Only publish the reports from Power BI Desktop

[Boycie92]

Hi all,

I am sure this question has already been answered but I was wondering if it is possible to only publish the reports from Power BI Desktop?

My employer is happy for the reports to be published to the service as they contain non-sensitive aggregated data. They however do not what to publish the data set.

We have an On Premises Data Gateway that we plan to add data source to and then set up scheduled refresh.

Is it possible to do this?

Thanks,

Boycie92

[Thejeswar · Accepted solution]

Hi @Boycie92,

Yes you are right about gateway.

Gateway is not just for publishing your reports. Gateway basically is like a connector between your data and your report in cloud.

The Reports when developed in Import Mode will take the data to cloud. This is when your data actually goes out to CLoud. i.e. Here when you publlish the report, the report and also the data is taken to cloud.

Instead you can use Direct Query Mode (It has it's own limitations). Here the Report is published to cloud but the data is kept in your on-premise database

In this case the Dataset will have only the schema information contained in it and not the actual data so your data would remain confidential. Here also if the users have write access to the workspace the report is published to, the users can still use the dataset for their development purpose.

In Direct Query Mode, the Gateway ensures that your dataset is up-to-date by hitting your database every time your report runs. Be aware that the scheduled refresh in this case is only to cache refresh

Hope I am clear !!!

Regards,

Thejeswar

[v-shex-msft · Accepted solution]

HI @Boycie92,

Nope, this is impossible. Power bi service at least need to cache some data from dataset to display reports.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Boycie92]

Hi @v-shex-msft

Thanks for making it clearer for me. I suppose the only way this could work for my organisation is to anonymise the data.

Once I have published the PBIX file, is there any way I can just share the reports? Will other users need access to the data set if it has been set up for schedule refresh?

Thanks,

Boycie92

[v-shex-msft]

Hi @Boycie92,

Actually, refresh settings not effect report contents. If you haven't set up this, it only display these static data without any update.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[prihana]

by publishing by Desktop are you referring to sharing the PBIX file with users? yes you can share the PBIX file and set up the dashboards but you wont be using the gateway. The gateway is used only for publishing the data to the service.

[Boycie92]

Hi @prihana

I dont want to share the PBIX file. I want to publish the reports I have built to the service but not the data set.

I thought the purpose of the gateway was to ensure you could have your data set on prem but the  reports could still be refreshed?

Thanks,

[Thejeswar · Accepted solution]

Hi @Boycie92,

Yes you are right about gateway.

Gateway is not just for publishing your reports. Gateway basically is like a connector between your data and your report in cloud.

The Reports when developed in Import Mode will take the data to cloud. This is when your data actually goes out to CLoud. i.e. Here when you publlish the report, the report and also the data is taken to cloud.

Instead you can use Direct Query Mode (It has it's own limitations). Here the Report is published to cloud but the data is kept in your on-premise database

In this case the Dataset will have only the schema information contained in it and not the actual data so your data would remain confidential. Here also if the users have write access to the workspace the report is published to, the users can still use the dataset for their development purpose.

In Direct Query Mode, the Gateway ensures that your dataset is up-to-date by hitting your database every time your report runs. Be aware that the scheduled refresh in this case is only to cache refresh

Hope I am clear !!!

Regards,

Thejeswar