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Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

August 22, 2020   Self-Service BI

I recently created an external tool to PowerBI desktop that connects your Power BI desktop model to Excel (https://eriksvensen.wordpress.com/2020/07/27/powerbi-external-tool-to-connect-excel-to-the-current-pbix-file/) and then I thought – could we also have a need for an external tool that could open the desktop model in Tableau desktop.

So, I downloaded a trial version of the Tableau Desktop to see what is possible.

And sure, enough Tableau can connect to Microsoft Analysis Services and therefor also the localhost port that Power BI Desktop uses.

082020 1030 connectyour1 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

We can also save a data source as a local data source file in Tableau

082020 1030 connectyour2 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

Which gives us a file with a tds extension (Tableau Data Source)

082020 1030 connectyour3 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

When opening the file in Notepad we can see the connection string and some extra data about metadata-records.

082020 1030 connectyour4 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

It turns out that the tds file does not need all the meta data record information – so I cleaned the tds file to contain

082020 1030 connectyour5 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

Opening this file from the explorer will open a new Tableau Desktop file with the connection to the specified model/database/server.

The external tool

Knowing this I could create an external tool the same way as my Excel connector.

First create a PowerShell

OBS – in order to run a powershell script on your pc you need to have to set the execution policy – https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=135170

The PowerShell script

Function ET-TableauDesktopODCConnection
{  

	[CmdletBinding()]
    param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $  false)]        
		[string]
        $  port,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $  false)]        
		[string]
        $  database,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $  false)]        
		[string]
        $  path	
    )
    
        $  tdsXml = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' ?>
<datasource formatted-name='LocalPowerBIDesktopFile' inline='true' source-platform='win' version='18.1' xmlns:user='http://www.tableausoftware.com/xml/user'>
  <document-format-change-manifest>
    <_.fcp.SchemaViewerObjectModel.true...SchemaViewerObjectModel />
  </document-format-change-manifest>
  <connection authentication='sspi' class='msolap' convert-to-extract-prompted='no' dbname='$  database' filename='' server='$  port' tablename='Model'>
</connection>
</datasource>"   
                
        #the location of the odc file to be opened
        $  tdsFile = "$  path\tableauconnector.tds"

        $  tdsXml | Out-File $  tdsFile -Force	

        Invoke-Item $  tdsFile

}

ET-TableauDesktopODCConnection -port $  args[0] -database $  args[1] -path "C:\temp"

The script simply creates a tableauconnectort.tds file and stores it in C:\temp – and the xml content in the file is dynamically referenced as arg(0) and arg(1) when the external tool is called from Power BI Desktop.

Save the script in C:\temp and call it ConnectToTableau.ps1.

The OpenInTableau.pbitool.json file

Next step was to create a pbitool.json file and store it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Power BI Desktop\External Tools

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "name": "Open In Tableau",
  "description": "Open connection to desktop model in Tableau ",
  "path": "C:/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell.exe",
  "arguments": "C:/temp/ConnectToTableau.ps1 \"%server%\" \"%database%\"",
  "iconData": "data:image/png;base64,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"
}

Test it

Now restart your Power BI desktop and the external tool should be visible in the ribbon

082020 1030 connectyour6 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

Then open a pbix file with a model and hit the button.

A PowerShell screen will shortly be visible and then Tableau opens the tds file and now we have a new tableau book with a connection to active power bi desktop datamodel.

082020 1030 connectyour7 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

And we can start to do visualizations that are not yet supported in Power BI –

082020 1030 connectyour8 Connect your #PowerBI desktop model to #Tableau Desktop via External Tools in PowerBI

How can you try it

You can download the files needed from my github repository – link

Feedback

Let me know what you think and if possible share some of the viz that you make.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Erik Svensen – Blog about Power BI, Power Apps, Power Query

#powerbi, Connect, Desktop, External, model, Tableau, tools
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