What is Workspace Power BI?

Power BI Workspaces are leveraged to collaborate and share content with coworkers. Collaborate on dashboards, reports, spreadsheets, and datasets with colleagues by adding them to your workspaces. Each workspace member, with one exception, requires a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license.

Types of workspaces in Power BI

• Power BI My workspace: This is a personal workspace that any Power BI customer can use to work with their own data. My workspace is only accessible by you. My Workspace allows you to share dashboards and reports. You’ll need to work in a workspace if you want to collaborate on dashboards and reports, or if you want to construct an app.
• Power BI workspaces: These are used to share and collaborate on content with teammates. Work on dashboards, reports, spreadsheets, and datasets with colleagues by adding them to your workspaces.

 

What’s Different in New Workspace?

• Licensing enforcement: Existing license regulations are enforced by publishing reports to a new workspace experience. A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license is required for users who want to collaborate in new workspaces or share content with others in the Power BI service. The error “Only users with Power BI Pro licenses can publish to this workspace” appears to users without a Pro or PPU license.
• Power BI Share Workspace: In the new workspaces, the Contributor role replaces the classic workspaces’ ‘Members can reshare’ feature.
• Power BI Workspace Access: Users who do not have a Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) subscription can view a new workspace if it is powered by Power BI Premium, but only if they are assigned the Viewer role.
• Enable users to export data: If they have permission to build on the datasets in the new workspace, even users with the Viewer role can export data.
• In the new workspaces, there is no option to leave the workspace.

Workspace Settings

Create a contact list

You can choose which users are to be notified when there are issues in the workspace. Any individual or group designated as a workspace admin gets notified by default, but you can add more people to the contact list. The user interface (UI) lists users or groups in the contact list to help users receive help with the workspace.

1. There are two ways to access the Contact list setting:

When you initially create a workspace, in the Create a workspace pane. Select the arrow next to Workspaces in the navigation pane, then More options next to the workspace name > Workspace settings. The Settings window appears.

2. Under advanced, contact list, accept the default, workspace admins, or create your own list of specific individuals or groups.
3. Select save.

Set a Power BI workspace OneDrive

1. Use one of two methods to access the Power BI Workspace OneDrive settings:

When you initially create a workspace, in the Create a workspace pane. Select the arrow next to Workspaces in the navigation pane, then More options next to the workspace name > Workspace settings. The Settings window appears.

2. Type the name of the Microsoft 365 group you created earlier in Advanced > Workspace OneDrive. Type the name only, not the URL. The group’s OneDrive is automatically picked up by Power BI.
3. Select Save.

Access the Power BI workspace OneDrive location

1. Select Get Data from the navigation pane, then Get from the Files box.
2. Select SharePoint – Team Sites.
3. To see the content available to you, type the URL of the shared library you created earlier, or select Connect.
4. Go to the folder where your Power BI files are stored.

Allow contributors to update the app. By default, only workspace Admins and Members can publish and update the app for the workspace. There are two ways to get to the Allow contributors to change the app setting. When you initially create a workspace, in the Create a workspace pane.

Select the arrow next to Workspaces in the navigation pane, then More options next to the workspace name > Workspace settings. The Settings window appears. Expand Security options under Advanced. Select Allow contributors to update the app for this workspace.

When contributors are enabled, they can:

• Update app metadata like name, icon, description, support site, and color.
• Add or remove items included in the app, like adding reports or datasets.
• Change the app navigation or default item the app opens on.

Contributors, on the other hand, are unable to:

• Power BI workspace access: Publish the app for the first time
• Power BI Workspace permissions: Change who has permission to the app

Power BI Workspace Permissions

These permissions are specifically established on datasets. There are two extra permissions available at the dataset level.

1) Reshare, which lets users share (or reshare) the dataset with other Power BI users, and

2) Develop, which allows users to not only see but also build their own reports using the dataset.

Users with the Contributor, Member, or Admin roles specified at the workspace level get build access automatically.

Individual users can also be given Build and Reshare capabilities. Traverse to the desired workspace and then to the dataset list to set these permissions. Then, adjacent to the workspace, click the ellipse and select Manage permissions.

