Power BI

Introduction

The new Userful integration with Power BI (available from Version 12.8.1) comes with many improvements. The improved version uses ‘Passports’, created using OAuthCode Flow authentication. This is an easy method for users in your organization to authenticate and access Power BI reports within the Userful Platform with less effort on configuration and setup. This new version also provides better visual renderings of Power BI reports with control over refresh, reload, and timeout intervals.

The Power BI Sources you create with this integration can be used in Decisions and Trends. Learn to enable app permissions.

Note:

  • If you upgrade from versions prior to 12.8.1, you will need to delete existing Power BI sources and create new ones.

  • Automatic migration is not possible because of the change in authentication method.

Pre-requisites

To authenticate Power BI Embedded using OAuth2:

  • You need a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license or a Premium/Fabric capacity.

  • You need to enable access to the domain: https://integrations.userful.com

  • Your Azure admin should allow Userful's app to use Userful OAuth2 app registration.

Recommended

  • Set long reload intervals (one hour or more): Setting short reload intervals for embedded reports can lead to reports going blank. While the exact cause and threshold for this issue are unknown, a workaround involves using longer reload intervals like one hour or more.

  • A centralized data gateway in standard mode is strongly recommended over gateways in personal mode. In standard mode, the data gateway supports live connection and DirectQuery operations (in addition to scheduled data refresh operations).

Limitations

  • Supports only Power BI Cloud: This integration currently supports only Power BI Embedded, available in the Power BI cloud environment. On-premise deployments of Power BI are not supported.

  • Supports only Power BI reports: Other content types (ex: paginated report, standalone Q&A visual) are not currently supported by Userful 12.8.1.

  • Reports from ‘My Workspace’ are not supported: Only reports from common workspaces are supported in the current version of this integration.

  • Default lifespan of refresh tokens used for authentication (approximately 90 days): If your system experiences downtime exceeding 90 days which is the default lifespan, manual re-authorization will be required for restoring user sessions and backups.

  • DirectQuery to Analysis Services: Embedding reports with semantic models containing a DirectQuery connection to an Analysis Services model is currently not supported by Power BI Embedded capabilities.

Create a passport

  1. In your Userful account, go to Sources & Destinations > Integrations.

  1. Under Integrations, select Power BI.

  2. Click Create Passport at the top right corner.

  3. Enter a name and description for your passport. Ex: Joe’s Power BI Passport

  4. Click Authorize.

  5. You will be requested to log in to your Microsoft account. A pop-up appears requesting you to give permission to Userful to access Power BI. Click Accept to proceed. You will be redirected to the Userful Integrations Portal.

  6. Click Save. If the authentication worked, the status of your passport will be “Connected”. If the authentication did not work, the status will be “Offline” and you will need to click the three dots menu > Edit > Authorize.

Once authenticated, you can use your passport to create sources from Power BI Reports.

  • If your Power BI passport goes offline due to any issue, it should re-connect within 10 minutes. The access tokens refresh every 10 minutes.

  • Refresh tokens have a validity of 90 days. If your system is down for 90 days or more, authenticated Power BI passports expire. You will have to re-authorize your passports again.

  • Similarly, if you restore a system backup which is 90 days old, you must re-authorize all your Power BI passports.

Create Power BI Sources

Once a passport is created you can:

  • Create Power BI Sources under Sources & Destinations and use them in Trends and Decisions.

  • Create Power BI Sources from within Trends.

Create Power BI Sources under Sources & Destinations

  1. From the main product page, go to Sources & Destinations > Integrations.

  2. Under Integrations, select Power BI.

  3. Switch to the Integration Sources tab at the top.

  4. Click at the top right corner. A Create Source panel appears on the right side.

  5. Add a name and description for the Source you want to create.

  6. Add a tag and a thumbnail for your Source if required.

  7. Select the passport you need to use in order to access the reports you need from Power BI.

  8. From the drop-down, select the Workspace that contains the Power BI report you want. Note that only reports from common workspaces can be accessed using this integration. You will not be able to access reports from My Workspace currently.

  9. Select the Power BI report you want to use.

  10. Enter the Refresh interval. This refreshes the underlined data of a report without resetting the filters or user interactions, and only works in Direct Query mode.

  11. Enter the Reload interval. This reloads the report web page and resets the filters and user interactions. Recommended: Long Reload intervals (1 hour or more) are recommended as short intervals can lead to reports appearing blank.

  12. Enter Time-out duration. This is the duration of time after which the system refreshes the whole webpage if the Power BI report fails to render.

  13. Select Framerate.

  14. Click Save.

Create Power BI Sources from within Trends

  1. Go to Trends and select the Sources icon in the bottom tray.

  2. Click Create Source at the right side.

  3. Enter a name and description for your Source, and add tags if you want.

  4. Select the Source Type as Power BI from the drop-down.

  5. Select a thumbnail.

  6. Select the passport using which you would like to access the Power BI report.

  7. Select the Workspace and the report.

  8. Set Refresh, Reload, and Time-out intervals.

  9. Set Frame rate and click Save.

Manage Access Permissions for Power BI Sources

Once you create a Power BI Source, you can use it in both the Decisions and Trends apps. You can also enable or disable access to the Power BI Source for selected users or user groups.

To manage permissions:

  1. From the main product page, go to Sources & Destinations > Integrations.

  2. Under Integrations, select Power BI.

  3. Switch to the Integration Sources tab at the top.

  4. Click the three dots menu next to the source you want and select Edit.

  6. To enable access to Decisions and Trends, select both apps.

  7. Similarly, select the users and user groups you want to enable access to.

  8. Click Save.

Additional Considerations

Factors like network latency and report complexity can impact the performance of embedded reports. Optimizing report design and data models can help improve user experience.

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