Sharing dashboards with free users if data is refreshed daily from SQL Server database

[kelleyamattTGS]

Is there any way to share content with someone who has a free license where the data originates from a SQL Server database and needs to be refreshed daily? 

[kelleyamattTGS]

Is there any way to share content with someone who has a free license where the data originates from a SQL Server database and needs to be refreshed daily?  

[ankitpatira]

@kelleyamattTGS Basics are if you're got a report that is using any Pro feature then person you sharing with also need Pro license. Having said that dashboard connecting to SQL Server database with import feature and scheduled refresh daily is not a pro feature and so you can share it with users having free license.

[Habib]

Yes, you can share. In case of free license, only daily refresh is available.

[kelleyamattTGS]

@Habib:  I cannot refresh daily without using a gateway. I have a dashboard with a single tile created from a desktop report that pulls data from sql server.  After uploading to the service,  I scheduled a single, daily refresh.  Then when I clicked 'share' there is a message stating: 'This dashboard contains Power BI Pro content. Only users that have Power BI Pro will have access to it.'   There seems to be a bug, because that message does not appear when I manually refresh using a gateway.  

[kelleyamattTGS]

Can anyone tell me if they have been able to come up with a way to share interactive content to a free user from data that is refreshed daily when that data originated from a sql server database?  I'm open to any options that will work.  Is there a way to embed an interactive report or dashboard (i.e. pinned live with slicers) in sharepoint?  Assuming again, that the data is refreshed daily?

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @kelleyamattTGS,

Based on my test, if a pro user creates a report, which connects to SQL Server database in import mode and set schedule refresh for the dataset, after sharing the dashboard with tile from this report with a free user, the free user can also see report data. And after the dataset is refreshed based on schedule, the report data will display the latest data also. So it seems refresh is working for free user, as the connection to data source is done on dataset owner side( pro user ).

In addition, PG team are working on the feature to embed reports in SharePoint, to work around the issue temporarily, we can use DevScope. Please see this idea item: Embed in SharePoint/Office365.

If you have any question, please feel free to ask.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[kelleyamattTGS]

Hi Qiuyun_Yu,

Thanks for your answer.  We tested the situation at our client and the user that was shared the dashboard BEFORE a refresh was scheduled was able to drill into a report that was scheduled to refresh daily from an on-premise SQL Server database (using the enterprise gateway).  After that refresh was scheduled, when trying to share the dashboard, the message warning that the content was Pro Content not available to free license users appeared but did not prevent a share from occurring with a free user, as you indicated.  However, when this user opens the dashboard, they receive a popup stating they needed a pro license asking if they wanted to start a free trial.  This user exited the pop-up and was still able to used the dashboard and drill into the report, but that tells us that the answer to my original question about free versus Pro content is this:  Anything that is developed and refreshed daily using an enterprise gateway by a Pro User, is still considered Pro Content, that should not be able to be shared with a free-user.  The fact that a free user can access this content seems to be an unintended result. 

I'll be keeping my eye open for the ability to embed content in sharepoint or Office 365....

[kelleyamattTGS]

Qiuyun_Yu,

Thanks for your answer.  We tested the situation at our client and the user that was shared the dashboard BEFORE a refresh was scheduled was able to drill into a report that was scheduled to refresh daily from an on-premise SQL Server database (using the enterprise gateway).  After that refresh was scheduled, when trying to share the dashboard, the message warning that the content was Pro Content not available to free license users appeared but did not prevent a share from occurring with a free user, as you indicated.  However, when this user opens the dashboard, they receive a popup stating they needed a pro license asking if they wanted to start a free trial.  This user exited the pop-up and was still able to used the dashboard and drill into the report, but that tells us that the answer to my original question about free versus Pro content is this:  Anything that is developed and refreshed daily using an enterprise gateway by a Pro User, is still considered Pro Content, that should not be able to be shared with a free-user.  The fact that a free user can access this content seems to be an unintended result. 

I'll be keeping my eye open for the ability to embed content in sharepoint or Office 365....

[Habib]

@Seth_C_Bauer and @kelleyamattTGS

In case of On-Prem databases, yes, you need gateway and that requires Pro user. My asumption in initial response was that data is in cloud.

Thanks for correction.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@Habib@kelleyamattTGS I was under the impression that anything using the gateway requires a license. Especially if you are using a database that is on-premises... Have you found this not to be true? I can't say I've had a free account in awhile.