"Get Data" on Service vs Desktop

[BeeEyeNoob]

I am having a hard time understanding why there are more data sources in the Service rather than the BI Desktop.

Even when the data source is available on both service and desktop, like Zendesk, I get completely different datasets on desktop than I do on Service.

How can one begin data modeling if some of major data sources are only available on the Service?

Here is my current work flow:

-Open BI Service: Get Data for Zendesk and Office 365 Adoption.

-Open a the Zendesk and Office 365 Datasets, then "Analyze in Excel" which allows me to download an excel file.

-Open Desktop: Get Data from Excel file

-At this point I can now build the data model that relates the office 365 user to the zendesk user.

-From Desktop, Publish to Service so that I can share with my boss.

Horrible, I know. Thanks in advance for the help!

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @BeeEyeNoob,

In Power BI service, when you get data from Zendesk content pack and Office 365 Adoption content pack. Those are service content packs, which include dataset, report and dashboard template. When creating the template, author may transform data in Power Query or add some filters on report. So it's possible that the Zendesk content pack and Office 365 Adoption content pack display different data when you get data in desktop.

Currently, we are not able to connect to service content pack in Power BI desktop. But there are corresponding Power BI template file which you can import to Power BI desktop to analyze it. You can download Zendesk content pack template file and Office 365 Adoption content pack template file.

When you use Analyze in Excel to create a workbook, I wouldn't suggest you import it to desktop then publish to service as it can be a circle. You can just share the workbook directly, see: Analyze in Excel.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[BeeEyeNoob]

I got these template files working, but how do I get them into one PBI file? 

How I merge all these templates so that I can do some cross analsys and measures? 

Thanks again man!

[BeeEyeNoob]

@v-qiuyu-msft Thank you so much for the info, much appreciated.

May I ask where you have obtained these content pack template files? I have about 10 other SaaS to implement too!