{"id":80688,"date":"2018-09-17T15:34:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T15:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=80688"},"modified":"2022-04-24T21:11:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T21:11:50","slug":"power-bi-introduction-publishing-reports-to-the-power-bi-service-part-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/databases\/sql-server\/bi-sql-server\/power-bi-introduction-publishing-reports-to-the-power-bi-service-part-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Power BI Introduction: Publishing Reports to the Power BI Service \u2014 Part 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

The series so far:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Power BI Introduction: Tour of Power BI \u2014 Part 1<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Power BI Introduction: Working with Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 2<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Power BI Introduction: Working with R Scripts in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 3<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Power BI Introduction: Working with Parameters in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 4<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Power BI Introduction:\u00a0Working with SQL Server data in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 5<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Power BI Introduction:\u00a0Power Query M Formula Language in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 6<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Power BI Introduction: Building Reports in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 7<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Power BI Introduction: Publishing Reports to the Power BI Service \u2014 Part 8<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Power BI Introduction: Visualizing SQL Server Audit Data \u2014 Part 9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Power BI Desktop plays a pivotal role in the Power BI suite of tools, which is why it\u2019s been the focus of much of this series. If you\u2019ve been following along, you learned how to import and transform data, build reports and visualizations, incorporate R scripts, navigate the Power Query M formula language, and perform a variety of other tasks.<\/p>\n

    Although there is still much more you can do in Power BI Desktop, the ultimate goal is always the same\u2014to build visually rich reports that provide stakeholders with actionable insights into the underlying data.<\/p>\n

    But building reports is only part of the equation. You must also make these reports available to the people who depend on the information they provide. For this, you need to publish the reports to the Power BI service or save them to Power BI Report Server (if you have a Power BI Premium subscription). Although you can share Power BI Desktop .pbix<\/em> files with other users, this is not nearly as effective as disseminating the reports through one of the appropriate channels.<\/p>\n

    In this article, you\u2019ll learn how to publish a report to the Power BI service and work with the published report through the Power BI interface. The article steps you through such tasks as viewing and updating the report, saving report components to a dashboard, and creating a new report based on the published dataset. You\u2019ll also learn how you can update the report in Power BI Desktop and then republish it to the Power BI service.<\/p>\n

    Publishing to the Power BI Service<\/h2>\n

    The examples in this article are based on the report file created in the previous article in this series, Building Reports in Power BI Desktop \u2014 Part 7<\/a>. On my system, I named the report SalesRepOrders,<\/em> which is the name used in the examples to follow. Figure 1 shows the report\u2019s Matrix visual<\/em> page as it appears in Report<\/em> view. The report is made up of five pages, with visuals on each page.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Figure 1. Viewing the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report in Power BI Desktop<\/p>\n

    NOTE: To make it easier to follow along with this article, rename your visuals to match Figure 1 if you didn\u2019t name them when creating the report in the previous article.<\/p>\n

    To publish the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report to Power BI, go to the File<\/em> tab, point to Publish,<\/em> and click Publish to Power BI<\/em>. If you\u2019re not already signed into the Power BI service, you\u2019ll be prompted to provide your login credentials. Once you\u2019re connected, you\u2019ll then be prompted to choose a destination. Select the My workspace<\/em> option if it is not selected, and then click Select,<\/em> as shown in Figure 2.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Figure 2. Publishing the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report to My workspace<\/em><\/p>\n

    After you select a destination, the Publishing to Power BI<\/em> dialog box will appear showing the publishing status. Ultimately, you should receive a Success!<\/em> message, preceded by a green checkmark, as shown in Figure 3. The dialog box also displays a Do You Know?<\/em> message that provides a tip about using the Power BI service.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Figure 3. Verifying publication of the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report<\/p>\n

    If you want to access the published report immediately, click the link Open ‘SalesRepOrders.pbix’ in Power BI<\/em>. This will launch the Power BI service in your system\u2019s default browser. You might again be prompted for login credentials.<\/p>\n

    If you want to go to the Power BI site and automatically generate insights<\/em> in the process, click the second link, Get Quick Insights<\/em>. Insights are interactive visualizations that Power BI generates on demand. I\u2019ve had mixed success when using this link.<\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t want to connect to the Power BI service at this time, click the Got it<\/em> button to close the dialog box.<\/p>\n

    Working with Reports in Power BI<\/h2>\n

    You can access your published report through the Power BI site<\/a> from any supported browser. For example, I\u2019ve been able to access the site from Chrome and Edge in Windows and from Chrome and Safari in macOS. When you sign in, you\u2019re taken to a development interface that provides the tools necessary to import and visualize data. Figure 4 shows the interface after publishing the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report file.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Figure 4. Viewing the SalesRepOrders<\/em> report in the Power BI service<\/p>\n

    The SalesRepOrders<\/em> report and dataset are listed in the My Workspace<\/em> section in the left pane. (You might have to expand this section after signing into the service.) The My Workspace<\/em> section is your personal work area for accessing and modifying your own dashboards, reports, and datasets.<\/p>\n

    From the My Workspace<\/em> section, you can access resources in any of the following four categories:<\/p>\n