Export Power BI Reports to PDF and share them

[AndreaPRJ]

Hi to all

a customer has several dozen users, but wants to buy only thirty Power BI PRO licenses and then distribute the report to all other NOT licensed BI users via a PDF.

Is it necessary to buy a premium lic?

Or is it enough to have a PPU license and create a Premium workspace where you can store the reports that you want to export to PDF? In this case, would it be enough to add a PPU license to the 30 PRO licenses and export via Automated Flow would work without giving "area capacity" errors?

Thank you very much

[KiranHosakote]

Hi @AndreaPRJ 

See if BI Helper https://bihelper.tech works for your use case.

BI Helper is a third-party SaaS tool that automates user-specific PDF generation (i.e., with slicers and filters applied) and emailing from Power BI.

BI Helper requires you to have one Power BI Pro (or higher) license. Your end-users can be internal or external to your organization and don't need Power BI licenses to receive their PDFs. 

[aj1973]

Hi @AndreaPRJ 

To distribute pdf to non free licensed users from Power BI service you definitely need Premium license, but I think it's costly for this purpose and for few users. PPU WS won't solve the issue either because everyone needs PPU license to consume the pdf.

A work arround would be to use power automate(or else) to resend the pdf to non licensed users when the PDF enters the inbox of the Pro licensed user.

[AndreaPRJ]

hi Amine, thank you!

If I understand correctly, The customer should buy:

1) Buy even just one lic,. PREMIUM PER USER (PPU) + one lic. Power Automate;
2) Create a PREMIUM workspace and deposit within it the BI report(s) interested in sharing;
3) Through a Power Automate flow deposit in the user's Outlook box with lic. PPU the PDF (the flow "feeling" the presence of a PREMIUM workspace at this point would work);
4) Through a second Power Automate flow then implement the forwarding of the mail from the Outlook mailbox of the PPU user to X other users, internal or not.

Is it correct?

Bye

[aj1973]

This should explain it better

[AndreaPRJ]

I'm very sorry, but this table did not clarify my ideas...

Is what I wrote above feasible? buy only one PPU license? the user licensed with that license can then create the "famous" PREMIUM workspace, on which to then work the flows?

Thank you very much

[aj1973]

I just don't get it why you insist on using the "famous" PREMIUM workspace like you are try to...!?

Making it simple for you : With one Pro license Power BI and one Power automate license you can have it done. Subscribe to receive reports in your inbox then with Power automate send the received email to the rest. 

[AndreaPRJ]

as i read here  

it seems that the subscription can send a pdf ONLY if there is at least one workspace AT LEAST ppu.

So I think I realized that I could do what I say by buying only one PPU licence! (and with a second flow that then takes care of forwarding the email .. But we are outside the scope of Power BI).

is it right for you?

see point 5)

"If the report is in a workspace backed by a Premium capacity or Premium Per User (PPU) license, add the full report as an attachment instead of only a single report page. ...."

[aj1973]

It is not up to me, if it is a good solution and the best work arround for you then go for it.

Good job

[AndreaPRJ]

Hi!

..but I need the PDF! the subscription would send me a screenshot (and also send me a screenshot for each page, so if the report contains 5 pages I would have to create 5 subscriptions).

I insist on mentioning the premium license because I already tried to make a flow with Power Automate and this flow went wrong by telling me that in order to export a BI report to PDF, this report had to be in a premium workspace. Exact error: "Report requested for export is not on dedicated capacity".

For this reason I was wondering if a PPU license could be used to "circumvent" the problem.

My idea was to buy only 1 ppu license, assign it to an administrator user, with this user create a premium workspace, run the flow (which at this point should no longer give that error) by sending the PDF of the report in the box of the user with PPU license.

Finally create another flow that, starting from the mailbox of the PPU user, forwards the mail to x other users

Am I doing something wrong?