from the underlying knowledge supply(s) which implies the info refresh course of has nothing to do with the PBIX file saved in our OneDrive for Enterprise.

Execs & Cons

Whereas this methodology works okay in some eventualities, it’s good to learn about its limitations. So listed below are some professionals and cons:

Execs

• It’s simple to make use of
• Straightforward to revive older variations
• Leveraging dataset automated refresh from OneDrive

Cons

• It isn’t a correct supply management supporting code merge and branching methods
• Commentary is NOT at the moment obtainable, so you can not put feedback on every model to elucidate what have modified
• The sharing technique is managed by the consumer who created the file not by the organisation
• Lack of check-out/check-in
• Lack of alerting

Model Management with Microsoft Groups/SharePoint On-line

You should use both Microsoft Groups or SharePoint On-line for model management.

Notice:

In the event you enabled Block traditional workspace creation setting throughout the Energy BI Admin Portal, then you definately already prevented producing traditional workspaces by creating Microsoft Groups staff. Subsequently, we have to create a staff in Microsoft Groups individually, create a contemporary Workspace in Energy BI then hyperlink our trendy Workspace from Energy BI to the Groups staff. You may examine if the Block traditional workspace creation setting is permits as beneath:

• After logging into Energy BI Service with a Energy BI Admin account
• Click on the Settings button from prime proper ()
• Click on Admin Portal
• Click on Teant Settings
• Underneath Workspace settings part develop the Block traditional workspace creation and see if that is enabled for your entire organisation

Now let’s take a look at Groups. We now create a brand new Groups staff per atmosphere, add customers to the brand new staff and add your PBIX recordsdata.

Finally you publish the reviews immediately from Energy BI Service.

The brand new Groups staff seems as a “Basic Workspace” in Energy BI Service, you may then improve the workspace to the brand new workspace expertise to leverage new options and improved safety. In the event you need to take action:

Tip:

Don’t forget to alter the info sources in Energy BI Desktop to level to the proper knowledge supply atmosphere.

Sync along with your Native Drive

For extra comfort and keep away from downloading the recordsdata and importing after you make modifications you may merely synchronise your recordsdata so that you all the time have an area copy of it in your arduous drive. So you may open the PBIX recordsdata immediately in Energy BI Desktop to make some modifications and reserve it again to your arduous drive. Similar to OneDrive, your modifications shall be written again to Groups.

Verify-out/Verify-in

When utilizing Microsoft Groups you may have the power to check-out a file. To take action comply with the steps beneath:

• Navigate to a desired Groups staff
• Click on “Information”
• Hover-over the file and click on ellipsis button
• Click on “Extra”
• Click on “Take a look at”

The file will mark as checked out. So this file is now solely obtainable to you.

You and now open the file in Energy BI desktop to make the modifications (by means of the synced listing) and save the file.

Now from Groups:

• Hover-over the file
• Click on ellipsis button -> Extra -> Verify in
• To examine-in the modifications it is advisable to put in some feedback concerning the modifications which is absolutely useful

Restoring an Older Model

Presently you can not restore an older model of the file immediately from Microsoft Groups. Nonetheless, you are able to do so from SharePoint.

• In Microsoft Groups click on “Open in SharePoint”
• Over-over a desired file -> click on ellipsis button -> Model historical past
• choose an older model of the file and click on “Restore”

Different SharePoint On-line Options

There are another options obtainable from SharePoint On-line. On this part we have a look at two of them that are extra related to model management and governance.

Alert me

You may setup alerts so you’re notified as quickly as a file is modified. In SharePoint On-line:

• Hover-over a file
• Click on “Alert me”
• Setup an alert

Compliance particulars

If you have already got some safety and compliance insurance policies in place you may apply a few of these to your recordsdata in SharePoint On-line. As an example, you may apply “Retention” coverage to the recordsdata so if somebody unintentionally deletes a file you may later recuperate that file from “Recycle bin” folder. Or you could have a coverage to completely stop file deletion. The recordsdata which are protected by retention insurance policies stay in SharePoint for a sure time frame. As an example within the beneath instance the file retains for 7 years, after that point it have to be audited by an admin earlier than deletion. To set add retention labels to the recordsdata comply with the steps beneath:

• Open the folder in SharePoint On-line
• Hover-over a desired file
• Click on ellipsis button -> Extra -> Compliance particulars
• Click on “Label Standing” hyperlink
• Apply a label from the dropdown checklist
• Click on Save

Learn extra about Retention Insurance policies right here.

Execs & Cons

Whereas this methodology works actually good for collaboration, however it at the moment has some limitations. Listed below are some professionals and cons:

Execs

• It’s simple to make use of
• Commentary is offered on this methodology
• Whereas it’s built-in with SharePoint On-line sharing methods may be ruled by SharePoint
• Verify-out/check-in performance
• Establishing alerts
• Making use of retention labels
• Leveraging dataset automated refresh from OneDrive

Cons

• It isn’t a correct supply management supporting code merge and branching methods
• Not all options immediately supported inside Microsoft Groups. It’s generally fairly complicated to change to SharePoint On-line to do some actions like restoring an older model

Tip:

Within the above eventualities the method of selling recordsdata from dev listing to UAT and from there to Manufacturing may be automated utilizing a mix of instruments reminiscent of Energy Automate and Approval apps obtainable in Workplace 365 which is out of scope of this put up. It wants a devoted weblog put up.

Have you ever ever used any of the above strategies? Are you utilizing one other strategy? Please share your ideas with us within the feedback part beneath.