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AlexAlberga727
Resolver II
Resolver II

What to do when a Templates changes?

Hello everyone!

 

Thanks for taking a minute to review my inquiry. 

 

I have been building out a massive PBIX over the last year for the company I work with. For some of the reporting I handle I utilize a folder import. Within this folder there is a .xlsx file created for everyday we're open. This file contains a consistant template, and I have had no issues. This .xlsx sheet contains several worksheets - one of which contains a template which now will change. The template is controled by a 3rd party reporting tool which i copy and paste into this sheet daily. I'm curious what options I have to ensure that the change in template do not impact my PBIX report. 

 

I am willing to share more information if needed. However, the jist here is that there is a massive template change. Same base data, fewer columns, and different headers.

 

Please let me know if you have any ideas, or are willing to help. Thanks!

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS
edhans
Super User
Super User

That will require significant changes @AlexAlberga727 to your Power BI report. If the columns are changing, order and it is in an Excel table, that is no big deal, but if columns are added and removed, renamed, or it is not an Excel table but a grid of data on a spreadsheet, chances are it will fundamentally break.

 

The way to do this is to get a copy of the new template and later the PBIX file to handle that via the Power Query transformations so everything that ultimately loads to the model is as the model expected it. That will prevent visuals and measure from breaking.

Then publish the report with the updates at the same time the template file also changes.



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Jimmy801
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hello @AlexAlberga727 

 

this could be easy and really difficult, depending what in the template changes and how you would like to prepare for such changes in the future. But without knowing what exactly is changing and seeing your code, it's difficult to say any further. What you also have to consider is this: you have to read data from new and old template or in future only for new template. Think of how you are able to distinguish them and then apply the needed changes only to sheets of the new template in order to get them the same as the old template.

 

A thought when it comes to column name changes:

If there are column name changes, you might consider to rename them so you can be sure that your names of fields will not changes. This you could achive by creating a 2 column table with old and new column and use this information for renaming.


If this post helps or solves your problem, please mark it as solution (to help other users find useful content and to acknowledge the work of users that helped you)
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View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
Jimmy801
Community Champion
Community Champion

Hello @AlexAlberga727 

 

this could be easy and really difficult, depending what in the template changes and how you would like to prepare for such changes in the future. But without knowing what exactly is changing and seeing your code, it's difficult to say any further. What you also have to consider is this: you have to read data from new and old template or in future only for new template. Think of how you are able to distinguish them and then apply the needed changes only to sheets of the new template in order to get them the same as the old template.

 

A thought when it comes to column name changes:

If there are column name changes, you might consider to rename them so you can be sure that your names of fields will not changes. This you could achive by creating a 2 column table with old and new column and use this information for renaming.


If this post helps or solves your problem, please mark it as solution (to help other users find useful content and to acknowledge the work of users that helped you)
Kudoes are nice too

Have fun

Jimmy

edhans
Super User
Super User

That will require significant changes @AlexAlberga727 to your Power BI report. If the columns are changing, order and it is in an Excel table, that is no big deal, but if columns are added and removed, renamed, or it is not an Excel table but a grid of data on a spreadsheet, chances are it will fundamentally break.

 

The way to do this is to get a copy of the new template and later the PBIX file to handle that via the Power Query transformations so everything that ultimately loads to the model is as the model expected it. That will prevent visuals and measure from breaking.

Then publish the report with the updates at the same time the template file also changes.



Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!
Did my answers help arrive at a solution? Give it a kudos by clicking the Thumbs Up!

DAX is for Analysis. Power Query is for Data Modeling


Proud to be a Super User!

MCSA: BI Reporting

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