Downloading/Exporting PBIX via API/cmdlet that contains incremental refresh

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to download or export a PBIX from the service with an API or cmdlet that's been uploaded with incremental refresh? I know you can't just export right from the service, but is there a way of doing it in a roundabout way?

[lbendlin]

I got a roundabout way for you - let's assume you completely lost access to the local .pbix and are desperate to recover the data model,Power Query code, and the measures and calculated columns.

In that case you can connect any XMLA client (like DAX Studio) to the dataset in the service and then use the DMVs to retrieve the meta data.

[Anonymous]

@lbendlin 

It seems like you're the only one who ever knows anything about what I'm doing haha. 

Ok that's helpful, thanks. I'm actually wondering about ways to secure a dataset and all of its associated assets from clients if for whatever reason I needed to publish it to their service and I didn't want them to be able to access the data model, power query, etc.

Any way of preventing them from being able to use the XMLA clients on that dataset? Would the APIs or cmdlets still let them export it?

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous  As the old security mantra goes "If you don't want them to steal your data, don't show them your data".

Anyone with access to the app or the workspace can use XMLA to pull not just the data but also the meta data.  I have used that to great comedic effect when I connected to someone else's dataset in DAX Studio and disproved their claim that they had disabled Auto Date/Time hierarchies.