Power BI Integration with SharePoint Online

Today we are spoiled in such a way that we expect all Microsoft technologies to integrate seamlessly and provide a great end-user experience. When one customer requested to show just some Key Metrics on an SPO page and then drill down to actual report on clicking it, I thought it was a piece of cake, until I get my hands dirty.

Let me show the end product I am trying to achieve and let’s reverse engineer to understand the path. Below given would be four high-level tiles of four different reports to be housed on main SPO DashboardPage.

Dashboard Tiles

Out of box PBI web part only allows linking a whole report page and to include four full report pages on one single page won’t be a good UX.

How to get it done

Edit your PBI Report in either PBI Service or a desktop version.

1. Go to File>Embed in Sharepoint Online and copy the link. (PBI Service>Reports)
2. Now create an SPO Page with a one-column layout and add a PBI web part
3. Use the link copied in step 1 as the ‘report link’. Now your detailed report page is ready.Copy the link of this page (from the browser)
4. Now let’s get back to the Report in PBI
5. Create a new tab, rename it as ‘Dashboard Tile’ and make it hidden.
6. Copy the few visuals you want to show in the ‘Dashboard Tile’ from all other tabs and paste them in the new tab.
7. Enlarge the visuals (increase font size ) and stretch the visuals to fit the entire page.
8. Now Insert a rectangle shape and stretch it so as to cover the entire screen.
9. In the ‘Format Shape’, Go to Actions>Web URL and >Paste the link copied in step 3
10. Toggle back to the main tab of the report and click File>Save. and copy again the Sharepoint Online Embed Code
11. Now Create a new three/two-column web part in an SPO Page (Main Dashboard Page).
12. Add a PBI web part in the first column, In the settings pane, use the link copied in Step 10.
13. Now select the ‘Dashboard Title’ as Page Name
14. Turn Off, Navigation Pane & Filter Pane.
15. Publish the page.

Voila… We just created a Dashboard Tile and a drill-through action that takes you to the main page.It is an out of box solution but gets things done.

Please share your comments.