How you protect power queries is a question that will come up after you've built a solution that relies heavily on Power Query, especially if you're going to release it to other users.
(This is a quick post, as I'm in Australia at the Unlock Excel conference, but still wanted to get a post out this week.)
Can you Protect Power Queries?
The answer to this is yes, you can. It’s actually very easy, and prevents your users from not only modifying your queries, but adding new queries to the workbook as well. Essentially, it shuts the door on any additions or modifications to query logic, while still allowing queries to be refreshed… at least, it should.
So how do we Protect Power Queries?
To protect Power Queries we simply need to take advantage of the Protect Workbook Structure settings:
- In Excel (not Power Query), go to the Review tab
- Choose Protect Workbook
- Ensure that Structure is checked
- Provide a password (optional)
- Confirm the password (if provided)
Once you’ve done this, the Power Query toolsets will be greyed out, and there is no way for the user to get into the editor.
Does refresh work when you Protect Power Queries?
This part kills me. Seriously.
The answer to this question depends on whether or not you use Power Pivot. If you don't, then yes, you're good to go. As long as all your tables land on worksheets or as connections, then a refresh will work even when you protect Power Queries via the Protect Workbook method.
If, however, you have a single Power Query that lands in the data model, your stuffed. If Power Pivot is involved, then the refresh seems to silently fail when you protect Power Queries using this method (and I don't know of another short of employing VBA, which is a non-starter for a lot of people).
It's my feeling that this is a bug, and I've sent it off to Microsoft, hoping that they agree and will fix it. We need a method to protect both Power Query and Power Pivot solutions, and this would do it, as long as the refresh will consistently work.
Caveats about locking your workbook structure:
Some caveats that are pretty standard with protection:
- Losing your password can be detrimental to your solution long-term. Make sure you have some kind of independent system to log your passwords so this doesn’t happen to you. And if your team is doing this, make sure you audit them so you don’t get locked out when as staff member leaves for any reason.
- Be aware that locking the workbook structure also locks the ability for users to get into Power Pivot.
- Workbook security is hackable with brute force macro code available on the internet for free. (Please don’t bother emailing me asking for copies or links to this code. I don’t help in disseminating code which can be used to hack security.) While protecting the workbook structure will stop the majority of users from accessing your queries, it should not be mistaken for perfect security.
The post Protect Power Queries appeared first on The Ken Puls (Excelguru) Blog.