This month we’re excited to announce a new capability that makes it easy for template app users to update their apps in one simple step!
Template apps are marketplace offers which provide Power BI Pro or Premium users with out-of-the-box reports for common data sources. Template app publishers release updates regularly, and as updates become available on AppSource, people who have installed these apps receive notification on the Power BI notification pane:
Until today, after installing a template app update, users also had to go to the template app workspace and re-publish the organizational app to enjoy the update. Many users found this step confusing and were unsure about what to do. The result was that the org app often did not get updated, and thus never included the recent changes and improvements. Now, when you install a template app update, you can choose to update the organizational app as well, enabling you to update the app, navigate to it directly, and continue your work!
The new capability works as follows: When you install an update, you’ll notice a new option in the update dialog:
Selecting this new option will install the updates and republish the org app.
You will be notified when update and republish finishes successfully – you are all set to go!
The updated app will now include any updated app branding, such as app name, logo, and navigation, as well as the latest publisher improvements to content. In fact, users who have not made changes to the app’s content can go to the app. Installers will be notified via a banner if additional actions are required and of or data refresh status:
With the rollout of this feature, updating and republishing a template app becomes a truly “app-centric” experience for personal and organizational use. Most of the time you can stay with the app – no more unnecessary detours to the workspace!
Note that we’ve also kept the previous functionality of the update dialog, where you update only the workspace content without updating the org app. This is important especially for users who have customized the reports and are sharing them via the org app and want to control what to share. To choose this option, select the second radio button.
