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Power BI Widget

IMPORTANT

Using this widget requires advanced knowledge and deep understanding of Microsoft PowerBI integration and setup. This article only details the functionality of the Wallboard widget itself.

We recommend contacting our support team before proceeding with a PowerBI integration.

What is PowerBI?​

Power BI is the collective name for an assortment of cloud-based apps and services that help organizations collate, manage, and analyze data from a variety of sources, through a user-friendly interface.

Primarily, Power BI pulls data together and processes it, turning it into intelligible insights, often using visually compelling and easy-to-process charts and graphs. This allows users to generate and share clear and useful snapshots of what’s happening in their business.

Please note

After rigorous testing we concluded that as of July 04th 2024 PowerBI widget only works on Webview versions 94 and higher.
However, Microsoft's own documentation mentions Webview version 120 and up so proceed with integration accordingly.
Any browser on devices and otherwise that has a lower version than 94 will display the following message pbi1.png

Most of our supported platforms do not have Webview version 94 or higher.
Updating Webview version is not available for every platform we support

  • Manually updating webview version is only available on Android devices. Webview updates can fail, and it is advisable to have physical access to the device to repair it!
  • On Windows devices the webview is built in the client application and is regularly updated by the Wallboard team
  • On BrightSign devices the browser version is built in the firmware version. You can update BrightSign firmware version but it is advisable to consult the supported firmware section and have physical access to the device to troubleshoot!
  • On LG and Samsung devices the webview versions remain unchanged across firmware updates within a specific model series. Generally new model series come out with newer webview versions

Other methods to display the widget

  • On non-interactive screens you can use the screenshot service Embedding external sites using other methods.
    • Create a screenshot datasource from PowerBI content, take a screenshot, and use an image widget connected to that datasource.
  • On interactive content you are able to accept the message to make it disappear, without the browser upgrade.

What can you do with Power BI in Wallboard?​

You can easily manage to show your Power BI reports, dashboards, and tiles in our system.

Please note

If you are using custom fonts inside PowerBI reports on Microsoft's side, please be aware to install those custom font's on the signage device. Otherwise, the reports will not show up correctly!

tip

Alternatively you can visit our article on Embedding external sites using other methods

Using this method has the advantage to showcase PowerBI pages even on low-end or weak devices, or devices that can not use our traditional HTML based displayer, such as eInk devices. This also eliminates the issue with custom fonts inside reports.

Requirements​

Please note

Premium per user license type is not advised since Microsoft prevents regeneration of tokens on those types of licenses

  • A shared SharePoint workspace (personal workspaces are not supported)
  • Enable Embed content in apps in Power Bi settings

Setup​

Please note

We recommend contacting our support team to know more about setting up PowerBI on Microsoft's side

  1. The first thing that you need to do is connect your Power BI account to our system using a Cloud credential
    • Settings > Cloud Integration > Microsoft credentials > Add new
    • You need to select the Scope as Power BI and the Type as Sharepoint
Please note

Using Service principle type as a connection requires advanced knowledge. If you wish to know more about this option please contact our support team!

pbi1.png

  1. You will need to authenticate yourself with your Microsoft Account

  2. Now you can go to the editor and make your content using this credential

Main settings​

You will find the Power BI widget in the Dynamic charts section.

pbi4.png

Source section​

  • Credential : Cloud credential you created
  • Embed type :
    • Dashboard: the widget will load the Dashboard view
      • Will have Dashboard selector
    • Report: the widget will load the Report view
      • Will have Report selector Bookmark input
    • Tile: the widget will load the Tile view
      • Will have Dashboard selector and Tile selector
  • Workspace : The workspace from which the widget will pull the selected type of resource

Settings section​

  • Interactive: Makes widget interactive
  • Navigations: Displays navigation bar including Tabs and Bookmarks
  • Filters: Displays filter bar
  • Bookmarks: Enables the selection of a Bookmark to display
Please note

PowerBI Bookmarks feature requires Chrome version 69 or system browser versions in accordance to this chrome version.

  • Auto Rotate: Enables to rotate automatically the pages. You can set delay to the rotation.
Please note

Bookmarks and Auto rotate feature cannot work together! Only the selected Bookmark will show in Content instead of rotating through all of them!

Frequent error messages and their meanings​

Here is an example where PowerBI does not show up

Open the preview by right clicking on the content and Preview in browser, you will see that PowerBI is empty img_3.png

Press F12 on your keyboard, this will bring up the broswer's console panel, where you can navigate to the Console tab. Then press F5 or reload on the page, you will see the tab will fill up with messages. img_4.png Take a screenshot of the red messages

In our example you can see on the screenshot that it is a 404 error, below is a short summary of these error codes and what they mean regarding PowerBI.

Navigate to the Network tab, where you will likely see several red lines, which are indicating faulty requests. Click on one of them

You will see several tabs that you can choose from. We are interested in the contents of the Payload and Response tabs img_5.png img_6.png

Proof of Play​

Proof of play is a reporting system, that allows you to gain report about used assets.

If you turn on widget statistics you can report information about the displayed duration,number of displays and interaction events of this widget.

proofofplay.jpg

Useful articles​

Tokens​

How many embed tokens can I create?

PowerBI Premium vs. PowerBI Embedded​

What is the Microsoft recommendation for when a customer should buy PowerBI Premium vs. PowerBI Embedded

Tutorials​

There is no tutorial video yet :(​

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