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Paginated Reports August 2019 Feature Update – Report Builder Update, SaaS embedding support and what’s coming soon

Headshot of article author Christopher Finlan

As we head into August, we’ve released two feature updates for Paginated Reports in Power BI, with several more on the way.

Power BI Report Builder Update

This is the dataset selector in Power BI Report Builder

Later today, we’re dropping a new update for Power BI Report Builder that includes an enhanced experience when you’re connecting to Power BI datasets.  Now, when you’re browsing your Power BI workspaces to connect to your Power BI datasets, you’ll see tags to indicate whether or not they’re a certified or promoted dataset.  Additionally, we also now show you the connection type the dataset is using – if it’s either an imported dataset, uses Direct Query or a Live Connection to Analysis Services.

Download Power BI Report Builder

SaaS embedding of Paginated Reports now available

One of the most popular scenarios with SQL Server Reporting Services was embedding those reports into other applications.  Now, with Paginated Reports in Power BI, support for internal app and portal embedding scenarios is now available.  Make sure you check out the full announcement and documentation in the blogpost from the Power BI embedded team.

What’s coming next for Paginated Reports and E-Mail Subscriptions

Here’s a sneak preview of some exciting new features coming in the weeks ahead –

URL parameter support – This highly requested feature will allow you to craft a URL to a paginated report with parameter values directly in the address bar.  As these parameters can be set dynamically, it will allow you to setup drill-through scenarios from one report to another, including the ability to pass filter and slicer context from a Power BI report to a Paginated Report.  We’ll also have support for setting the render format as part of the parameters, so your URL can automatically re-direct users and download the report output to PDF, Excel, or any of the supported export formats.

Secure Embed support – With the SaaS embed support in place, the ability to easily embed secure Paginated Report content in internal portals or websites will be available soon.  It’ll make it easy for non-developers to quickly add Paginated Reports in these scenarios.

Monthly Subscription Support – We’ll have the ability to select a monthly option for e-mail subscriptions for both Paginated Reports and Power BI reports/dashboards.  With support for hourly subscriptions coming for Power BI reports and dashboards later this week, soon every content type in Power BI will have the same flexible scheduling options for e-mail subscriptions as Reporting Services users have enjoyed for years.

There’s one additional feature that we’re planning I’ll hold off on talking about for now, but look for more information on it and all the items mentioned in the sneak preview in the coming weeks.

As always, please leave us feedback in the comments below, and thanks for reading!