What Are Apps in Power BI?
As organizations grow in size, the need for a business intelligence (BI) tool that provides valuable insights into overall performance also grows in importance. Power BI is one such product that was designed by Microsoft to meet the needs of organizations.
Power BI is a collection of various tools and techniques used to analyze raw business data and visualize the information to improve the performance of an organization. After generating the data, Power BI allows organizations to publish it using the App feature. Users also have access to the best Power BI training on the ONLC website.
Apps in Power BI Explained
Apps in Power BI are software programs that allow users to interact with their business data. Apps create a way for an organization to give customers access to data they wish to share without requiring them to have access to the underlying data sources.
Organizations can use Power BI to create apps by publishing reports, dashboards, charts, or datasets to the Power BI service, and then packaging them as an app. Apps in Power BI allow organizations to distribute reports and other content broadly to a large number of users, such as their customer base.
When the customers install these apps, they get access to the content within the app. When developing the app, its creator is allowed to set specific permissions, including determining who can access the app and what they can do with the contents.
These apps can also be used to distribute reports and dashboards from within the workspace. An app should not be confused with a workspace in Power BI, which is a container for dashboards, reports, workbooks, datasets, and dataflows.
Types of Apps in Power BI
There are two types of apps in Power BI:
1. Custom Visual Apps
These are apps that contain custom visuals that can be used to enhance the functionality of Power BI reports and dashboards. Custom visual apps can be created by developers and can be used to add new visualizations to Power BI reports and dashboards.
2. Content Apps
These are apps that contain reports, dashboards, and datasets. Content apps can be created by any Power BI user and can be used to share data and insights with others.
How Are Power BI Apps Created?
If you have datasets, then creating a Power BI app is a fairly straightforward process. Here is how to create a Power BI app.
Step 1: Create a report, dashboard, dataset, and other content that you want to include in your app. Make sure the content for the app is complete and ready to share with others.
Step 2: When the content is ready, you’ll need to publish it to the Power BI service. You do this by selecting ‘Publish’ from the ‘File’ menu in the Power BI Desktop, or by clicking the ‘Publish’ button in the Power BI service.
Step 3: Create an app by going to the Power BI service and clicking the ‘Apps’ icon. This icon is found in the left-hand navigation menu. After that, choose ‘New App’ and then select the report, dashboard, or dataset that you want to include in your app.
Step 4: After importing the content, you need to configure the settings for the app. This includes setting the app’s name, description, icon, and privacy settings. It is important to restrict which users or groups you want to grant access to the app, and what permissions they will have.
Step 5: After configuring the app settings, you can publish the app to the Power BI AppSource. This will make the app available to other users to install and use. You can also use this process to create an app of your KPI in Power BI.
Step 6: When your app is available to download, install the app and test it to ensure that it works as expected. Power BI allows you to make updates to the app, including adding new content or modifying the app settings and then republishing the app.
You should know that before you can publish an app you need to have a Power BI Pro or Power BI Premium account.
Final Thoughts
Power BI apps are a great way for organizations to share and distribute data and insights to team members and also with external parties. Apps in Power BI allow for easy distribution of content and provide a way to share and collaborate on data and insights in a secure and controlled environment.
