Ask Me Anything Unanswered Chat Questions Answered

Last week, I participated in an “Ask Me Anything” session where I answered questions around both Paginated Reports in Power BI, as well as questions around SQL Server Reporting Services and Power BI Report Server.

As I wasn’t able to get to all the questions posted in the chat, I said I’d answer those I didn’t get to in a follow-up post on my personal blog.  So, without further adieu, here’s a recap of the related unanswered questions with my responses.  I’ve broken them into sections focused on Paginated Reports in the cloud, as well as the on-prem offerings (SSRS/PBIRS).

Paginated Reports in Power BI

“any update on parameters? right now they are only on the page header, any chance that this area will get a makeover?”

– You’ll see us doing work to rationalize the toolbar in paginated reports with Power BI reports to the extent it makes sense.  There are certain patterns for paginated reports authors prefer in terms of parameter layout/grouping that we don’t want to disrupt, but the idea is to make the chrome around the reports look/feel similar across both report types.

“Will the RLS will be available in paginated reports too?”

– Yes, when paginated reports support connecting to Power BI datasets, we will respect RLS.  We’ll also support it against other data sources when we support user-based authentication for them.

“Is there a recommended resource for testing / exploring paginated reports – i.e., a sample paginated report that can be used as a template?”

– Great question.  I’ll put together a list of resources in a follow-up post, but at a minimum recommend you download Report Builder and follow the tutorial.

“Is printing of multi-page table the main advantage of SSRS reports over Power BI tables/matrix?”

This is another good question – it isn’t an either/or, but rather which is the best tool for what you need to accomplish.  I’m going to cover this in a separate post as well.

“Is there plan to allow embedding Paginated report in SharePoint Online as we can today with PowerBI Report?”

– Yes, this is planned.

“power BI service will we get subscriptions for paginated reports in the same way we have now in SSRS? Also will this be extended to Power Bi reports and dashboards in Power Bi service. Including Data Driven Subscriptions?”

– Yes!  You’ll see the current subscriptions in Power BI evolving to give you the options you have with SSRS today for both report types.  This includes scheduling, the ability to send with specific filters/parameters applied, attachment support, etc.

“for now I’m not able to find paginated reports using the search function on the Home page. Any timing when/if this is coming?”

This is a known bug that we’re working with other teams to get resolved.  You should see this fixed in the next couple months.

Power BI Report Server/SSRS

“can we share a .pbix report through emails?”

We aren’t planning to add subscription support for Power BI Reports in Power BI Report Server in the short term.

“Would love to hear about how RLS will be implemented to PBIRS.”

This work is well underway for the January 2019 release of Power BI Report Server.  It will be similar to what you do in the service today, where you set the roles in the desktop and assign users to those roles in the server through the web browser.

“And along the same lines, what about standard templates, such as headers/footers?”

This is an improvement we’d like to look at for the Power BI service as it relates to Paginated Reports, so we’d also look to bring it back to the on-prem product as well.

Looks like the other questions related these areas were all addressed either in the session or in the chat itself.  If you have additional questions, feel free to check the existing FAQ, or leave a comment in the blog comments below!