Login credentials not known by user

[isstefanjud]

Hi all,

we would love to use PowerBI Desktop for our reports. But we are facing a problem with the login credentials, which are not known to the user.

We use an Oracle Database as datasource for the power bi dashboards. The login credentials for the oracle database are not connected to the AD-user, further, the user needs to enter the database he wants to connect. Neither the database-string not the user to be used are not known to our users and will cause a lot of confusion. (They simply should not care about the database etc.)

We do not have Power BI licenses nor PowerBI online but rely solely on the PowerBI Desktop software.

Ths, we would like to be able to transfer the database information, as well as the user information directly to the PBIX file when we open it. Or is there a file within the pbix container I can provide this information? When I unzip the pbix file, I see "SecurityBindings" which made me curios 🙂

--> Is there a way to add parameters to the application startup to provide this information or any other way to automatically allow a user to get data from an Oracle database when he opens a PBIX File?

[bcdobbs · Accepted solution]

If I understand correctly, you want to enable users to connect to a database without allowing them logins?

Do they all have power bi licences (pro will do). 

You could publish a master dataset to the power bi service that contain the relevant data (either in import or direct query mode) and users would then connect to that instead.

[isstefanjud]

Hej

thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately the idea is to have neither PBI licenses nor PBI Online for the simple version of the reporting. It is meant to offer a simple tool for the end user to create simple reports in PBI directly with our Oracle database. In the enterprise version we use SSAS and PBIOnline, which offers methods like a master dataset or a fixed user for connection to the database. 

The situation is as follows: we deliver a software package. Newly it should contain a reports.pbix file which can be opened by the end user. The file contains simple dashboards and connects to an Oracle database.
Now, the user will not know the database (without a proper Oracle Client the tnsnames.ora is missing, which makes the connection string very complex) and will not a have a user/password.
Now, it would be good to provide:

- Database Connection String

- User Credentials 

directly with the file we provide within our software package. As we have few but select customers, it would (if needed) be possible to edit these files before the deploy them to our users.

[V-lianl-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @isstefanjud ,

Unfortunately, this will lead to privacy disclosure, which power bi will not do, and pbix will not carry the credentials of local connection to the data source.

If they just view and edit the report(not query data source), you can use the import mode to share the pbix, and they will not be asked for Oracle login credentials.

Best Regards,
Liang
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[bcdobbs · Accepted solution]

If I understand correctly, you want to enable users to connect to a database without allowing them logins?

Do they all have power bi licences (pro will do). 

You could publish a master dataset to the power bi service that contain the relevant data (either in import or direct query mode) and users would then connect to that instead.