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Power BI Service and Mobile June 2019 feature summary

Headshot of article author Nikhil Gaekwad

Senior Product Manager, Power BI
15 juli, 2019

June was yet another exciting month for Power BI! Read on for a summary of the announcements we made in both the service and mobile. Also, huge thank you for those of you that joined us at the Microsoft Business Applications Summit in Atlanta. For those who couldn’t make it out, you can check out the session recordings in our community MBAS gallery. We hope to see you next year!

Shared and certified datasets (Preview)

We kicked off June by announcing a public preview of shared and certified datasets. With this feature, you can now use a single dataset to build multiple reports across different workspaces! That’s right – dataset owners only need to maintain a single copy of their datasets in their own separate workspace and provide permissions for report authors to use those datasets to build reports. To help users discover relevant shared datasets, we released a new discovery experience in the Power BI service and Desktop to make it easier for you to browse and find content. Lastly, as part of this work, we also added new capabilities for dataset owners and tenant administrators to control the use of shared data. Learn more

AI metrics in the Premium Capacity Metrics app

We released a new version of the Power BI Premium Capacity Metrics app to include new AI metrics that provide details on the health of your AI workloads within your capacity. The latest version (1.10.1.7) of the app also has an AI summary dashboard to show you seven-day summary of all the capacities that you are an admin for. Check it out for yourself by installing the app or learn more about the latest update here.

June update for on-premises gateway

We also updated the Power BI On-premises data gateway for the month of June. Version 3000.6.204 has a new mashup engine, performance profiling based on gateway CPU, SAP Common Crypto library support for SAP BW Application Server Kerberos based SSO, and other small tweaks to keep your datasets up to date. Learn more about the updates in our release blog or check it out by installing the new gateway.

General availability of Power BI template apps

In February, we announced a public preview of template apps. These apps are integrated packages of pre-built Power BI dashboards and reports, configured to connect to specific data sources. With them, Microsoft partners can quickly access analytics for the apps and services they provide. Partners can also manage the Template Apps development lifecycle, from development to marketplace to updates. In June, we made template apps generally available by iterating on the feature based on your feedback. Please note: In the coming months, we will previous content packs will be either deprecated or replaced by the brand-new template app experience. Learn more

General availability of Paginated Reports in Power BI

We also announced the general availability of paginated reports. Based on the technology used in SQL Server Reporting Services, paginated reports bring a new set of enterprise reporting capabilities to the Power BI service. It enables developers and BI professionals to create and distribute highly formatted, pixel-perfect reports right alongside their interactive Power BI content, becoming the first cloud BI solution that combines the power of self-service BI with the needs and capabilities of traditional Enterprise BI scenarios. Check out our announcement blog on how you can start building your own within your organization.

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) for Power BI Premium (Preview)

Power BI encrypts data at rest for all customers. However, for organizations requiring additional control over how their data is encrypted, we announced Bring Your Own Key (BYOK). This feature allows organizations to configure Power BI to using their own keys, stored in Azure Key Vaults, for data-at-rest encryption instead of Microsoft managed keys. BYOK encryption applies to Power BI Premium capacities only, and organizations can choose to associate different capacities with different keys and\or different key vaults. Learn more

Viewer role for the new Power BI workspace experience

We super-charged the new workspaces experience in Power BI by introducing viewer role. Now, you can grant read-only access to users within workspaces. The viewer role requires a Pro license or for the content to be in Power BI Premium. If your workspace is in Premium, users with viewer role who don’t have a Pro license can view the workspace in the workspaces list, navigate to the workspace, and view the content without getting a Pro Trial prompt. Learn more

Updates to the Power BI mobile apps

There were multiple updates that went out in June for the mobile apps in various platforms. Here’s a quick summary:

  • Barcode scanning in Android – We updated the Power BI app on Android (phone and tablet) to scan barcodes printed on products or shelves at your store to display related Power BI reports filtered by the scanned value. More about filtering your data with barcodes.
  • Support for PBIX reports hosted in PBI-RS over ADFS configuration (iOS, Android) – We added support for Power BI Reports (PBIX) hosted in PBI-RS over ADFS configuration in iOS and Android apps.
  • Siri shortcuts support (iOS) – We updated the iOS Power BI app to allow users to create Siri Shortcuts to their Power BI reports and dashboards, that can be accessed via voice later.
  • Device level search (iOS) – We added the ability for you to search for Power BI content within iPhones and iPads that matches the search criteria.
  • Protect Power BI with device Biometric ID – We doubled down an security by providing iOS app users (or admins) with the ability to configure the Power BI app to require Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode to view their data.  Learn more
  • Slideshow (Windows app) – Lastly, we added support for auto refresh for single-page reports in a slideshow. If the underline data source of your report is updated, we will pick it up and update the data on your slide automatically.

Roadmap updates

We use the Power BI section in the Business Application Release Notes to share details on what’s coming in the next three to six months.  These release notes are updated weekly with details on shipping dates, screenshots, and new announcements. Here’s what we disclosed recently: