Power BI
CompletedParameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Pär Adeen on 06 Aug 2020 11:27:46
When using deployment pipelines, we can change parameters for datasets, but not for reports. This since standalone reports doesn't have parameters.
Using deployment pipelines, parameters can be used to change data sources, and this is like as useful when using a live connected report. I.E. we might want to connect to a development dataset in the development phase, and a production dataset in the production phase
Without this possibility, the deployment pipelines will never work as expected
Administrator on 15 Jul 2023 14:54:44
We now support auto-binding of each 2 artifacts across stages,
either in the same pipeline or across pipelines.
Read more about it in this blog post- Deployment pipelines- Azure DevOps extension, multiple pipelines working together, Dataflows GA | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI
- Comments (15)
- Merged Idea (1)
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Just wanted to jump on this as well and say this ability would be HUGE for our current implementation of deployment pipelines which is similar to what others describe (report in dev workspace should be connected to the dataset in the dev workspace, the report in the production workspace needs to be connected to the production dataset)
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Please make this feature available as it's absolutely critical for enterprise wide adoption and making the most of deployment pipelines. We have content separated in different workspaces (datasets in data workspace and reports in reporting workspace) and we're unable to make the most of deployment pipelines. Report authors are required to manually change the connection string to production datasets before moving their reports from dev to prod which is quite painful and not at all intuitive.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
A big thumbs up for this one from me.
There's already a REST API method that does this: Rebind Report in Group. So, we need a way to call it from the deployment rules
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Any update on this regarding a timeline? This is incredibly important for enterprise level implementations, especially if dealing with large datasets that contain imported data alongside live data. It would be great if we could centralize datasets and dataflows, link to them in a dev workspace report, and then move that report through to production WITHOUT duplicating every artifact.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Let's harmonize two Enterprise best practices: using Centralized Datasets, and using Deployment Pipelines in both the Centralized Dataset Workspace AND in their affiliated Reporting Workspaces. Currently, its not possible to parameterize Power BI Dataset connections (one of the few connection types not supported) making it impossible to use a Deployment Pipeline Rule in a Reporting Workspace to point to the Development or Test version of the Centralized Dataset. This would enable parallel Development and Testing of both the Centralized Dataset, and dependent reports in their separate Reporting Workspaces. This will allow administrators to have a single click for Deployment not only in the Centralized Dataset Workspace, but also in the Reporting Workspaces which could then contain rules to point the Power BI Dataset connection from [Develepment] to [Test] to Production versions of the Centralized Dataset in parallel with the Centralized Dataset deployment itself.
Better yet would be to enable multi-Workspace Deployment Pipelines to enable single click deployments of both the Centralized Dataset and any number of dependent Reporting Workspaces that use the Centralized Dataset but I suppose that'll be a separate Idea.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
In a deployment pipeline, if a report if it is using a shared dataset, allow that shared dataset to be pointed at the corresponding dev/test/prod shared dataset... either automatically or manually.
Scenario:
1. Setup separate deployment pipelines shared datasets and reports.
2. In the report pipeline, they all point to the production dataset.
3. Datasets in the dev or test workspace cannot be verified against the corresponding dev or test reports. Therefore, dataset changes could break production reports, but we wouldn't know until the dataset is deployed to production.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
I'm very happy seeing this being planed!!
While having the attention, please also consider this idea: https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=73040f28-eef9-4683-b6dc-d164aff011b4
Since when starting to support Power BI Dataflows we also need variables to adress the correct dataflow. And currently neither the linage view or the automatically refresh of linked entities are working using variables/parameters to specify the down-stream dataflow
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Yes this is a much needed feature. I always promote separate workspaces for reports with live connection to datasets in another workspace for app publishing etc. and is also recommended practice.
Can't fully use the Deployment Pipelines because of this limitation.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Yeah, this is a really sensible idea. It already works when just moving a report from one stage to another in the same pipeline.
Where it gets complex is if you promote a report from Dev to Test but without the shared dataset having already been promoted into Test. Our workflow (A dataset/warehouse team and separate report teams) means that could happen and the two teams don't have access to each others workspaces. I'd suggest only allowing a report to be promoted if it's corresponding dataset has already been promoted to that stage - but make this obvious to the end user.
RE: Parameters for live connections to Power BI datasets - Needed to fully utilize Deployment Pipelines
Tim and Salil (and others interested),
I'm planning to write and DCR (Design Change Request) for this. Yes, this will just be a local request from my company, but if you have a support agreement with Microsoft where you also can do this, we might have better possibilities to get this implemented if we are refering to more DCR's on the same subject. Please let me know if you have sauch plans