Hard for this beginner to share data with coworkers/bosses

[power_bozo]

Web interface.

Completely new to Power BI, and its use in our organization is completely dependent on me.

I'm looking at Power BI and Periscope. Impressed by some core functionality. But the challenge of sharing my cool interactive chart with coworkers/bosses is really bumming me out.

1st issue:

I filled out the entire form for creating a content pack. Only after attempting to submit am I warned that I need pro. Maybe this is a marketing scheme, because it worked on me. Rather than try to figure out another way to share this information, I agreed to the Pro Free Trial popup.

The Free Trial was confirmed, but then I was a blank Power BI white screen with just the top navigation visible. I assumed that Power BI would send emails to the coworkers I added to the content pack. I emailed them myself. None of them received anything.

Lo and behold, my content pack was lost and I had to recreate it.

2nd issue:

I re-filled out the entire form. I typed in three email addresses of coworkers. On submit, I got this error message:

The following groups have failed validation: "email1@mydomain.com"; "email2@mydomain.com"; "email3@mydomain.com"

(emphasis mine)

What groups? Why is sharing so hard? Why doesn't the interface give me a hint? I'm guessing I have to somehow add these "groups" (users??) somewhere else in the interface but why not tell me where? Save yourself some customer interaction with some better UX/UI!

3nd issue, off topic:

I typed all of the above, clicked post, and then was SHOCKED withthe revelation that my Power BI login state does not apply to the Power BI forums, and I have to create a username and password here as well! And worst of all, after signing up, my post is lost. You have committed a capital offense in UX, one that even Yahoo! Mail figured out in 2005. My lord.

[power_bozo]

Web interface.

I'm looking at Power BI and Periscope. But the challenge of sharing my cool interactive chart with coworkers/bosses is really bumming me out.

1st issue:

I filled out the entire form for creating a content pack. Only after attempting to submit am I warned that I need pro. Maybe this is a marketing scheme, because it worked on me. Rather than try to figure out another way to share this information, I agreed to the Pro Free Trial popup.

The Free Trial was confirmed, but then I was a blank Power BI white screen with just the top navigation visible. I assumed that Power BI would send emails to the coworkers I added to the content pack. I emailed them myself. None of them received anything.

Lo and behold, my content pack was lost and I had to recreate it.

2nd issue:

I re-filled out the entire form. I typed in three email addresses of coworkers. On submit, I got this error message:

The following groups have failed validation: "email1@mydomain.com"; "email2@mydomain.com"; "email3@mydomain.com"

(emphasis mine)

What groups? Why is sharing so hard? Why doesn't the interface give me a hint? I'm guessing I have to somehow add these "groups" (users??) somewhere else in the interface but why not tell me where? Save yourself some customer interaction with some better UX/UI!

[kcantor · Accepted solution]

@power_bozo

My first question is why are you creating a content pack? If you want to share your report, you can publish it to the web (no pro license required), pin it to a dashboard, and then share the dashboard with your co-workers. They can then view the report and use the filters you specify but cannot edit and save changes. I use this feature with my non-prolicense coworkers. When you share the dashboard, they will receive an email but in addition, when they log into the service with their free account, it will appear in their workspace as a dashboard that has been shared with them. It will appear there even if they do not receive the email or if the email is shunted to the spam/junk folder.

Content packs are more comprehensive. They can be downloaded and edited and, if I am not mistaken, they require a pro license. If you are trying the service and want to stay on the free side during the decision making process, just share the dashboard.

[power_bozo]

Hi kcantor. Why am I creating a content pack? Because I thought that was the way to do it.

Thanks to your suggestion, I did try dashboards and they are going ok so far.

I signed up for the Pro trial, because I guess that's required for live data from SQL Server in Power BI. Although it seems like perhaps if I create the right Views in SQL on the server, I might be able to present them without the Pro license.

[TomEvers]

Another way to share is to save the pbix to a shared drive and have whoever you are sharing with open it with their version of power bi desktop.  You may have issues sharing anything you create while using the pro version unless those that you share with are on the pro version as well.  I'd recommend doing it that way, until you decide that Power BI is good enough to do what you want it to do.  It has a bunch of flaws that make some uses very frustrating, but they are enhancing it every month so hopefully it will get better.  

One thing I found frustrating is you can create dashboards with a background color, but find out when you deploy it that they don't bother to use your background color on the power bi service.  Another is that you can set up a field as do not summarize only to be forced to summarize it (and it changes your field name to add in how its summarized too).

[smithmc3]

I feel your pain!.  One thing you can do is "Publish to Web" it makes your report live on the web for anyone with the URL. If you just want to show them the layout you can "Export to PowerPoint" and at least show the layout.

My organization mostly uses Excel for their analysis and for more complex things it's Tableau or SQL Reporting Services.  Myself and another colleague are starting to use PowerBI more and trying to spread the word.