BI Report to PDF and EMail using Microsoft Flow

[dgwilson]

Hi everyone... I'm hoping this is the right group to post in.

I have a one page dashboard. It's a really good dashboard that summarises the status and financial overview of 500+ projects for many different customers and teams.

We want to PDF the one page report and e-mail it to a distribution group. This is really important as a simple consumption mechanism for senior leaders. ... yea... I know... PDF vs. online interactive... I get it.

The thought is that a Microsoft Flow that runs on a schedule, generates a PDF from the Report URL and then e-mails out.

So the trigger and e-mail parts of the Microsoft flow are easy. How do I / Can I trigger BI to generate the PDF from the report page (can the built in PDF functionality of Power BI be called?).

I have looked at what I see as the built in available options in Microsoft Flow and have not succeeded in getting the report to PDF generation done (I did get the URL in a PDF file...   not really what I was seeking). I've tried with plumsail and looked at Muhimbi (maybe not enough?)

- David

[v-piga-msft]

Hi @dgwilson,

The Export to PDF feature is only available with Power BI Desktop, and is not currently available in the Power BI service.

You could export your report to PDF in Power BI Desktop(after August version ).

In addition, we could export the report in Power BI Service to Powerpoint.

Best Regards,

Cherry

[dgwilson]

OK, bad brain moment thinking I could PDF in the service.

Powerpoint would be an OK alternative.

Now, can I do that from a FLOW (script?)

- David

[GilbertQ]

Hi David,

Could you not subscribe the required people to it by using an Office 365 Group or Office 365 Distribution list? The email would contain an image of the dashboard, and would be sent out once a day?

[eldonfields]

Gilbert, what is the triggering event on a subscription?  It is a change of a value on the dashbaord.  What if the dashboard does not change for a few days?  Can an email still be sent on a daily basis with the current status?

[Anonymous]

Did you find a solution? I want to do exactly the same (pdf and if it's not possible, power point).

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@eldonfields wrote:

Gilbert, what is the triggering event on a subscription?  It is a change of a value on the dashbaord.  What if the dashboard does not change for a few days?  Can an email still be sent on a daily basis with the current status?

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[eldonfields]

I have not found a solution to this from a systematic (automation) method.  I continue to look and try different paths such as power app builder and flow.

[GilbertQ]

You could have a look at this product from a good friend of mine which does exactly what you are after : https://www.powerbitiles.com/?app=PBIRobots

You can schedule the emails to run at a specific time every day as with this blog post: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/e-mail-subscription-time-based-scheduling-now-available/