Whether your data is a simple Excel spreadsheet or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses, Power BI helps unify data from many sources to create interactive, immersive dashboards and reports that provide actionable insights and drive business results.
In this walk-through, we’ll create a flow that runs once a day and automates the process of delivering a PDF version of the Power BI reports\dashboard.
Make sure the following is in place:
- Appropriate permissions to publish Power BI Report.
- Muhimbi PDF Converter Services Online full, free or trial subscription(Start Trial)
- Appropriate privileges to create Microsoft Flow.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Flow.
Getting the Power BI Publish to Web URL
- Navigate to a report in your workspace that you can edit, select File > Publish to the web.
2. Review the content on the dialog, and select Create embed code as shown in the following dialog.
3. Review the warning, shown in the following dialog, and confirm that the data is okay to embed in a public website. If so, select Publish.
4. In the next dialog, copy the topmost URL. We will use this later in the Flow.
Create a Flow:
- Sign into Microsoft Flow:
2. Select the My flows tab, and then create a flow from a blank.
3. In the Search all connectors and triggers box, type Recurrence, and then select Schedule – Recurrence.
4. In the Recurrence dialog box, specify how often you want the flow to run. For example, specify 1 under Interval and day under Frequency if you want the flow to run every day.
5. Select + New step, Add an action, and then type Muhimbi into the search box to search for all actions related to Muhimbi PDF Converter. Select the Muhimbi PDF – HTML to PDF action.
6. This will open the Muhimbi PDF – HTML to PDF card. Configure the Muhimbi PDF – HTML to PDF card by pasting the URL obtained from Step 4 under “Getting the Power BI Publish to Web URL” section and other parameter’s with reference to the screenshot below.
7. Select + New step, Add an action, and then type outlook into the search box to search for all actions related to Microsoft Outlook. Select the Office 365 Outlook – Send emails action. This will open the Send emails card. Configure the Send emails card with reference to screenshot below.
Run the flow:
- Sign into Microsoft Flow, select My flows, and then select Run now.
2. Congrats, you should receive an email with Power BI report as a PDF attachment.
Frequently asked questions:
- When you use Publish to web, can the report or visual be viewed by anyone on the Internet?
Yes anyone on the internet can view the report, there is no authentication used when viewing these reports. Only use Publish to web with reports and data that the anyone on the Internet (unauthenticated members of the public) should be able to see. This includes detail level data that is aggregated in your reports. Before publishing this report, ensure you have the right to share the data and visualizations publicly. Do not publish confidential or proprietary information. If in doubt, check your organization’s policies before publishing.
Workaround\Note: The URL generated by Publish to Web Power BI features cannot be guessed unless it is physically shared.
2. My report has multiple pages, which page does it Convert?
It Converts the first(default) page.
Workaround\Note: If you want to convert a different page then just append &pageName=ReportSection2 at the end of the URL, where 2 is page number. For more details see link.
3. Does the PDF capture, refreshed data?
Yes, it captures refreshed data. Data refreshes are automatically reflected in your embedded report or visual. It can take approximately 1 hour for refreshed data to be visible from embed codes. You can disable automatic refresh by selecting do not refresh on the schedule for the data-set used by the report.
Thanks for reading and Happy Converting 🙂.
Clavin's Blog 