One App to Rule Them All: Set up and Publish a Power BI App
Overview
"Dashboards. Reports. Apps. Aren't they all the same thing??"
Over the years, I have noticed that reports are called dashboards, dashboards are called?reports?and then there are?apps. Dashboards are high-level, reports are granular, the terms are used interchangeably...but an app is different.
Apps in Power BI are a dedicated area for visually presenting workspace content (ie, dashboards, etc.) to a group of users in an organization. Think about a landing page in a company intranet. Similar concept.
An app is primarily used for sharing content across an organization, and can provide an official, central point where consumers can quickly access reports, dashboards and other information.
?Already know all of this? Skip to the instructions below.
Apps are based on pre-made templates and can house both dashboards and reports.
Credit: Microsoft
App templates can contain a navigation menu, whose access and display properties are configurable.
The theme and the experience can also be modified, at least partially.
Credit: John Lim
To get started, find the Apps item in the Power BI cloud service menu.
Click Get apps. The Power BI apps panel will appear.
Now, there are two types of apps. Organizational?apps are purely for users within the company.
And then there are?template?apps, which are made by Microsoft or designers within the Power BI community. They are available in AppSource and can be installed in any org.
You can even build your own app, fun stuff!
Use cases
A few scenarios support the use of apps. This is not an exhaustive list but meant to illustrate some possibilities.
These use cases highlight the value that a proper app can bring:
Security/Privileges
A few words on security and access.
Not everything around security and access is covered here. These areas are among some of the more important areas. Admins may be interested in learning how to automatically install apps and push them to users via the admin portal.
Prerequisites
Setting up an app is easy, however, there are prerequisites.
For other considerations and limitations, see here. Nothing jumps out at me as a deal-breaker.
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Set up and publish an app
We'll assume you have all of this covered so let's get started.
First, we'll?create a workspace?to install a new app or find a workspace that does not already have an app.
Create app by clicking the Create app or Update app button.
The app administration panel will appear. There are three tabs - Setup, Navigation and Permissions. We will go through each.
In Setup, enter details for the app.
The app logo, contact info and support site can be set here.
Next, we set up the Navigation. Make sure New navigation builder option is set to On.
If you so choose, you can hide content from navigation. It is important to note:?when you publish something in the workspace, it will be available by default in the app.
You can hide the apps via the Navigation section:
Or exclude them via the option at the workspace level:
Next, we determine?app visibility and what users can do in the app via the Permissions tab.
Entire organization means everybody in the company can access the app. Specific individuals, on the other hand, are named users or AD groups.
Admins can also grant users Build permissions and/or allow users to make copies of reports featured in the app.
The Links section will contain the hyperlinks for individual the app, dashboards and reports.
Click Publish app or Update app.
The app is live. A shareable link will appear that can be sent to users who have access to the app.
Depending on the size, it may take a few minutes for changes to appear.
Un-publish an app
For whatever reason, you may need to roll back an app after it has been published. Unpublish app can be found right above the workspace content list.
Done, and now the app is off the books and inaccessible to users.
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As you can hopefully see, not that many steps are involved in installing and launching an app in the Power BI cloud service. Among other benefits, users will appreciate the ease of access, the organization and structure. The experience can be smooth, and admins will surely appreciate the simplicity of maintaining the space and collection.
External access is also possible but remember, this is a functional guide that demonstrates how to carry out a particular task. Be sure to vet this with your security team or governance group before you try any of this.
That's the Power BI App lesson. Comments, feedback welcome. Congrats to Erick Smith and Glenn Scheideler for launching the Claims Reporting Terminal Power BI app here at Beazley this week. These fellas not only work for an award-winning department, but their work is part of Beazley's cloud journey. Kudos, gang.
Claims Data Analyst at Beazley
2 年Power BI apps are the best way to share all of your dashboards in one place. That paired with Azure AD makes it a force to br reckoned with. Really appreciate the kudos Dan!
Simple Automations - Unlocking Productivity | Approachable | Coffee Connoisseur Not Coffee Snob
2 年Another reason for me to seek Premium Capacity :)