Power BI Elements¶
With the Power BI Element a Power BI report, dashboard tile or visual can be embedded into the lobby. This feature can be turned off using the system parameter "Comma separated list of disabled features".
Power BI Properties¶
Data Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Workspace | This property is used to filter the contents of the Report selector. The dropdown shows all the available workspaces the environment has access to. Selecting one will cause the Report selector to only show reports and dashboards contained in the selected workspace. This property does not need to be set before a report or dashboard can be selected. If the Report selector is used first, the Workspace property will auto populate with the workspace which contains the selected report or dashboard. |
| Report | The name of the report or dashboard to embed. When the Workspace selector is empty, this dropdown will show all the available reports and dashboards the environment has access to. When a workspace has been selected, this dropdown will show all reports and dashboards in that workspace that are accessible. Reports and dashboards can be distinguished by means of the icon used before their entry in the dropdown, and the text in parentheses appended to each label as a suffix. Report  Dashboard  The reports are requested from the Power BI Service which is reading the reports and dashboards from the Power BI workspace(s) the service principal has access to, normally that would be 1 workspace for a customer. When a report is selected, you can jump to a page where you can edit it by pressing the navigator button (shown behind the Report drop down). For more information on this functionality, see: Power Bi Report Overview. |
| Page Name (r) | [Optional] Shows all the available pages of the selected Report, when selected the report is opened on this page and the Power BI page tabs will not be shown. |
| Visual Name (r) | [Optional] Shows the available visuals for the selected page, when selected this visual is shown instead of the page. |
| Tile (d) | The tile of the dashboard to show. |
| Date filter (r) | With the date filter the reports date dimension can be linked to page parameters. In the Table and Column columns the table and column of the Power BI Report needs to be specified that contain the date data. The Start Date Mapped To and End Date Mapped To column should contain the value or the page parameter to use for the filter. If a page parameter is used the parameter name should be specified within $ signs, a fixed value should be specified without $ signs. Fixed filters should be written without $'s. It's also possible to use CSV parameters as filter values. These are placed within # characters. |
| Dimension filters (r) | Dimension filters can be used to add a fixed or dynamic filter to the report. For dynamic filters the filter should be placed within $, this will create a page parameter for the filter. Fixed filters should be written without $'s. It's also possible to use CSV parameters as filter values. These are placed within # characters. |
(r) = report only, (d) = dashboard only The date filter and dimension filters can be tested in the Element Preview section using the parameters button.
Navigator button (report only)
Once a report has been selected, pressing the navigator button will automatically navigate to the Power BI Report Overview. From here, the report can be viewed and edited. Note that this is only possible for reports, this feature is not supported for dashboards.
Formatting properties (report only)
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| IFS Cloud Theme | When this toggle is enabled the styling of the report will be changed in line with the selected IFS Cloud Web theme. If the toggle is disabled then the report will render exactly the same as it is designed in Power BI. Please see the dedicated section on IFS Cloud Theme for more info. |
| Show Visual Headers | When this toggle is enabled, visual header context menues will be available for the visuals in an embedded Power BI report. They can be accessed by hovering the mouse over the visuals on the report. When this is disabled, visual headers will be supressed. These menues are a feature of Power BI itself, this property simply enables or disables them. |
| Page View Mode | The option selected from this LoV will affect the Power BI Page View that is used when embedding the report into the lobby element. For reports that contain multiple pages, the selected option will apply to all pages. Please see the dedicated section on Page View Mode for more details. |
When this option is selected, the theme configuration set on the Power BI content being embedded will be overwritten with a theme designed to make the appearance of the content similar to that of other lobby elements. The element content will also respond to theme changes in IFS Cloud Web.
This involves programmatically changing the background colors of lobby elements and the lobby wallpaper, removing outspace, changing text colors and overwriting the data colors. Due to the way that theme changes are applied in Power BI, it is only possible for the IFS Cloud Theme option to override general report level theming. Any theming that has been applied to individual visuals on a Power BI report cannot be changed by this feature (for example, if a single bar chart in a report has been configured to have a white background and red text). Because of this, certain visuals or elements on the report may not respond to theme changes even with this option selected.
The current available options are as follows. Please note that with the exception of the Use Report Settings option, these options correspond with those currently available in Power BI Desktop.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Fit to Page (Default) | Fit the content horizontally and vertically into the space provided. |
| Fit to Width | Fit the content horizontally into the space provided only. Note that depending on the canvas size of the report or page being embedded, this may result in vertical scroll bars on the lobby element. |
| Actual Size | Do not fit the content and preserve its true size. Note that depending on the canvas size of the report or page being embedded, this may result in horizontal and vertical scroll bars on the lobby element. |
| Use Report Settings | Preserve the Page View settings currently present on the report. This is useful for when a report has been specifically designed for embedding, or when a report contains multiple pages which each have their own Page View settings that should not be interfered with. |
Power BI Lobby elements created before the addition of this option were automatically configured to use Fit to Page. This is thus the default value for this setting.
Report data mode (report only)¶
At the moment there is no way to determine if a report is bound to Azure Analysis Service (AAS), SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) or is running in import mode and if it is using Row Level Security (RLS) or not. To be able to render the report correctly this information is needed. To be able to provide the information that is needed a report designer can use tags in the name of the dataset of the report that indicate the mode of the report in the form of [Mode;{x}] where x should be the number or the code of the table below.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| (1) SsasWithRls | Report is connected to a SSAS model that is using RLS. |
| (2) SsasNoRls | Report is connected to a SSAS model without RLS. |
| (3) AasWithRls | Report is connected to a AAS model that is using RLS (default). |
| (4) AasNoRls | Report is connected to a AAS model without RLS. |
| (5) ImportWithRls | Report is running in import mode with RLS enabled. |
| (6) ImportNoRls | Report is running in import mode without RLS. |
There is also [Mode:Streaming] which needs to be added to Streaming Datasets in order for them to be properly identified. When using a streaming dataset, the Table and Column dropdowns in the Date and Dimension filter sections will not be populated.
Role to use (report only)¶
By default the role "EmbedUser" is used, this means that this role needs to be available. If the report is not using this role but another role the role can be specified by using a name tag in the form of [Role;{x}] where {x} needs to be replaced with the role to use.
Uploading and editing reports and dashboards¶
Uploading new reports and dashboards or editing existing reports or dashboards can be done through Microsoft Power BI, for more information see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-bi/
Uploading and editing reports can also be done from within IFS Cloud Web, see: Power Bi Report Overview.
Known Limitations
It's currently not possible to specify date or dimension filters for Power BI reports connected to SQL Sever Analysis Services Datasources running in SSASNoRls or SSASWithRls mode.