I’m excited to announce that our wonderful workforce at Knowledge Vizioner has developed a light-weight and simple to make use of exterior device for Energy BI Desktop named Energy BI Exporter. The Energy BI Exporter is a free group device out there for obtain right here. With Exterior Instruments Common Availability, you possibly can count on to see an increasing number of Exterior Instruments constructed by our wonderful group members. I personally surprised to see many wonderful concepts flip into helpful instruments. Be taught extra about Energy BI bulletins about Exterior Instruments GA right here. I’m humbled to be named within the announcement although. So thanks to Microsoft for that.
Let me begin with a bit of background. Prior to now few years, I wrote a collection of weblog posts about exporting knowledge from Energy BI Desktop and Energy BI Service. These posts are fairly well-liked. They’re within the prime 10 most visited posts on my web site, contributing to about 15% of my web site guests. Listed here are the earlier posts I wrote on this particular subject:
Aside from my web site statistics exhibiting many individuals need to export knowledge from Energy BI Desktop, a few of my clients requested the identical query. They needed to export the curated knowledge from their knowledge mannequin inside Energy BI Desktop to CSV format and make the curated knowledge out there for his or her different platforms. Whereas all of the strategies talked about in my earlier weblog posts are working, some customers nonetheless discover them complicated. So I believed, we are able to make it higher. We are able to make a simple device that exports the information with solely two clicks. So we began constructing the Energy BI Exporter as a micro-project. We added some extra concepts to the unique concept of solely exporting the information. We thought it’s good to export the information together with the desk names, column names and relationships. Having that data helpful, we are able to rapidly construct the identical knowledge mannequin because the one we exported its knowledge however utilizing the CSV information as the information sources. The opposite concept was to pack every little thing in a ZIP file on the fly, so now we have a single ZIP file, together with the tables, columns, and relationships. Consequently, the primary model of the Energy BI Exporter is born. On this put up I clarify the way it works.
Downloading and Putting in Energy BI Exported
You may obtain Energy BI Exporter from its official webpage from Knowledge Vizioner web site. You require to enter your e mail tackle then click on the Obtain button as proven within the following picture:
Relying in your browser, the obtain course of could also be barely completely different, nevertheless it downloads the power-bi-exporter.msi file.
You may set up the file by double clicking it and following the directions throughout the installer.
Utilizing Energy BI Exporter
As talked about earlier, the thought of making the Energy BI Exporter was to have a devoted device that exports knowledge from Energy BI Desktop within the easiest potential method. After you efficiently put in the Energy BI Exporter, comply with these steps:
- Click on the Exterior Instruments tab after opening the Energy BI Desktop (both the Retailer model or the common downloaded model)
- Click on the Energy BI Exporter
- Navigate to the specified location to retailer the ZIP file
- Enter the File title
- Click on the Save button
- The Exporter begins exporting the information in a ZIP file within the location we chosen earlier. After the export course of is Performed, you possibly can shut the Energy BI Exporter window
All completed!
Testing the Outcomes
Now you can navigate to the placement and open the ZIP file. The ZIP file should include all knowledge, tables, columns and relationships. The next picture reveals the outcomes of exporting the information from my Energy BI knowledge mannequin:
As you see within the above picture, the Energy BI Exporter efficiently exported 24 knowledge tables plus three schema information together with Tables, Columns and Relationships. Let’s take a look at my knowledge mannequin and see if all tables are exported. The next picture reveals my knowledge mannequin:
Because the previous picture illustrates, my mannequin is a Composite Mannequin containing tables with completely different Storage Modes together with:
- Import Knowledge
- DirectQuery
- Twin
The mannequin even have some hidden tables and calculated tables. As you see, the Energy BI Exporter efficiently exported all tables.
Let’s open the Tables.csv file and see if the file consists of all these tables. The next picture reveals the contents of my Tables.csv file:
I depart it to you examine the remainder of information exported.
Getting the Updates
At any time when we launch a brand new model of the Energy BI Exporter, you can be notified through the device if you begin utilizing it. A notification message notifies you {that a} new model is on the market to obtain. You may merely click on the notification to obtain the brand new model.
Issues
Each piece of software program has some limitations, and Energy BI Exporter will not be an exception. Please preserve the next factors in thoughts earlier than utilizing the Energy BI Exporter:
- Energy BI Exporter won’t work in case you are related to an occasion of Evaluation Companies (SSAS) or a Energy BI Dataset in Join Dwell mode. If you’re not too certain what Join Dwell means, I encourage you to have a look at this text
- If there may be an error in your DAX expressions creating calculated columns or calculated tables, Energy BI Exporter will elevate an error message when it makes an attempt to export the information from the problematic desk
- DAX errors in measures won’t have an effect on Energy BI Exporter
- Energy BI Exporter exports the information of all tables throughout the knowledge mannequin. If the desk has not been loaded into the information mannequin, Energy BI Exporter can not entry it
- Energy BI Exporter exports the tables out there within the knowledge mannequin no matter their underlying knowledge supply. In case your mannequin accommodates tables in DirectQuery mode related to massive tables, then Energy BI Exporter nonetheless works. However it tries to export the entire knowledge from the information supply which can take a very long time if the underlying knowledge supply accommodates massive quantities of knowledge
Conclusion
Energy BI Exporter is a device designed and applied with simplicity in thoughts. Exporting knowledge from Energy BI Desktop has by no means been as simple as it’s with Energy BI Exporter. Energy BI Exporter is a free device, however that doesn’t imply we won’t assist it or replace it. So, as at all times, be happy to share your ideas and tell us what options you desire to us so as to add to the device. Hopefully, you discover the device useful.
