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johnjohn123's avatar
johnjohn123
Regular Visitor
8 years ago

From SharePoint perspective what are the differecns between “Embed in SP online” & “Publish to Web"

I have sharepoint online and sharepoint on-premises farms. and i have created a PowerBI report, which have a sharepoint list as its source. now inside PowerBI seems there are two ways to embed a PowerBI report inside my sharepoint pages, either using:-

 

1. “Embed in SP online” option >> then add this report inside a PowerBI web part.

OR

2. “Publish to Web” option >> then add the iframe inside a sharepoint page.

 

now “Publish to Web” will publish the PowerBI report to the web, so any user (even if the user did not login to SP online nor to PowerBI) can view the report. so using “Publish to Web” is not secure, if the report contain sensitive data..

Now for the “Embed in SP online” option, its description mention that this option will "Get a link to securely embed this report in a sharepoint page".. but i can not understand How/Why using the “Embed in SP online” option provides a more secure way ? does it require the user to login to SP farm first, or to login to PowerBI ???

 

second point i have. now is there any relationship between the permision of the source sharepoint list and its powerBI report? so could we face this senario:-

let say we have a sharepoint list named "Projects",and this list can only be viewed/modified by a sharepoint group named "Project Managers". and then i create a powerBI reprot which have the "Projects" sharepoint list as its source. so could we set the PowerBI report in a way that can allow any user within our organization to view the report? so in this case non-project managers users will not be able to view the source sharepoint list, but they can view its powerBI report ?  now if this is possbile (any user can view the Projects' PowerBI report), then how we can restrict accessing the Projects' powerBI report to only the "Project Managers" sharepoint group ?

 

Thanks in advance for any reply and help.

Need Help

2 Replies

  • v-huizhn-msft's avatar
    v-huizhn-msft
    Microsoft Employee
    8 years ago

    Hi johnjohn123,

    1. Yes, you're right. Publish to Web” will publish the PowerBI report to the web, so any user getting the URL can see the report. While for Embed in SP online, viewers of the page will see the report must have access to both the SharePoint Online site as well as the Power BI Report to view the report. As what you said, it require the user to login to SP farm first as well as login to PowerBI. 


    2.  >>and then i create a powerBI reprot which have the "Projects" sharepoint list as its source. so could we set the PowerBI report in a way that can allow any user within our organization to view the report?

    You create a report using "Projects" sharepoint list as its source, it's related the credentials in sharepoint. You can share the report to anyone you want(including the users in your organization or others outside of your organization).

    Embedding a report in SharePoint Online does not automatically give users permission to view the report. The permissions to view the report are set within the Power BI service. For your scenario, you can allow any user within our organization to view the report, but you have to give the access by listting the user as a member of the app workspace within the Power BI service. This will make sure that users can view the contents of that group. For more information, see Create and distribute an app in Power BI.

    >>so in this case non-project managers users will not be able to view the source sharepoint list, but they can view its powerBI report ? now if this is possbile (any user can view the Projects' PowerBI report), then how we can restrict accessing the Projects' powerBI report to only the "Project Managers" sharepoint group ?

    non-project managers users and any other users can view the Projects' PowerBI report, please see Granting access to reports and Allowing Free users access to reports parts in the article: Embed with report web part in SharePoint Online.

    In addition, please review another useful blog for more details: Integrate Power BI reports in SharePoint Online.

    Best Regards,
    Angelia

  • v-huizhn-msft's avatar
    v-huizhn-msft
    Microsoft Employee
    8 years ago

    Hi johnjohn123,

    If my reply is useful and helpful, could you please mark it as answer? So more members like you will benefit from here.

    Thanks,
    Angelia