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Anonymous
Not applicable

New Usage Metrics - Create Custom Usage report for non-admin users to see

I am trying to create a custom usage report using the new (Jan 2020+) usage metrics data for non-admins to use. I did this with the old usage metrics report, and though the process I created was rather clunky, it worked. But I am having problems doing the same thing with the new metrics data. Here are the issues I am trying to solve:

  • I create reports in a Workspace and publish the App to hundreds of users
  • Users have access only to the App, not the workspace and access to the data is controlled by Row Level Security
  • We want various Managers/Executives in the company to see the usage reports. But seeing the usage metrics dataset requires the user to be an Admin for the workspace, and we can't give Admin rights to all of the managers, obviously. 

With the previous usage reports, I manually downloaded the usage data to CSVs and uploaded them to a SQL database on a near-daily basis. I created a Custom Power BI report from that data and published it in a separate Workspace and gave Managers access to that workspace App. Like I said, a little clunky, but it worked. (If you know of a better/more automated way to accomplish this, I would love to get suggestions, but that is not my immediate problem) This process also allows us to maintain usage stats beyond the 90 day window (new stats are only for 30 days, apparently).

 

Here's my issue with the new usage metrics: Almost all of the visuals in the new Usage report use new Measures that are in the Metrics dataset. (The previous usage metrics did not use Measures.) But, while I can download the Table data, I can not see or download the Measures, and I can't create a similar usage report without the measures. I have tried to re-create the measures but have not been able to come up with measures that show data that matches the built-in usage report. (There are over 50 measures, but not sure if I need them all for the custom report.)

 

Does anybody know how I can replicate the hidden measures in the new usage metric dataset? Or, alternatively, Is there a way to publish the Usage Metrics so that non-admins to the workspace can use them?

 

Thanks for your help,

Griffin

5 REPLIES 5
v-xicai
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Anonymous ,

 

To convert the usage metrics report to a regular Power BI report that you can customize to meet your specific needs following methods below.

 

 

 

For reference:

Monitor usage metrics for Power BI dashboards and reports

 

Best Regards,

Amy 

 

Community Support Team _ Amy

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

mahoneypat
Employee
Employee

So can you not download the pbix from the published report/dataset?  Or can get an admin to do that for you once?  That would contain all the measures, and you could get them out one by one (or use one of the PBI tools to bulk extract them). 

 

For your daily tasks moving files around, I'm guessing Power Automate could help you there, but I don't know the details of what you are doing.

 

If this works for you, please mark it as solution.  Kudos are appreciated too.  Please let me know if not.

Regards,

Pat





Did I answer your question? Mark my post as a solution! Kudos are also appreciated!

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@mahoneypa HoosierBI on YouTube


Anonymous
Not applicable

Thank you for your reply. My problem was not how to create a custom metrics report - I know how to do that. As I stated in my post title, I need to create a report that non-admins to the workspace can see. (I have several managers/executives in the company that want to see the usage of my reports.) Even if I publish my custom report to another workspace, it links to the original workspace metrics dataset, which only admins have permission to see, so the report comes up blank for them. That dataset is invisible, so cannot be downloaded/viewed/changed or permissions changed.

 

I would think this would be a common requirement - my boss (and their boss, and their boss) want to know if anybody is using the reports that the company is paying me to create. Part of my job performance evaluation is to show whether my reports are useful or not. Taking daily or weekly screenshots of the metrics, which I do now, is not a very good solution, and, of course, does not allow the person to filter the report at all.

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Griffin

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks for the reply. The Usage Metrics Dataset that PBI creates is not available/visible in the workspace, it is completely hidden. You can link a new PBI report to it and use the data (if you are an admin), but you cannot see the dataset or download it. I am Admin for the workspace, so I can see the data, but non-admins cannot.

 

I will check out Power Automate. It sounds familiar, I think I checked it out when I first did this a year or so ago, but I will check it out again.

Good night

Try to paste in a dashboard the metricas (selecting from the 3 points ... the option "pin to a dashboard", so a dashboard is generated with the metrics of use of the report in question and to which all the people of your interest can have access.

Best regards

Juan

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