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Power BI | Dataverse | Fixing the connection reference of a report
For the unversed, Using ‘Power BI embedded’ we can embed a Power BI report as Dashboard in Model Driven App.
This Dashboard can be added to a Solution and can be transported to other Environments. However there will be a challenge with report’s Connection reference.
When the Dashboard moved to another Environment, the connection will not be refreshed with Target Environment and will be still pointing to Source Environment.
As an example, if the Power BI report was built connecting to ‘DEV’ Environment, when the report exported from ‘DEV’ using Solution and imported to another Environment, reports connection will be still pointing to the Source Environment (i.e., DEV).
Workaround to refresh the Connection:
- At the time of writing this article, there is no straight forward option to refresh the Power BI report’s Dataverse Connection.
- One option is Save the Power BI report (i.e., .pbx file) locally and create a copy and rename.
- In my case, I’ve renamed ‘Account_DEV’ to ‘Account_TEST’ file.
- Open the ‘Account_TEST’ file and open the ‘Power Query Editor’ by selecting ‘Transform data’ option.
- From the ‘APPLIED STEPS’, select ‘Source’ and update the Dataverse URL.
- Save the report and publish to Power BI ‘Workspace’
- Assuming you have moved the Report from ‘DEV’ to ‘TEST’ environment using the Solution, as a last step, connect to ‘TEST’ environment and select the report.
- Click ‘Edit’ and select the ‘Account_TEST’ report from ‘TEST’ workspace.
- This manually correcting the report’s connection works. I believe in near future we will have much easier and straightforward approach to refresh conenction.
🙂
(Step By Step) Surface Power BI Reports in Dynamics CRM Dashboard
In this article, I am going to provide ‘Step-by-Step’ details on how to:
- Add ‘Power BI’ subscription to your existing Office 365
- Connect to your ‘Dynamics CRM Organization’ from BI
- Render Power BI reports in CRM Dashboard.
What’s Power BI and How is it different from SSRS?
- Power BI offers basic data wrangling capabilities like Excel’s Power Query.
- It also lets you create interactive visualizations, reports and dashboards with a few clicks and handle files that are too large for Excel.
- On the other hand, SSRS is meant for “static” reports. Something that will be shown always as defined and printable.
Steps to add ‘Power BI’ subscription:
- As a pre-requisite, create your 30 days Dynamics 365 free trail.
- Login to ‘Portal.office.com’ and open ‘Admin’ dashboard
- Go to ‘Billing -> Purchase services -> Power BI (free) -> Buy now
- Note: This requires you to provide credit card details and INR 2 will be charged after successful purchase.
- After successful purchase, open ‘PowerBI.com’ on another tab of the browser and click ‘Sign In’
- Click ‘Start’
Connect to Dynamics CRM organization from Power BI:
- To connect to CRM Organization from ‘Power BI’, you need to install one of the ‘Content Packs’
- Click on ‘Get’ button from ‘My organization’ section
- From the available list, choose any of the Dynamics CRM related Apps (I chosen ‘MS Dynamics Online Sales Manager’ for this demo, from the ‘Apps’ tab)
- Click on ‘Get it now’ and you will be asked to provide CRM credentials.
- Provide ‘CRM Organization URL’ details and ‘Last Month Of the Fiscal’
- Choose ‘Authentication Method’ as ‘OAuth2’
- Post successful login, you would see ‘Importing Data’ message
- Give it few seconds and you would see beautifully rendered reports
Display ‘Power BI’ reports in CRM Dashboard:
In previous versions of CRM, only option to bring ‘Power BI’ reports are by placing an IFrame in Dashboard and set the PowerBI URL. Its easily configurable now.
- Connect to your Dynamics CRM Organization
- Go to ‘Settings -> Administration -> System Settings -> Reporting -> ‘Allow Power BI….’=Yes
- Create a new Dashboard
- Select the placeholder and from the Report add options, click ‘Power BI Tile’
- Pick one of the available ‘Power BI Reports’
- Save the Dashboard
- Go to ‘Sales -> Dashboard’ and pick the created ‘Dashboard’
🙂
Rajeev Pentyala - Microsoft Power Platform 