Microsoft has bridged the gap between Power BI and SharePoint Online today with the ability to embed its reports in pages. The feature comes from the collaboration of both teams to create an out-of-the-box web part.
The new functionality utilizes SharePoint Online’s Modern Pages infrastructure and requires no code. It’s currently available for Office 365 First Release users and will roll out to the general public soon.
How to Embed PowerBI Reports in SharePoint
To demonstrate how simple the feature is, Senior Program Manager Lukasz Pawlowski has detailed the steps in a blog post. Power BI report integration only takes a minute or two:
- “Publish your Power BI report to your Power BI account
- Get the URL to the report
- Add the Power BI (preview) web part to your SharePoint Online page
- Paste the URL of the report when prompted
- To finish, save and publish your page!”
The feature has some limits, but it’s by design. Page visitors need permissions to view PowerBI reports and the SharePoint site. Otherwise, the embed simply won’t display. Microsoft recommends either putting the reports into a group or sharing them with users individually.
This functionality also works with SharePoint Online’s new authentication features. The PowerBI web part can be accessed via a single sign-on, so users won’t have to sign in every time they want to view a report on SharePoint Online.
In addition, the user will need a Pro license to view the Power BI report integration. The web part isn’t available to free users, with a $9.99 per user/mo subscription fee.
You can find more information about the changes on the PowerBI blog, where you’ll also find links to the relevant documentation.
