Portability of Power Bi reports containing power bi datasets - powerbi

I'm using Power bi service along with power bi desktop version.
What I'd like is to spend less time on setting up UI for my charts.
Let's say I have multiple accounts with power bi datasets in them (hybrid dataset to be able to display data in real-time).
Currently I have to create report on each of them, set up charts etc. I expected to create pbix file once and then just publish it to different accounts. But when it comes to reports bound with power bi datasets, it is no longer possible. Even if account already has exactly the same hybrid dataset.
Any ideas on how to implement portable reports?

If I got your point correctly, you have multiple accounts and in each of them you have the same dataset. You want to create open report, which you will publish to all of these accounts. I do not understand why do you need to create a new report for each of your accounts. Why not just change the data source of your report prior publishing it to each of these accounts?
Also it is not clear, how these datasets are created. I think there are two possible options here - these datasets are published with your report, or they are existing datasets not published with this report.
In the first case, just design your report, getting data from your database, and publish the report in each of your accounts. You could change the data source prior every publishing, if your different accounts/datasets should get data from different databases.
In the second case, when you design your report, do not get data from the database, but connect the report to the Power BI Service itself:
and pick the existing dataset:
Before each publish change the account you are logged in, change the data source of the report and select the dataset from the corresponding account. This way when publishing the report, the dataset will not be overwritten, but will be shared between this report and any other report who uses it.
To change the data source of your report, in the drop down of "Edit Queries" button, select "Data source settings" and then click "Change Source..." button.
In both ways you will design your report only once, but it will be published in different accounts using different data.

Are all of your users in the same tennant/company?
If so, create a workspace. Create your report which uses another power BI dataset as its source. Turn on row level permissions. Share the new report to all people. They will only see the data relevant to them and you will only need to maintain one report.
Row level security in power bi

I have used Power BI Service with Multiple Reports/Users in Same Organization with Shared Data Sources using different Reports for each user using the same Datasets.
From your Admin Account (eg. it#contoso.org) Publish all the Reports and once its working from Online (after configuring Gateway and DataSources). Download the PBIX Report File from Power BI Online.
Using Admin Account go to Dataset Settings and Allow the users who will use reports using this datasets to Publish Reports using this Dataset (further security to use dataset i.e. Even if they get the source PBIX File and upload it they wont get access to the data).
Login using the Users Power BI Account (must be within Same Organization, eg. contoso.org) then upload the Same PBIX Report File which was downloaded Earlier from Power BI Web Portal (do not publish via the Desktop App), its more efficient and cleaner on Accessing the Data through Web/Devices.
Now the reports as already they are using the same shared Datasets, the reports will be running fine and the data source settings only have to be done once from Admin User.
And for any further databases Administration only One Admin Account need to be used to access and modify the Data Source Settings.

Related

What is the use case of making a dashboard in Power BI when reports and app can be used to expose data to end user?

Here is what I have done so far:
I have created multiple Power BI reports. Each report has multiple visuals.
I have published the reports into the Power BI workspace.
Report developers can access the reports via the workspace. Business users can access the reports via the application published from the workspace (containing the reports).
I want to understand what is the purpose/use case of using the Power BI dashboard when I already have the report/application capability as described above.
I know that dashboard allows to pin live report page or add visuals from various reports into one dashboard. When exactly is this useful?

I have a power bi desktop connected with sql database and have some reports in it

I have a power bi desktop connected with SQL database and have some reports in it.
Now I want to generate following things
Every time user enter the name of the database my reports gets automatically refresh and exported in PDF or excel.
If possible I have browser where user can enter the SQL database name and UI pop up and end user can see the power BI dashboard where all reports automatically refreshed as per the user input SQL database name.
Thanks in advance!
For ask 1:
Refer Create and use R visuals in Power BI Once R is installed, open the Run R Script and paste the below R script, depending on your destination and save it.
Example as a excel file: write.xlsx(dataset, file = "C:/dataset.xlsx")
If you are interested in (PDF) and know Microsoft Power Platform, use On Power BI button clicked trigger followed with Export To File for Power BI Reports actions API to export a PDF to your local directory. Demo screenshot
For ask 2:
You can check Embed a report in a secure portal or website to easily embed reports in internal web portals and utilize Automatic page refresh in the Power BI service to set automatic page refresh for reports as long as the data source is DirectQuery.
Power BI Desktop has no restrictions for refresh intervals and can be as frequent as every second. But when reports are published to the Power BI service, certain restrictions apply.
Alternately you can use Datasets Power BI REST APIs - to trigger a refresh for the specified dataset from "My Workspace".
POST https://api.powerbi.com/v1.0/myorg/datasets/{datasetId}/refreshes
You can also leverage Q&A for Power BI business users the fastest way to get an answer from your data by asking a question using natural language.

