Create new report without overwriting the dataset

[Anonymous]

Dear Community, 

this has been addressed already but I have not found a satisfactory answer yet. 

Is it possible to create a report (obviously from a dataset "A") and then upload without having this action creating a different dataset "B" ? 

This is a problem, since the moment the new dataset "B" is generated, the report is not linked to "A" anymore - and "A" is the one which is regularly updated with new data. 

Is there a solution for this?

Many thanks in advance for any hint! 

Kind Regards,

Luca

[rahulanandt]

In Power BI Desktop , Select power BI Datasets from get Data menu and create your reports using the dataset you wanted from power bi services. If you publish this file dataset won't be created, only report will be created and this report will be linked to the already existing dataset.

[tmeag]

Yes, it's absolutely possible. Go to the "Datasets" Tab in the workspace where the dataset is located. Then click on the "+" button (on the dataset row) indicating "create new report". Then save the report - it will be linked with the same dataset (you can control it by checking the related items of the dataset). Now you can download the .pbix file of the newly created report and edit it in the power bi desktop. 

Kind regards

[Anonymous]

Hi Tmeag,

thanks for the quick reply!

I see what you mean, but I miss one key step - maybe I did not fully explain myself.

I can follow yuor steps, get a PBIX generated from the right report, but then when I publish it - that is the moment when I loose the connection to the dataset (since another one is created). 

So if I made any changes in the PBIX with the desktop version, those are reflected in the new report of course - but this new report is not linked to the old dataset anymore. 

Which is a problem since I need to do this regularly, and what I am trying to do is to have a 'template report' which stays linked to the same database, and which I can edit when required (without creating a new dataset for any new version which I publish).

Hope I explained myself better 🙂 

Luca

[tmeag]

Hi Luca,

I think I have understood what you want to achieve. I think you need a "live connection" dataset. Please refer to the following documentation:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets

With kind regards

[Anonymous]

in the link above I found:

"If the owner modifies the original shared .pbix file, the dataset and report that is shared in the Power BI service is overwritten. Reports based on that dataset aren't overwritten, but any changes to the dataset are reflected in the report."

So if I need to change a colour theme I can't reupload without creating a new dataset? this is very restrictive in my case. Is there any way around this - a way to edit colour themes in the service perhaps?