We’re thrilled to introduce template apps update capability! Power BI template apps enable partners to build & publish to AppSource out-of-the-box content for customers with little or no coding.
From now on, after downloading and connecting a template app from AppSource, every Power BI Pro or Premium user can update the app while preserving its connection configuration.
For example, let’s assume you’re a user who downloaded the Project online template app and configured its parameters with your company’s SharePoint URL site. When a new version becomes available on AppSource, pressing “Get it now” will trigger an option to overwrite the existing version.
If you choose to overwrite the existing version, you can access the latest reports and dashboards the publisher of the app has created.
Note that if you customized the report or dashboard it might be a good idea save the report using “Save as” or clone the dashboard before overwriting.
Updating the template app will get you the latest and greatest reports & dashboards the app author has created, so make sure to update it as app publishers are pushing updates on a monthly basis.
Sample data experience
We’ve also further enhanced the sample data experience for template apps, so end-users have a better experience trying out apps and then connecting to their own data.
Every template app can be installed from AppSource and viewed with sample data. When opening a report or dashboard you’ll see a new banner, reminding you that you’re experiencing the app with sample data.
Template app samples
To show off the cool integrations and apps that are possible, we’ve added a list of samples to our documentation: Template apps samples.
These samples are available for download now as .pbix source files, and we’ll be adding more awesome app samples in the future developed by Microsoft or partners who want to share with our amazing community!
Say goodbye to service content packs
It’s time to say goodbye to service content packs. We’ve already deprecated many of the content packs and are working closely with our partners to migrate the rest to template apps. By the end of September, most service content packs will be deprecated and all Power BI apps on AppSource will be template apps.