Power BI Custom Visual - Certification

[ClaraCo]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently exploring different GIS solutions in Power BI Desktop for a company project. I've tested existing options like ArcGIS, IconMap Pro and Azure Maps. However, developing a custom visual seems to offer the best hybrid solution for our needs.
One issue we're encountered is related to map tiles. we're using open-source tile servers for cartographic rendering, and everything works fine in Power BI DEsktop. But once we publish the report to Power BI Service, the tiles fail to load. From what I understand, Power BI Service blocks, these requests because they require dorect HTML access.
We want our custom visual to be fully functionnal in the online environment. So here are my questions:

1. If we go through the certification process for our custom visual, will that allow the tile requests to go through on Power BI Service or to be published correctly?
2. If the visual is certified, does it have to be open-source, or can it remain proprietary and only be distributed via a PBIVIZ file in AppSource?
   
   

Any insights or experiences with similar use cases would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[tharunkumarRTK · Accepted solution]

@ClaraCo 

Answer for question 1:

Everytime you submit the visual for certification, Microsoft thouroughly reviews your visual code. If there are any unsafe HttpRequests found then they will not certify your visual. I would suggest you to go through this article to understand the guidelines 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/visuals/power-bi-custom-visuals-certified

Also, go through the FAQs. I believe you will find an answer then those guidelines.

As per my knowledge 
Power BI Service hosts visuals inside a very restrictive iframe sandbox. By design it blocks any external network traffic that hasn’t been explicitly allowed, which includes your tile requests. The request never leaves Microsoft’s data centre, so the tiles never arrive. So, opting for certification process will not solve your problem. 

I guess hosting these tiles within the tenant network might solve the issue your are facing from power bi service. You can test that approach. If it is working then you can use and distribute that visual within your organisation. 

2. Answer to question 2:

You can keep your visual as proprietary . You dont need to make it open source.

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[v-nmadadi-msft]

Hi @ClaraCo 

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

Thank you.

[ClaraCo]

Hi @v-nmadadi-msft ,

I’ve done some research, but I’d appreciate your confirmation on this specific point to be completely sure:

If we’re using a private custom visual that includes a cartographic background based on open-source tiles (e.g., OSM), is it correct to say that obtaining Microsoft certification would not resolve the issue where these tiles disappear once the report is published to Power BI Service?

From what I understand, even if it's a simple HTTP/HTTPS call to retrieve map tiles for rendering a background, Power BI may block this behavior in published environments—regardless of certification status—due to trust and security restrictions on external requests.

Could you please confirm (or correct) this assumption?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[v-nmadadi-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @ClaraCo  ,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

These are the things not allowed with custom visuals, no HTTP request can go out of Power BI irrespective of the visual certified by Microsoft or not.
Get your Power BI visuals certified - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Capabilities and properties of Power BI visuals - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/visuals/power-bi-custom-visuals-faq

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

[tharunkumarRTK · Accepted solution]

@ClaraCo 

Answer for question 1:

Everytime you submit the visual for certification, Microsoft thouroughly reviews your visual code. If there are any unsafe HttpRequests found then they will not certify your visual. I would suggest you to go through this article to understand the guidelines 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/visuals/power-bi-custom-visuals-certified

Also, go through the FAQs. I believe you will find an answer then those guidelines.

As per my knowledge 
Power BI Service hosts visuals inside a very restrictive iframe sandbox. By design it blocks any external network traffic that hasn’t been explicitly allowed, which includes your tile requests. The request never leaves Microsoft’s data centre, so the tiles never arrive. So, opting for certification process will not solve your problem. 

I guess hosting these tiles within the tenant network might solve the issue your are facing from power bi service. You can test that approach. If it is working then you can use and distribute that visual within your organisation. 

2. Answer to question 2:

You can keep your visual as proprietary . You dont need to make it open source.

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Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution!
If I helped you, click on the Thumbs Up to give Kudos. Proud to be a Super User!

[ClaraCo]

Hi @tharunkumarRTK thank you for your quick answer!
I've tried to create an auto-certification to allow my laptop with power BI Service but I face some IT issus, do you think that this other certification (if i manage to get it) will work for the visualisation online? Or will the blocking by Microsoft Data center still happen?
Kind regards,

Clara

[tharunkumarRTK]

@ClaraCo 

I dont think getting certification for your machine can solve the problem. Microsoft will still block the those tile requests to machines outside the tenant network

[dm-p]

I'll add to this that as of recently, MS will actively reject your visual for certification if any code (or dependent libraries) contains potential logic that might make an HTTP request (e.g., fetch APIs). I recently experienced a submission failure due to this, despite these parts of my code being largely unchanged for four years, with no explicit calls. There is now a requirement to run additional checks and fixes through their tooling that will actively sweep a visual package for any such code and remove it before certification requests can continue. So after running these utilities, your visual would not be able to make these requests.