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Enable Power BI Dataflow tables and columns to have descriptions

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Rob Solfest's profile image

Rob Solfest on 26 Jun 2024 22:03:12

Best practice in semantic models is to have descriptions on tables, columns and measures. Dataflows are a user-friendly centralized resource for model & business unit report builders to bring in common dimension tables (e.g.: Dates, Products). Unfortunately, the table and columns that come from a PBI Dataflow do not have a place to entera and store descriptions. This then requires the modeler and report developer to manually add a description locally in their model and column. Thus creating extra manual work, likely inconsistent descriptions and technical debt if a description needs to be updated across the models & reports.


ENHANCEMENT REQUEST: Enable Table and Column descriptions to be entered in a PBI Dataflow & Power Query.

Ideally, a PBI model could just load the latest descriptions when the table & columns are refreshed to allow for central management of this documentation. Additionally, the model could allow the developer to override the description with a custom one, which would be maintained across refreshes. Assuming that they did not create a custom description, they would automatically inherit all centralized descriptions and updates from the Dataflow data source.


Thanks for your consideration!

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Craig Walker on 01 Aug 2024 10:47:30

RE: Enable Power BI Dataflow tables and columns to have descriptions

We definitely need this, otherwise we will be forced to create a Dataflow per Table which would be a step in the wrong direction.