I’m excited to announce that our superb group 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 neighborhood device obtainable for obtain right here. With Exterior Instruments Normal Availability, you possibly can count on to see increasingly Exterior Instruments constructed by our superb neighborhood members. I personally shocked to see many superb 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. Previously few years, I wrote a sequence of weblog posts about exporting information from Energy BI Desktop and Energy BI Service. These posts are fairly in style. 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:

Other than my web site statistics exhibiting many individuals need to export information from Energy BI Desktop, a few of my prospects requested the identical query. They wished to export the curated information from their information mannequin inside Energy BI Desktop to CSV format and make the curated information obtainable 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 advanced. So I assumed, we will make it higher. We will make an easy 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 thought 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 will rapidly construct the identical information mannequin because the one we exported its information however utilizing the CSV information as the information sources. The opposite thought was to pack the whole lot 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 submit I clarify the way it works.

Downloading and Putting in Energy BI Exported

You possibly can obtain Energy BI Exporter from its official webpage from Knowledge Vizioner web site. You require to enter your electronic mail deal with then click on the Obtain button as proven within the following picture:

Relying in your browser, the obtain course of could also be barely totally different, but it surely downloads the power-bi-exporter.msi file.

You possibly can set up the file by double clicking it and following the directions inside the installer.

Utilizing Energy BI Exporter

As talked about earlier, the concept of making the Energy BI Exporter was to have a devoted device that exports information from Energy BI Desktop within the easiest potential manner. After you efficiently put in the Energy BI Exporter, comply with these steps:

1. Click on the Exterior Instruments tab after opening the Energy BI Desktop (both the Retailer model or the common downloaded model)
2. Click on the Energy BI Exporter

3. Navigate to the specified location to retailer the ZIP file
4. Enter the File title
5. Click on the Save button

6. The Exporter begins exporting the information in a ZIP file within the location we chosen earlier. After the export course of is Accomplished, you possibly can shut the Energy BI Exporter window

All achieved!

Testing the Outcomes

Now you can navigate to the situation and open the ZIP file. The ZIP file should comprise all information, tables, columns and relationships. The next picture reveals the outcomes of exporting the information from my Energy BI information mannequin:

As you see within the above picture, the Energy BI Exporter efficiently exported 24 information tables plus three schema information together with Tables, Columns and Relationships. Let’s take a look at my information mannequin and see if all tables are exported. The next picture reveals my information mannequin:

Because the previous picture illustrates, my mannequin is a Composite Mannequin containing tables with totally 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 go away it to you test the remainder of information exported.

Getting the Updates

Each time we launch a brand new model of the Energy BI Exporter, you can be notified through the device while you begin utilizing it. A notification message notifies you {that a} new model is offered to obtain. You possibly can merely click on the notification to obtain the brand new model.

Issues

Each piece of software program has some limitations, and Energy BI Exporter just isn’t an exception. Please hold the next factors in thoughts earlier than utilizing the Energy BI Exporter:

• Energy BI Exporter won’t work in case you are linked to an occasion of Evaluation Companies (SSAS) or a Energy BI Dataset in Join Reside mode. If you’re not too certain what Join Reside 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 inside the information mannequin. If the desk has not been loaded into the information mannequin, Energy BI Exporter can’t entry it
• Energy BI Exporter exports the tables obtainable within the information mannequin no matter their underlying information supply. In case your mannequin accommodates tables in DirectQuery mode linked to massive tables, then Energy BI Exporter nonetheless works. Nevertheless it tries to export the entire information from the information supply which can take a very long time if the underlying information supply accommodates massive quantities of knowledge

Conclusion

Energy BI Exporter is a device designed and applied with simplicity in thoughts. Exporting information from Energy BI Desktop has by no means been as straightforward 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 at liberty 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.