Collaborate in Power BI Desktop

[thegeo]

Hi,

I think my manager and I are solidly confused. I'm not even sure I'm posting this on the correct board. I apologize if I haven't.

Anyway, my manager wants more than one of us to be able to work on a report. We've signed up for Pro and created an app workspace for our current project. Both of us are added to the workspace.

We have been experimenting with collaboration. We know that one of us can make a change in the Desktop and share changes by hitting Publish. However, it looks like we are overwriting each other in the Service when we do this. We tried making changes to the report in the Service itself, but then Desktop doesn't reflect the changes, and we've managed to overwrite / lose them anyway. Not to mention you lose your Desktop environment when you try to develop this way.

Can someone please kindly explain how we can have both of us working on the same report at the same time? I've looked at some of Microsoft's documentation, and it doesn't seem to actually explain the mechanics of it. But I've seen them indicate that it's possible.

Thanks in advance so much for any help anyone can provide.

[GonzaloB]

I wonder if this aspect of power bi has been updated in any shape or form... I would help a lot if other users could collaborate on the aesthetics while I remain focus on having accurate measures

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

Yeah, that's not going to work with Desktop. You'll both have to work in the Service and even then, not sure you can both edit a report simultaneously and not overwrite each other.

[ame54]

Is this still the case now ? or has there been other features added in ?
Also, is there a managment portal where one can track the different applications and who is creating what ?

I am thinking of something similer to Qliksense QMC (the managent portal) where you can view all applications and who has created them.

Also in Qliksense the collaboration on the published reports worked by really, whehn ever a user wants to edit the report hes actually editing a copy made for him, and this copy becomes a community report while the main report is unchanged.

Is something like that possible ?

[thegeo]

Thanks for the response. That's what I was afraid of. Yet another sub-par feature in a product that's mostly awesome. It's like getting a Dodge Charger with a Toyota 4-cylinder engine sometimes. 😉

So far, we are experimenting with dividing up the report tabs between us with us both working in the Service. The theory is maybe if we're not both modifying the same tab at the same time it won't toss the changes. Maybe.

[Greg_Deckler]

Yeah, the collaborative aspects of report development are not quite there yet.

[thegeo]

You can say that again. After further experimentation, we've just had to conclude that only one of us can work on the report at a time. So, I'm back to developing it in Desktop, which makes me happy. 😉