The users who were previously added to the Power BI workspace permissions appear in the dataset list on the Manage Permissions screen. In the permissions column, each user’s allocated roles are displayed.

Select the circle to the right of the permissions column to add new permissions for the user. The user’s access permission can be changed to either Reshare or Build.

Similarly, either permission can be revoked after it has been added.

If a user has not yet been added to the workspace, they can be manually added using the Add User button.

The user is given Read access to the dataset, as well as the option to Reshare or Build the dataset. This user, on the other hand, does not have workspace rights.

Access & Roles in Power BI workspaces

1. As the workspace is created, you can look at the rights that have been assigned to it. The desired workspace must be selected first, followed by the ellipse, and lastly Workspace Access.
2. Alternatively, you can access the Access pane by first selecting the workspace and then pressing the Access button.
3. Initially, the only person with the admin privilege is the content administrator/workspace creator.

Power BI roles in Workspace

There are four different Power BI roles in Workspace:

• Viewer – This role only allows you to read workspace elements. Consumers of reports and dashboards with reading access can not only view but also interact with visuals. Interaction does not imply a visual change.
• Contributor – This role has access to reports and dashboards and can interact with them. This role also has the ability to create, edit, copy, and remove workspace items, as well as publish reports; schedule refreshes, and modifies gateways.
• Member – Users of this role can use the service to create dashboards, share items, enable others to reshare items, publish or republish content, and create an APP. This role can also add other users to the role of viewer or contributor.
• Admin – This role has the ability to do all of the duties listed above, as well as adds and removes all users, including other Admins.

Advantages of Workspace

1. Sharing numerous Contents with Team

Power BI workspaces allow you to share content with a group’s total populace. You don’t have to share each dashboard with every user because groups have taken care of that for you.

 2. Workplaces with many locations

Workspaces in Power BI provide a different environment for each group member. In Power BI, you can effortlessly switch workspaces.

 3. Administration of Individuals and Groups

Office 365 groups and wos are in sync. Once a group has been created in Power BI, adding and removing members is the responsibility of the admin.

 4. Developer-Friendly Environment

Power BI workspace is ideal for use in a development setting. As a development environment, you can establish a workspace and then share it with other members of the developer team who have Edit access. Then everyone in your development environment has access to the same stuff.

Limitations of Workspaces

• Not Appropriate for end-users

End users should not be able to share content in workspaces. Users in the workspace can have read-only access to the content. This is, however, only half of the criterion. One of the most important requirements in an end-user sharing scenario is to keep the development and user environments separate. You can’t use a single workspace for both developers and users. Creating multiple workspaces adds another layer of complexity.

• Multiple workspace overhead

It is not feasible to move or copy content between workspaces if you have numerous workspaces. Because of the aforementioned restriction, you must recreate your dashboards in each workplace. Such a setup has considerable overhead maintenance expenses.

Power BI – Enabling Your Team with a New Workspace Environment

To test out the new workspaces, do the following:

• You can build a new app workspace in the new environment without first creating an Office 365 Group.
• You can give the workspace a name, a description, and an image.
• Under Advanced, users may choose whether to put the workspace in Power BI Premium dedicated capacity.
• The new workspace looks and functions similarly to the existing App workspaces.
• Add users using the Access pane.
• Add content via Get Data, share, collaborate, and other methods.
• By pressing the Skip link, you can immediately reach the workspace’s content list.

New buttons for Access and Settings, as well as a banner for the new workspace preview, will appear in the workspace’s content list.

Setup Workspaces, sharing control & Publish Apps in Power BI

Step 1: Log into your Power BI Service account and create a new Workspace. Look into the Workspace >Select Create App Workspace.

Step 2: Give the newly formed Workspace a name. Following the submission of the title, the distinctive Workspace ID is generated. The publishing app will be renamed to the same name in the future. As a result, you can change the name and ID to suit your needs.

Step 3: In the privacy settings, you have a few alternatives to pick from. You can choose PUBLIC if you want anybody to be able to see the workspace. Another option is PRIVATE, which restricts access to the Workspace to only approved team members.

