FileAnalytics for a Team in Power BI

If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to read the post, here’s a link to download FileAnalytics.


The problem

In Microsoft Teams you’re using SharePoint Online as file storage to your Teams the same way as G: is used on prem. This when migrating to Teams, you move your files from G: to SharePoint Online.
Ask anyone if they know what files and documents are stored on G: and they’ll look at you like this:

Bildresultat för confused


“But this is terrible! We’re moving the files into Teams. This is a perfect time to do some clean up. Do you mind handle it, Mrs You-Probably-Have-Nothing-Else-To-Do-For-5-Month?”
Don’t be surprised when the response looks something like this:

Bildresultat för confused

Conclusion: You might not be able to clean up all your stuff before moving it into you new shiny Teams enviromen and instead you’ll be migrating all the old junk just to get it done.
Bear in mind, this isn’t all terrible as you have now given new life to your information when it becomes indexed and searchable by content.


The solution

Let’s just begin by the anticlimactic fact that you should probably not handle your files using a Power BI report when Office 365 is filled with great tools for Data governance. Let’s also be realistic. This Power BI Report looks cool and isn’t that really all we want?

This Power BI report is built with SharePoint Folders as the source and simply gathers all the files from a Team site that you choose. It then gives us the ability to get insights into what files and documents are stored in that Team! How many of a certain file type or how many GB is there in a certain Root folder. That sort of stuff. If you don’t have a Power BI Pro license, you can at least open it in the free software called Power BI desktop and manually have a look at a Team. If you do have a Power BI Pro license, you can publish the report to the Teams workspace and then add it to a tab in your Team to have close access to it!
Apart from the first page above, you also get a drill down of the folders in the decomposition Tree (you might have to enable this preview visual) as well as the Clean up page. On this page you can filter out the old files that’s just taking up space in your Team and get a good and clear understanding on what kind of old garbage your Team consists of in term of documents.


How do I set it up?

Select the Team you want to analyze and open the General channel. Select the Files tab and click Open in SharePoint.


Copy the address to the SharePoint site high lighted below.


Next you should download the Power BI File and open it.
Click on the lower part of the button called Transform data and select Edit parameters.


There’s only one parameter to set here and that’s the site address. Paste the address from before (don’t include the last /-character) and press OK.

Click on the Apply Changes button that is now showing in Power BI Desktop, sit back and enjoy the refresh (or provide the credentials for the SharePoint site if this is the first time you’re doing this on your computer).


That’s it. Enjoy your new insights! Cheers!

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