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Power BI Makes APPs, too? A Quick Guide to Understanding that an APP is like a CONTAINER


POWER BI can make apps too?  Wait, then what is the point of Microsoft Power Apps?  Well, that’s where there can be confusion and I see it often during my training sessions. 

An app in Power BI is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DIFFERENT from an app in Microsoft Power Apps.  

According to Microsoft a Power BI App is, “An app is a Power BI content type that combines related dashboards and reports, all in one place. An app can have one or more dashboards and one or more reports, all bundled together.”  Notice how the word app has been italicized.  I didn’t format it that way.  I believe "app" is italicized in their documentation because the semantics can be confusing and intermingled.

So let me give you my brief overview of a Power BI app.  Next week’s blog will dive into deeper details and have a video demonstration as well.

I like to think of an app as a container where you place all the dashboards, reports, and workbooks you want to share outside of members in your workspace in one nice package.  When you decide what you want in this package you are not setting your decisions in stone.  You are able to go back and update your app at any time. Take a look below at how you decide what you want in your app from your workspace.


If you take notice at the upper right-hand corner of my screenshot it says “Update app”.  The reason it says this is because I have already created the app.  If this was my first creation of the app it would say “Create app”

Once you decide what you want or don’t want in the app click the button and you will have some options in the creation/update process.

 The setup screen will ask you for a name, description, support site, and theme color
 The navigation screen will ask you how you want your navigation menu to be formatted and if you want to add any links or sections
 The permission section is where you will actually decide who you want to share your app with.

You are allowed 1 app per workspace so that is important to remember.  Also, if you try to delete a data set from your workspace that is currently being a reference in your app you will get the following warning. 


Thus, you will need to go to the app and update it to remove any reports that are being used in the app.  Also, you could just unpublish the app.   Currently to unpublish an app go to your workspace where you are seeing the details of all of your content.  If you click the ellipsis at the top of the screen you see the option below. 

 

Stay tuned next week for a video of making an app and some of the “gotchas” that come with the creation of an app.


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