Emdedding RDL report in a PBIX Report

[mjsystemss]

Hello,

I have a paginated report that is working perfectly but I have external users who need access but can't because of licensing requirement. Now, the users are suggesting I embed the RDL in the PBIX report so that they can bypass the licensing requirement. Is this possible?

[parry2k · Accepted solution]

@mjsystemss yes you can embed a paginated report in Power BI. See some of the videos I have done on this: https://youtu.be/iRkVavwDlok

There are many other video on paginated report I have done, all available on my channel.

[v-abhinavmu]

Hi @mjsystemss ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to reach us if you have any further questions. 

Thank you.

[v-abhinavmu]

Hi @mjsystemss  ,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community forum.

I created a paginated report using Power BI Report Builder and then integrated it into a Power BI report by using the Paginated Report visual in Power BI Desktop. After publishing the report to the Power BI Service, I shared the Power BI report with another user.

However, the user was unable to view the report when only the Power BI report was shared. When I additionally shared the paginated report (RDL) with the same user, they were able to access and view the report successfully.

From this, I observed that access to the paginated report is also required when it is embedded within a Power BI report. Simply sharing the Power BI report is not sufficient, as the embedded visual depends on permissions and access to the underlying paginated report.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.
Thank you

[mjsystemss]

My workspace is pro capacity and not fabric

[v-abhinavmu]

Hi @mjsystemss, 

Thanks for the clarification. Glad the solutions provided by community members @parry2k, @alish_b, helped resolve your query.

As per Microsoft documentation, access to paginated reports depends on workspace capacity and licensing, and embedding does not bypass these requirements: 
Paginated reports in Power BI: FAQ - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Thank you for using the Microsoft Fabric Community Forom.

[alish_b · Accepted solution]

Hi @mjsystemss ,
Yes, you can embed Power BI Paginated reports into a Power BI report (simply using the Paginated report visual). This part is easy.

However, I am skeptical of being able to bypass the licensing requirement just by doing the above.

If you are planning to ship it in a PBIX file to view it in Power BI Desktop, then it should prompt you to sign in within the application. (But do test, it was a while back and my memory is blurry. Even if possible, I would not recommend this as it is a management nightmare as report evolves)
If the idea is to Publish it to Web, I am not sure if paginated reports are supported in Publish to Web (and Publish to Web is recommended only for public data).
Last time I worked with embedded paginated reports, it was with a A-SKU embedded capacity which is built specifically for web embedding and availability to external users.

I think you could get by with a lower tier Fabric capacity, like F2 or around, as well (scale up as required). Embed in a web portal and let a service principal authenticate and grab embed tokens in the background to render the reports. But I am personally yet to test this.

Hope it helps!

[parry2k · Accepted solution]

@mjsystemss yes you can embed a paginated report in Power BI. See some of the videos I have done on this: https://youtu.be/iRkVavwDlok

There are many other video on paginated report I have done, all available on my channel.