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Announcing Power BI report and dataset management in Power Apps Solutions

Headshot of article author Teddy Bercovitz

Welcome to the enhanced experience of adding Power BI reports and datasets to your model-driven apps via Power Apps solutions! We’ve made it easy to embed Power BI reports in business apps like Dynamics 365, collaboration apps like Teams, productivity apps like Office 365, and even custom apps – helping users uncover insights where they work.

Now App makers can add Power BI reports and datasets as Dataverse components in Power Apps solutions, improving the export, import, and customization process. Solutions are a Power Platform tool that enables users to deploy applications built using Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, and other Power Platform services.

When you add a Power BI report or dataset to a solution, it will stay connected upon deployment across environments and tenants. The report or dataset can also be seamlessly managed as part of your Application Lifecycle Management process across environments and tenants.

Continue reading below or watch Srihari Srinivasa and I’s video to see these features in action: Manage and Embed Power BI Reports and Datasets as Part of a Power Platform Solution

Add Power BI components to solutions

Working in Power Apps, you can now add Power BI report and dataset components from Power BI workspaces just like any other Dataverse component. When you add a Power BI report, it will detect any dependency between the report and relevant dataset and add the dependent dataset automatically. Once the report or dataset is added to the solution, the artifacts will be exported and uploaded to Dataverse, and a new Power BI dedicated workspace will be automatically created to store the artifacts. This dedicated Power BI workspace also inherits privileges from several pre-defined roles (for more information, see documentation) giving these users permission in the workspace and thus enabling co-authoring between Power Apps & Power BI. This process ensures that your Power BI reports and datasets can be embedded as a system dashboard or inside forms and will fully support deployment across environments and tenants.

Control Power BI dataset parameters from Power Apps

Once you’ve added Power BI components to a solution, you can then configure connectivity across environments using dataset parameters (for more information, see documentation). Every Power BI dataset that includes a dynamic query parameter can be controlled from Power Apps solutions by defining its value with an environment variable, an environment domain, or custom text—allowing full flexibility in controlling data sources on deployment between your dev, test, and production environments. Datasets that connect to Dataverse and do not have existing parameters can automatically be configured to connect to the target environment domain when you deploy.

Power BI components in the Power Apps solutions package

When you export your solution with Power BI components, the Power BI artifacts are stored in the solution format rather than in .pbix files. In the export zip file, there will be a specific package for each Power BI dataset and report in the solution. This means that when you store, version, or deploy a Power Apps solution, the same action will apply to the embedded Power BI reports and datasets.

Solution Customization

These new integration capabilities also enable you to fully customize the Power BI components to fit your exact needs. When you deploy a managed solution, any customizations you make will be saved as an additional, unmanaged layer—enabling you to take a managed solution from your own organization, a vendor, or even from AppSource, and adapt it to suit your own analytics needs.

With this feature now in preview, we are thrilled for you to try out these new capabilities, and look forward to hearing about the amazing, data-rich apps you create with Power Apps solutions and Power BI.

Try it today!

You can use it today! Just create a new environment with D365 apps enabled or install this integration from Power Platform Admin Center and set it up with one click. By mid-October, this feature will be automatically available in every Dataverse environment.

Learn more about this integration by reading the Power BI in Power Apps Solutions Public Documentation.