Embed Power BI without Azure Capacity

[zbhavyai]

Hi,

I am integrating Power BI Embed with my application, using Embed for your customers. My app is used by third parties, users would first authenticate and then in a different SPA they would see their Power BI dashboard without the need of manual authentication again. Everything's fine till here.

The tutorial given at What are Power BI capacities says "To embed in a production environment, you must use a capacity". 

However, companies like "Appspace" or "OptiSign" also do the same embed thing with Power BI, but without asking to setup any kind of Azure capacity. For example, Appspace explains the setup in their how-to. They still use the same OAuth2 flow and I believe would be using Power BI embedded APIs as well.

So, my question is, there must be  way to embed without asking users of the Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium having to setup a dedicated Azure Capacity (also not showing Trial on the top), since these couple of companies are already doing it. Can somebody point me in the right documentation?

Thanks in advance!

[zbhavyai]

Hi @aj1973 

I have used OptiSign myself, and the Power BI report URL I tried was a private report in a workspace that did not have Azure Capacity attached to it. I checked if they make the Power BI report public behind the scenes, which they don't. Also, my Power BI account was a Pro trial with trial token over, still the Power BI embed was working fine with their system.

[aj1973]

What do you mean by private report?

How did you check if their URL is public or not?

You said you have a trial license, if it is expired then nothing works as it was.

Again, no embed without capacity.

[zbhavyai]

Hello @aj1973 

• By private report I meant a report which is not shared publicly.
• After embedding using OptiSign, I confirm if its still private by trying to open the URL of the report in incognito/private tab.
• Yes I had a trial license, but I didn't say trial was over. I said trial tokens were over.
• And yes, as per MS documentation I thought it shouldn't work, but the companies I mentioned somehow make the embedding work without any capacity. 

Thanks

[aj1973]

It sounds to me like you don't know the difference between Public URL and private. 

Do this please, copy the URL of the report from those client's website, paste the URL in another browser (does not have to be incognito). If the report opens then it is public else and it asks for credentials then it's private.

Again, I don't see how to embed a report without capacity or maybe a free trial.

Let's see

[zbhavyai]

I tried embedding again today with OptiSign; although I couldn't get the exact URL of the Power BI report that they use after it gets "embedded" in their web app, but I could notice two things:

1. The URL that they use in their web app is their own - and its like this: https://social-player.optisigns.com/microsoft-bi/?asset_id=<ASSET_ID>&type=report&AccessKeyId=<ACCES...

2. The above URL is public, and somehow "synced" to the report. If I make some changes in my report, in few seconds, it gets reflected in the report as shown by that URL as well.

I am pretty sure that they are not using Power BI Embedded Analytics API. I say that because-

1. I have a new trial Pro account, without any Azure Capacity attached. When I use that account in my app (which follows MS's embedded documentation), the embedded report shows Free Trial banner at the top. But embedding in OptiSign's app doesn't show any such banner.

2. As I mentioned this before, in my old trial Pro account, when the trial tokens got over, embedding in my app stopped working but it continued to work in OptiSign.

Anyways, I think just like me, you also don't know embedding without capacity. I'll keep this thread open until I find a real solution or a hack.

[aj1973]

Hi @zbhavyai 

It can't be other way to embed Power bi Reports without capacity !! my guessing is that those compagnies are embedding a Public URL into their applications, just like I am doing it in my website.