Report Builder and Semantic Model Permissions with Power Query (March 2024 Feature Release)

[dash_dave]

With the March 2024 release, we now have the ability to access Power Query / Get Data within Paginated Reports / Report Builder.  Though, I've noticed that there are some issues / limited functionality when attempting to fully mirror over functionality when adding the data source via Power BI Desktop.  

With this, I'm having an issue sharing the report within a Power BI Service app.  Previously, you were required to add permissions to the semantic model, and then adding the audience permissions for the app.  This would allow your users to view the report.  Now, I do not see the semantic model option to add user permissions via the Paginated Reports created model.  And I'm currently connecting to Snowflake.  Users are receiving error message "An unexpected error occurred.  Query execution failed for dataset "xxxxxx"."

Has anyone else had this issue with the latest release?  Any recommendations on how I should move forward, or did I miss any called out limitations?

[bradsy · Accepted solution]

Hi dash_dave,

We are trying to figure out ways to make this easier. The connection to Power Query is a shareable cloud connection. For now, you will need manually share that connection with the users of your report.

1. Find the name of your connection. This is the name that appears in the power query connection if you edit an existing mashup. 

2. Then follow these instructions to share: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-create-share-cloud-data-sources#shar...

[dash_dave]

Thanks, @bradsy !  This worked great.  Just added the user to the connection and the user was able to view the report within the App.  Appreciate it.

[GilbertQ]

Hi @dash_dave 

What I typically do is to create a semantic model, which would have the connection to Snowflake in your example. I would then connect the pageinated report to this semantic model to ensure that it would work as expected.

[dash_dave]

Thanks, @GilbertQ.  But I believe this defeats the purpose of leveraging the new feature, where you can connect to a data source and create your semantic model all within Report Builder.  I believe you are recommending a previous process where you may connect to the data source and subsequently create a data model all within Power BI Desktop.  I can still utilize this process, but again, it defeats the purpose of leveraging the new feature which streamlines (or is suppose to) the modeling process when buildling in Report Builder.