How to get "self-service" reporting, AND uneditable "canned reports"?

[kevhav]

I want to publish a dataset to the Power BI Service.

Then, in the Power BI Service, I want to create a set of "canned reports," using that dataset, for all users to see. (Because, for now at least, a Power BI Desktop file can only have one report. Which is a painful limitation...but I've voted for this.) I don't want end users to be able to modify these official, "canned reports."

I also want end users to be able create, modify and share their own reports, in the Power BI Service, using the dataset I published. Self-service BI.

Seems simple, but I don't see how to do this. Any recommendations?

It seems that if I publish to a workspace/group where "Members can only view Power BI content," then members can never create or modify reports -- no self-service BI. But if I publish to a workspace/group where "Members can edit Power BI content," then everyone will be able to edit my "canned reports".

I haven't tried organizational content packs much, yet. I can see how they might do the trick: I publish a content pack to a group, then, "All members of the group have the same read-only access to the content pack data, reports, workbooks, and dashboards...The dashboards, reports, and Excel workbooks are read-only, but an end user can copy and use the dashboards and reports as a starting point for creating their own personalized version of the content pack."

Sounds nice, but I have concerns about this. First, my dataset is in "Import" mode. Its size is currently ~250MB, and I expect it to quickly grow to twice that, and maybe even approach the 1GB limit. When a user gets their own copy of the content pack, does it really make another full copy of the dataset? With the 250MB of data (in this example)? Is that copy stored in the group, or in the user's personal "My Workspace?" Either way, I'm concerned that with all those copies being created,we would quickly hit the limit of 10GB overall storage per group or per user.

Second, the dataset I am publishing is going to be enhanced frequently with new tables, columns, and bug fixes. If Alice wants to build her own reports, and she gets her own copy of the content pack to do so...then a month later I make major changes to the dataset in the original content pack, and re-publish it...now the reports that Alice created in her copy of the content pack are obsolete. She cannot connect them to the newly re-published dataset, with the new data points/bug fixes/etc. that are available in the new dataset. Right?

If all of the above is true, then what I am considering is a "two-workspace solution"...

• Publish the dataset to one workspace/group where the canned reports live, and where "Members can only view Power BI content"
• And also, publish the same dataset to a different "Self-Service" workspace/group where "Members can edit Power BI content" -- this would be the place where users can create and share their own reports

It seems silly to have two workspaces for the same dataset, just for this purpose. But from what I can tell, it might be the best solution.

What do you think? Is there something I'm missing that would better solve my use case? What would you recommend? Thanks for your input!

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@kevhav I can tell you spent quite some time thinking this through. I think you are on the right track, I'll just provide some high level thoughts. 

If all of the above is true, then what I am considering is a "two-workspace solution"...

• Publish the dataset to one workspace/group where the canned reports live, and where "Members can only view Power BI content"

For the "canned reports", I would suggest you publish all your work to a Group Workspace that only you and other Report Authors could modify them if needed. From that location, share the canned reports via dashboards to the end users. This will allow any change you make to either the dataset or the reports/dashboards to automatically flow downstream. Group Workspaces are designed for content creators, not consumption from end users.

• And also, publish the same dataset to a different "Self-Service" workspace/group where "Members can edit Power BI content" -- this would be the place where users can create and share their own reports

I would avoid this approach, as everyone in the group could overwrite and modify other people's work. The Content Pack route is the only mechanism currently that would support you sharing a curated dataset for others to use. The downside, is that if it is still under heavy development, then that is going to create issues downstream with content creation. 

As for the space consumption, I haven't tested this particularly in awhile, so I don't recall. But even if the dataset were to reach 1GB, the reports themselves wouldn't add that much overhead... I actually haven't heard of the 10GB limit being a major limitation yet. 

I think this is currently a limitation, there is another idea here that you can support to share a dataset, but I realize that doesn't help you now. The only other alternative that I can think of is to use a SSAS Tabular model to build everything and pass out the connection string and grant individuals access. (but this may not be an option for you).

Hope some of this confirms your ideas / helps.

[kevhav]

Eno1978, you said, "From that location, share the canned reports via Dashboards to the end users." Well, I thought that I didn't want to give end users access to only Dashboards. Because they're not interactive; no filtering; etc. 

But I just tested it out, and...

• Say some Power BI developers and I have created a Dashboard, in a Group Workspace, as Eno1978 recommended.
• Now, I use the "Share Dashboard" functionality to share the Dashboard with Alice.
• Also, Alice is not a member of the Group Workspace where the Dashboard was created.
• For Alice, she now has access to the dashboard in her "My Workspace"...and, if she clicks a dashboard tile, then it will take her to the corresponding Report, also in her "My Workspace"

Right? For some reason, I had assumed that in order to get access to the Report(s), Alice would've had to be a member of the Group Workspace where the Reports(s)/Dashboard were created; and I assumed that if I "Share Dashboard" with Alice, she would get access to the Dashboard only, and not the underlying Report(s). But my assumptions were wrong, it seems.

So, that's a step in the right direction!

Still, for any of my end users who need to be able to create/edit Reports based on published Datasets, they would need to be members of a Group Workspace where the Dataset(s) live. Or use Content Packs, or build it all in SSAS Tabular. 

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@kevhav

The default behavior of a dashboard tile when clicked is to take the end user to the report where the tile came from.

In cases where you don't want users to see the report. You can click the '...' in the upper right of the dashboard tile and edit (click pencil icon) and set a custom link. Input the URL of the dashboard itself, and open in browser, and when the user click the tile it will look like it goes nowhere.

Another alternative to the shared datasource would be to create a Power BI Desktop template with all the connections. But the end users would need permissions to the datasources themselves. In that regard, they could use the template as a base point for creating reports.