export export with power automate from power bi

[manialla]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some guidance on automating a process in Power BI using Power Automate. Here's what I currently do manually every month:

1. Refresh the Power BI report.

2. Go to the filter pane and select a category using single selection (I have over 100 categories).

3. Click on "File" and then "Export" to PDF.

4. Rename the exported PDF based on the selected category because the PDF doesn't automatically know the name of the category.

5. Save the renamed PDF in a specific folder.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each category.

I want to automate this entire process so that with a single click, the following happens:

1. The report is refreshed.

2. Each category is selected one by one.

3. The report is exported to PDF for each category.

4. Each PDF is renamed based on the category name.

5. The PDFs are saved in a designated folder.

Could anyone provide a detailed guide or point me to resources (videos, articles, courses) that can help me set this up? Any tips on handling over 100 categories efficiently and ensuring proper error handling would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[KiranHosakote]

Hi @manialla ,

There is no automated solution for your issue by using only Power BI and Power Automate. However, if you are open to third-party solutions, BI Helper https://bihelper.tech will work for you. It is also available in the Microsoft AppSource store Business Apps – Microsoft AppSource.

BI Helper is a user-friendly SaaS application that facilitates the automated creation and distribution of filtered PDFs (filtered for each end-user). It is secure and scalable, and requires just one Power BI Pro / PPU license.

BI Helper doesn't need Power Automate or any additional software to generate and send PDFs, allowing business users to set up and manage it with ease. And it supports the application of multiple filter and slicer values for each PDF. 

[v-pagayam-msft]

Hi @manialla ,
I wanted to check in on your situation regarding the issue. Have you resolved it? If you have, please consider marking the reply that helped you or sharing your solution and accept it as solution. It would be greatly appreciated by others in the community who may have the same question.

Thank you for being a valued member of the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum!

[rohit1991]

Hi @manialla 

There’s no built-in way to export all 100+ categories in a single API call using only Power BI and Power Automate. The current best approach is to use Power Automate to loop through your category list, apply each filter, export the report as PDF, and save it with the right name in your folder.

Keep a table of your categories (Excel, SharePoint, or inside Power BI itself). In Power Automate, use an “Apply to each” loop to go through each category.

For each category: Call the Power BI Export to File action. Pass in the category filter dynamically. When the export finishes, rename the file to match the category and save it to your chosen folder (SharePoint, OneDrive, etc.). Add error handling to retry failed exports, and (if needed) set up parallelism for faster processing just watch your API limits.

If you’re open to 3rd party tools, BI Helper can automate multi-category exports in one go and even handle more complex scenarios, but that’s a paid solution. If your report is suitable for paginated reporting, Power BI Report Builder with email subscriptions can also do bulk filtered PDF exports, especially if you have Premium.

[manialla · Accepted solution]

Hi Rohit,

Thank you for taking the time to help me. I have a question regarding the Power BI Export API.

Let’s say we have a scenario where we need to export marklists for multiple students in a class. For example, there are 10 students, and we need to export their individual marklists as PDFs.

Currently, the API filter works like this:
table/column eq 'value'
For example: school table/class column eq 'Mani'

However, this only allows filtering for one student at a time. Is there a way to handle multiple students (categories) in a single API call? If not, how can we efficiently solve this problem to export PDFs for all 10 students without manually repeating the process?

Thanks again for your help!

[v-pagayam-msft]

Hi @manialla ,
Thank you @rohit1991 for the accurate response.
As per my understanding, you cannot directly filter for multiple students in a single API call. However, by using Power Automate to loop through the list of students and applying the filter for each student individually, you may automate the entire process of exporting PDFs for multiple students.
Please refer the Export to File and Report to File  links for more understanding.

If this helps, please Accept it as a solution to help the other members find it more quickly.