Table of Contents

Power BI Embedded

Service Description

Sensei Power BI Embedded is an easy way to distribute standardised Power BI Reports based on Reporting Hub data to a wide audience of Project Online users without additional licensing costs. It provides complimentary functionality to the Power BI service from Microsoft:

Feature Sensei Power BI Embedded Power BI Free Power BI Pro Power BI Premium
Project Online context sensitive embedding
Use without requiring a Power BI Pro license
Paginated Reports (SSRS)
Embed in SharePoint
Scheduled Refresh
Email subscriptions
Multiple Data Sources
Custom Reports *See Custom Reports
Automatic/on-demand refreshes Dataset > 4 hours old Daily 8 per day 48 per day
Max Dataset size 1 GB (50MB PBIX size) 1 GB 1GB 10 GB

Custom Reports

Sensei Power BI Embedded is used to distribute pre-configured reports to Project users, however in some cases these reports will need to be customised to support changes in customer banding or fields. Enterprise tiers of both Empower PPM and Reporting Hub support the facility for uploading custom reports via the installed SharePoint Webpart.

Note

Power BI Embedded is not intended to be a replacement for Power BI Pro. Power BI Embedded has resource and refresh limitations that make Power BI Pro a better choice for custom report development.

Downloading Existing Reports

An existing report can be downloaded and customised locally using Power BI Desktop, then subsequently re-uploaded back into the service.

Understanding Data Refresh

Power BI Refresh behaviour varies by storage type:

  • DirectQuery mode
  • Import mode

Only Import Mode reports require a data refresh, as DirectQuery mode reports are always refreshed when viewed.

When an Import Mode report from the Sensei Power BI Embedded service is displayed, data from the last successful refresh is displayed. If that data is more than 4 hours old, a request to refresh the data will be made. When the background data refresh is completed the report will be updated automatically in the user's browser.

Import mode datasets are limited to 1GB storage.

If the data refresh doesn't complete because of an error, the problem will be shown in a banner at the top of the report.

In order to optimise custom reports and minimise data refresh times please refer to the following resources:

How to get it

Sensei Power BI Embedded is an optional Reporting Hub add-on. You can purchase it via:

  1. Empower PPM subscription.
  2. Reporting Hub Enterprise tier subscription.
  3. Separately, contact Sensei for details.

Technical Information

Visualisation Types

Power BI supports three different types of visualisation:

  • Report
  • Dashboard
  • Q&A / Dataset
    • Q&A only works with Dataset configured in Import Storage mode. Dataset in Dual or DirectQuery Storage mode are not available.
Query Parameters

During the upload of a Power Bi report the following query parameters are overridden.

  • Server
    • Fully Qualified Domain Name of the Reporting Hub database server.
    • Example: tcp:au1-rh.database.windows.net,1433
  • Database
    • Name of the Reporting Hub database on the database server.
    • Example: contoso_sharepoint_com_sites_pwa
  • Tenant SharePoint URL
    • Example: https://contoso.sharepoint.com
  • PWA Site Path
    • Relative path of the Project Online site collection.
    • Example: /sites/pwa

Auto Filter

In Report mode you can define report filter to be automatically populated. The filter are set on load. If the Filter panel is displayed the user can modify the filter. This feature works with all reports.

You can choose from the following options:

  • Project Uid
    • GUID of the current project.
    • Only on PDP pages.
    • Example: 9186c1ad-2e73-4d78-8176-cc527a9ac447
  • Current User - EMail
    • SharePoint Mail of the user rendering the report.
    • Example: fabian.schmidt@sensei.cloud
  • Current User - Id
    • SharePoint User id of the user rendering the report
    • Example: 30
  • Current User - Login name
    • SharePoint Login name of the user rendering the report.
    • Example: i:0#.f|membership|fschmidt@sensei.cloud
  • Current User - Resource Uid
    • Project Online resource Guid.
    • Example: b037e043-2a9b-e611-80cd-00155de4d408
Note

Power Bi Table and Column names are case senstive.

Report Security

In Report and Q&A mode you can define Security Role to be used. The Report must be prepared by setting up Security Roles.

See Row-level security for instructions how to create Roles.

The following Roles can be used in the Reporting Hub:

  • ProjectUid
    • GUID of the current project or Guid empty when not found.
    • Only on PDP pages.
    • Example: 9186c1ad-2e73-4d78-8176-cc527a9ac447
  • CurrentUser_Mail
    • SharePoint Mail of the user rendering the report or `` (space) when the current user has no EMail.
    • Example: fabian.schmidt@sensei.cloud
  • CurrentUser_Id
    • SharePoint User id of the user rendering the report
    • Example: 30
  • CurrentUser_LoginName
    • SharePoint Login name of the user rendering the report.
    • Example: i:0#.f|membership|fschmidt@sensei.cloud
  • CurrentUser_UPN
    • SharePoint Login claim value of the user rendering the report.
    • Example: fschmidt@sensei.cloud
  • ResourceUid
    • Project Online resource Guid or Guid empty when not found.
    • Example: b037e043-2a9b-e611-80cd-00155de4d408

The value is stored in the USERNAME() DAX expression.

Example:

Note

If the message Can't display this visual. appears after selecting a Role, then the Report is configured incorrectly.

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