on 06 Feb 2019 21:22:02
Right now if you link an entity from dataflow A to dataflow B to use in further calculations, you cannot disable the load of the entity.
This idea is to allow linked entities used for calculations to be disabled in child dataflows.
We are using a master dataflow with child dataflows to filter out data to specific groups of people, giving the effect of row level security by putting those dataflows in their own workspaces. Without being able to disable the master dataflow's entities in the child dataflows, the child dataflows have all of the data, defeating the purpose. The current workaround is to create a third dataflow that is linked the the child dataflow bringing in only the final entities. This is a bit clunky.
- Comments (6)
RE: Disable linked entities
I think users will be able to see and connect to the linked entities only if they have access to both the staging workspace and the transformation workspace. Which is quite nice. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/dataflows/linked-tables#permissions-when-viewing-reports-from-dataflows. "When creating a Power BI report that includes data based on a dataflow, you can see any linked tables only when you have access to the source dataflow."
RE: Disable linked entities
This is really a need on many scenarios where you dont want the linked Entities to refresh until certain upstream steps are completed.
In my case, I have data loaded from 3 region in 3 separate Dataflows. I then append them together on another Dataflow. This combined entiy is further used for other Transformations.
Problem is even if one of the region is refreshing, all the downstream Dataflows starts refreshing!
I want the linked Dataflows to wait until I have completed refresh of all top 3 Dataflows.
RE: Disable linked entities
I totally agree and specially with the comment by Simon:
"Agreed. To elaborate on the issue: any time "Enable Load" is un-ticked on a Linked Entity then all child Computed Entities lose lineage, i.e., they do not auto-refresh or show up in the dataflow DAG"
If MS wants the auto-refresh on linked intities, they must make sure that all linked entities are refreshed (within the workspace). We have the same issue whenever a linked entity (B) points out it's source entity (A) using a parameter. Just wait and see how this will effect with development pipelines are going to support dataflows...
RE: Disable linked entities
agreed, "Hide Entity" seems an appropriate solution to my similar use case
RE: Disable linked entities
'@Simon: The suggestion from Matthew, is simply to disable Load. However, when you disable load, the DataFlow will not update automatically whenever the source DataFlow is updated.
RE: Disable linked entities
Agreed. To elaborate on the issue: any time "Enable Load" is un-ticked on a Linked Entity then all child Computed Entities lose lineage, i.e., they do not auto-refresh or show up in the dataflow DAG.
The issue can be replicated by following Matthew Roche's steps here: https://ssbipolar.com/2019/06/21/quick-tip-restricting-access-to-linked-entities-in-power-bi-dataflows/
As another solution: maintain the "Enable Load" functionality as-is (there may be some fringe use cases) but instead add a "Hide from Client Tools" option.