How to deploy Power BI reports and connect them to a single Power BI Dataset

As far as I know, deploying a Power BI report from Power BI Desktop results in two items, the report itself and the dataset. When deploying a new report using the same dataset, will deploy the new report and a second copy of the same dataset in Power BI Service. That is not what I wanted. To not confuse end users and other, I want only an unique dataset deployed.
I want to make use of Azure Devops deploying to Power BI Service in a Dev, Test and Prod way. The dataset will be an azure analysis services data model, but the principle should be the same. I need to reduce the dataset to be exactly one and all reports must relate to that data model. I have heard of a Rest API or powershell scripting that can come to a rescue here.
So if any of you have done this or know of a good article that describes how to do this, I would be grateful.
Regards Geir
The best option is to separate the Power BI report in the frontend and the backend. You create a file purely for the dataset if you are importing, no reports created on it. You can then create the reports, using the service connection to the dataset, or with Power BI desktop, in the connection to Power BI Dataset option. Both will use 'Live Connection' mode, so you cannot add any other data sources to the model, for example bring in a CSV file or SQL database.
If you are connecting to an Azure Analysis Service data model, you can use this approach, however as it is only a connection only, not a full fat dataset, it should not be an issue to have copies of the dataset, as it is just the connection. Having copies of the dataset is only an issue if you are importing data, then it is best to move things to data flows, and use the same front/back end method, and the planning around the scheduling of the dataflows then datasets
You can use the REST API to move reports and the datasets that they connect to, and move items to new workspaces. If you have Power BI Premium that has a life cycle tool to move items between dev/test/live workspaces
If you create a report in desktop and choose 'Power BI Dataset' as live connection to work over it - when you upload the report to the same workspace, it will only upload the report and connect to the same dataset
https://radacad.com/power-bi-shared-datasets-what-is-it-how-does-it-work-and-why-should-you-care#:~:text=A%20shared%20dataset%20is%20a%20dataset%20that%20shared%20between%20multiple,tenant%20in%20Power%20BI%20environment.

PowerBI Dataset and Report replacement

So, I created dataset that can be used to generate multiple reports and dashboards.
I would like to publish to the web portal and allow report designers to create their own reports and dashboards. Which works great until I need to update the model. If I update the model and push the data set via Publish function it deletes the reports.
So is the only option for everyone to use PowerBI Desktop? What is the web-based report designer for? Is this only for datasets that will never change?
If your Power BI file has reports in it, it will over write them. What I think is happening is that your users are updating the report in your dataset, for example adding a new tab, so when you load changes it overwrites them.
You need to decouple the Dataset from the reports. You can load your dataset with out any reports. You can then build reports using two methods.
1) Connect to the dataset using Power BI Desktop, using the connect to Power BI Dataset connection. That links to the dataset in a Live Connection, so you can build your reports from that. You can then publish your report. Any changes to the dataset will not overwrite it.
2) For the Web builder you can do the same, create a new report in the portal and select a dataset from that workspace to build your report. What the user needs to do then is 'Save as' and give that report as a new name.
Both methods just link to your dataset, not build a report directly in the file

How secure is Row-Level Security in Power Bi?

I am wanting to know how secure Row-Level Security is.
We are currently working on creating a dashboard that would be shared with 500 users within our organisation. All of these users are managers and we would be using dynamic row-level security so that each user would only be able to view information in the dashboard related to their own team.
I have tested RLS and it worked fine, but I have had another Power Bi user tell me that RLS is not completely secure as my base data is coming from excel. My base data is in excel, but I convert it into a pbix file in Power Bi desktop before creating the role, then publishing to power bi service, where I assign users to the role and give read only access.
I am wondering once I have shared the dashboard with these users is there any way for them to get around the RLS and access the base data?
Thanks in advance,
Amy
There are a number of factors to consider for imported data.
If the user can download the report, they could remove the role and access all the data. I would recommend turning this off in the Power BI Admin protal for selected users, or an AD group.
They could connect to the dataset via Excel or another report and get the data that way without the role level filter being used. Having them as read only is one way of stopping them altering the report. I would suggest deploying the report as an app, then they can only access the surfaced report not the underlying dataset.