Write back comments from visual from report on report server

[ChristianTD]

Hi all,

We are running a power BI report server, developing reports via the Power BI Desktop, and sharing via the server. We would like to be able to write back comments on the data the end-user sees. The reports are to display various data and the user is to approve the accuracy of it or alternatively comments and dismiss. I would like this to be done through a visual somehow. Essentially the user should be able to write a comment and save it – there should be more than 1 field for inserting comments.

As far as could find out the option would be a powerApp but this does not have access to my internal data sources and is only running in the cloud. There is also the Q&A function but that does not really seem to be what is needed although I might be wrong.

Are there other alternatives like a visual showing a webpage that somehow reads the url from power bi, building a custom visual that could do this or?

Alternatively, I was thinking of wrapping the report in a sharepoint page and have comment fields there, but then how does that page know what the user views?

I would very much like to hear any idea to solve this

BR Christian

[ChristianTD]

Hi
Would anyone else have any suggestions?
I will try to see if its possible to push to the Bi insted from e.g. a sharepoint site. Then I would have some idea of what is viewed which is sufficient for my purpose.

Would there be any development in pipeline that adress this issue besides the powerapp?

Br Christian

[Anonymous]

I take it the commenst capability built into SSRS PowerBI isn't useful? as its at a report level. You want to annotate visuals?

[ChristianTD]

Many thanks for the reply’s.
The comment capability would not do. We have app. 100 end-users being able to view different content based on access rights where they in a monthly process needs to submit comments. Ideally, they do that in a visual.

I guess the comment function would allow all to see all comments and they are covering the whole report.

[jcollinson2001]

I have the same requirement and have followed a similar thought process to yourself. One thing I have been trying to find the time to prototype (but have not as yet), is using the Javascript API and the dataSelected event:

https://github.com/Microsoft/PowerBI-JavaScript/wiki/Handling-Events

My plan was to create a web page with a simple form and an embedded report. When the user clicks on record X within the report, listen to the dataSelected event and storing the ID of the record and linking them to the data recorded in the form (e.g. a comment).

This is all theoretical, I have no idea if it will actually work like this! If you get anywhere would be great to hear about it.

[ChristianTD]

@jcollinson2001 - Is it at all possible to use the API for a powerbi on the powerbi Server? According to this it's not available or am i misreading ?

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/20324803-power-bi-javascript-api-...

[jcollinson2001]

I think you're right - what a shame! Thanks for posting your findings - hope the API supports on premise Report Server at some point soon.

[ChristianTD]

Wouldn't it be possible to build a custom visual that can do this ? Calling the REST API

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt147898.aspx 

Would anyone know if it is easy to build a custom visual doing this ?

[psolli]

Hi,

We have solved this. You can write-back to SQL Server and/or SQL Tabular or Azure SQL and Azure Analysis Services. A lot of companies finds this helpful.

https://poweronbi.com/visual-table-editor/ 

Email me: per.solli@PowerONbi.com to setup a demo. 

Per