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laurent_rio
Helper I
Helper I

Different of Links Giving Access and Direct Access

Hi,

 

What is different between links giving access and direct access when manage permissions ?

 

I already put list of people who can access the link of the report and then someone forward that link to other and the other person who is not in the list request the access, when i approve their access, they are automatically go into direct access ? 

 

Can help to explain ? 

Manage Permission.jpg

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
v-xiaotang
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @laurent_rio 

Direct Access belongs to people who has original permission to access the file, while Links Giving Access belongs to people who  need a sharing link to access the file.

 

I find some links helpful, see

Manage access to shared Word documents: links giving access vs. - Microsoft Community

Request or grant access to dashboards or reports - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Share Power BI reports and dashboards with coworkers and others - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

 

Hope it helps!

 

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _ Tang

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

View solution in original post

11 REPLIES 11
Wayfarer
Helper I
Helper I

I'm going to "necro" this one in January 2023, because I just had something to do with permissions and it came up in search results.  A bunch of similar threads also have a similar conclusion - no one in the user base seems to know the difference between using the Links feature or the Direct access feature.  Both let you pick permissions.  Both let you send a notification.  Both can be modified after the fact.

 

Perhaps a link is better to grant access to someone external, like a contractor or a client?  Or a link to allow resharing, one to allow building?

 

For what I'm doing right now, I'm going to go with Direct Access.  Seems cleaner than a bunch of links, and where the same user can be added to several links as well.

 

FWIW, in our place - like many others, I imagine - permissions are given to groups as much as possible.  Workspace access is for admins, maybe developers.  Access for consumers/readers is to the published App, not the Workspace.

The difference between the two methods of sharing seems very confusing. 

Sharing via link, for specific people, while disabling the Allow Recipients to share this report, and Granting Direct Access with read permission only apparently do the same. i can't download a pbix file or build on the dataset. I can only share with people with existing access. So what is the difference? and why do these two options exist?

bfeetham
Regular Visitor

Not much help on why there are two different ways of sharing now and what that's intended to accomplish, but this link provides a good breakdown of the differenct behaviors for the two and additional resources for further documentation. 

 

https://ktnnsharepoint.wordpress.com/2021/02/16/share-manage-access/

JardaPernicka
Regular Visitor

Hi Anonymous,

If you see users with Direct access to the report without the button to manage permissions (three dots), these users have gained access through workspace. If you need to remove their access you need to edit access on workspace level.

Radek_Z
Advocate I
Advocate I

Wow, I am surprised that a Power BI employee/programmer hasn't piped up with a SOLID ANSWER on this topic. Ever since this "new sharing experience" came out, I have been honestly confused as to what the real difference is between "send a link" and "Direct Access". 

 

Not one solid explanation yet on this thread. 

 

As for me, I continue to ignore the "send a link" feature, and only give people direct access to my reports. It's the only feature I trust to work. 

 

Can I recommend to the Power BI team, if you're looking at this: just revert back to what you had before. It was simpler, easy to understand, and less risky. By less risky, I mean that you don't have the option to give access to "everyone in your organization" at the top of the menu list. For companies of, say 500+ employees, this is a very dangerous option that could be easily misused. I almost NEVER share a report with my entire organization. Please, redesign the sharing 'experience'!

itskool
Helper II
Helper II

Have you by any chance found an answer to this question in the meantime? I can't find information on this anywhere.

v-xiaotang
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @laurent_rio 

Direct Access belongs to people who has original permission to access the file, while Links Giving Access belongs to people who  need a sharing link to access the file.

 

I find some links helpful, see

Manage access to shared Word documents: links giving access vs. - Microsoft Community

Request or grant access to dashboards or reports - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Share Power BI reports and dashboards with coworkers and others - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

 

Hope it helps!

 

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _ Tang

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

Anonymous
Not applicable

No, as per usual it doesn't help. Can I suggest that just posting a load of links is not the same as answering a question

laurent_rio
Helper I
Helper I


@laurent_rio wrote:

Hi,

 

What is different between links giving access and direct access when manage permissions ?

 

I already put list of people who can access the link of the report and then someone forward that link to other and the other person who is not in the list request the access, when i approve their access, they are automatically go into direct access ? 

 

Can help to explain ? 

Manage Permission.jpg


Hi @amitchandak what do you mean is when people with direct access they will have the report on the shared report tab in power BI Service ? like this below ?
Manage Permission.jpg


How about the link, if i give them direct access, will they also able to read the url link access ?

so the case is i share the link url to users in the list and that user fwd the link to other that doesnt have access and when they click, they request me the access but when i approve it give them direct access not links access. Any way when i approve it goes to links giving access not direct access ?

amitchandak
Super User
Super User

@laurent_rio , Direct access is to assign a report and that will appear in power bi service, in shared report.

For the link to share refer to the new sharing experience

 

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-the-new-sharing-experience/

Anonymous
Not applicable

These answers could not be any less helpful. Same with the docs. This functionality seems confused. I have a load of users with Direct access and apparently no way to remove it?

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