diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f00957dc9a8..6b8cd4f7128 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ### Enhancements
 * **Singlestat**: Support for gauges in singlestat panel. closes [#3688](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/3688)
+* **Templating**: Support for data source as variable, closes [#816](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/pull/816)
 
 ### Bug fixes
 * **InfluxDB 0.12**: Fixed issue templating and `show tag values` query only returning tags for first measurement,  fixes [#4726](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/4726)
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/datasource_srv.js b/public/app/core/services/datasource_srv.js
index e5fe9627bcc..2c3a043ac6c 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/datasource_srv.js
+++ b/public/app/core/services/datasource_srv.js
@@ -102,8 +102,8 @@ function (angular, _, coreModule, config) {
 
           if (ds) {
             metricSources.push({
-              name: '[[' + variable.name + ']]',
-              value: '[[' + variable.name + ']]',
+              name: '$' + variable.name,
+              value: '$' + variable.name,
               meta: ds.meta,
             });
           }
diff --git a/public/app/core/services/segment_srv.js b/public/app/core/services/segment_srv.js
index a0b85a8bfb2..d05a2bb011f 100644
--- a/public/app/core/services/segment_srv.js
+++ b/public/app/core/services/segment_srv.js
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ function (angular, _, coreModule) {
 
       if (_.isString(options)) {
         this.value = options;
-        this.html = $sce.trustAsHtml(this.value);
+        this.html = $sce.trustAsHtml(templateSrv.highlightVariablesAsHtml(this.value));
         return;
       }
 
diff --git a/public/app/features/templating/templateValuesSrv.js b/public/app/features/templating/templateValuesSrv.js
index d5d074f0c6d..dc878c19c08 100644
--- a/public/app/features/templating/templateValuesSrv.js
+++ b/public/app/features/templating/templateValuesSrv.js
@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ function (angular, _, kbn) {
       // determine our dependencies.
       if (variable.type === "query") {
         _.forEach(this.variables, function(v) {
-          if (templateSrv.containsVariable(variable.query, v.name)) {
+          // both query and datasource can contain variable
+          if (templateSrv.containsVariable(variable.query, v.name) ||
+              templateSrv.containsVariable(variable.datasource, v.name)) {
             dependencies.push(self.variableLock[v.name].promise);
           }
         });
@@ -149,7 +151,8 @@ function (angular, _, kbn) {
         if (otherVariable === updatedVariable) {
           return;
         }
-        if (templateSrv.containsVariable(otherVariable.query, updatedVariable.name)) {
+        if (templateSrv.containsVariable(otherVariable.query, updatedVariable.name) ||
+            templateSrv.containsVariable(otherVariable.datasource, updatedVariable.name)) {
           return self.updateOptions(otherVariable);
         }
       });