There are two more options to choose from in the following menu. Depending on permissions, either team members added can change the Power BI content or members can see the Power BI content. It’s always a good idea to give members edit access first.

When the workspace is published as an application to the entire organization, view-only access permissions can be granted.

Step 4: Enter the email address of team members next. There are two options for each team member, as shown below: ADMIN and MEMBER. An administrator can invite others and edit the entire workspace, whereas a member can simply edit or view the space, depending on the permissions set. Select save.

Step 5: The Workspace will now appear on the Power BI Service’s Homepage. You will now be able to see many options, and every admin member will have two options in the sidebar: either update the workspace settings or exit the workspace.

Publish the App in Workspace

Step 1: In Power BI Desktop, open the report > Look for the PUBLISH option in the home ribbon

Step 2: You now have the choice of publishing the report to your own workspace or selecting from the App workspaces of which you are a team member or admin.

Step 3:  The report you select will report will now be published to the workspace by Power BI Desktop, and you will see a success message box indicating that the report has been published.

Step 4: Now that you’ve opened the Sample Test Workspace, you’ll see two reports that we’ve produced using Power BI Desktop. There are no Dashboards in this workspace, but we can make one with the two reports and set it up as needed.

Step 5: Before clicking the Publish App button in the top right corner, you can choose which reports you want to include in the app. You can keep the reports before publishing them in the workspace by using the built-in option.

After you’ve published the app, you may turn on any report so that users can see it.

Step 6: At this point, you can go to the Publishing option. Enter the DETAILS you want to use for the App in the first tab. Your description will inform end-users about the app’s overall background and how you can use it to evaluate various metrics. You have the option of changing the background color as well.

The CONTENT part is shown on the next tab. You may choose a landing page for your app here so that visitors can see the report when they open it. The ACCESS section is displayed on the third and final tab. Now select FINISH from the drop-down menu.

Step 7: A dialogue box will appear that properly reads The app has been made available to the entire company, and a URL will be supplied that can be shared.

You can always update the app once it has been published depending on the report editing work.

Power BI Governance: How to Avoid Unauthorized Workspaces and Gateways

In Power BI Service, there are 2 types of workspaces :-

• Classic workspaces that are linked to Microsoft 365 Groups
• New workspaces that are tailored to Power BI Service and include a slew of new capabilities.

Many organizations must restrict users’ ability to establish new workspaces in the Power BI Service due to security and compliance regulations.

Dedicated Power BI Service or Global admins can control this functionality via the Create workspaces setting in the Power BI Admin portal:

Restricting this to members of specified security groups can assist the tenant to avoid confusion and inconsistency. It’s also important to have information readily available to all users on:

a) How to seek new workspaces

b) How to be added to the proper security groups.

Unauthorized Gateways in Power BI Service

Even global administrators in Power BI Service can only see the gateways for which they have specific administration privileges.

You may change, rename, and remove any existing gateway as a Power BI Service or global administrator, add new members in both administrator and user roles, and, most critically, establish tenant-wide gateway installation policies to avoid potential disappointments.

Power BI Workspaces: Classic vs New Workspace

Parameters	New	Classic
Ease of Use	Some functions in the Power BI service are now easier to use thanks to the new Workspace. The workspace image, for example, can be set directly in the Power BI service.	You can’t do that with the classic version. One of the ways to establish an image for the workspace in the previous edition was to go to the Office site and modify the picture of the Office 365 group.
Decoupled from Office 365	The construction of an app workspace can, however, be done separately in Version 2 of the app workspace.	In the classic workspaces, when you created a workspace, you also created an Office 365 group. Those two were inseparably linked.
Assign AD groups to Workspace Roles	In the workspace, you may now assign an AD group as a role membership.	You could only make users the group’s admins one at a time.
New Roles	The new workspace version come with a new access role setting: Admin, Contributor & Member	We only had 2 jobs in old workspace: Admin & member.

Conclusion:

To conclude, Power BI Workspaces, also known as Power BI Groups, allow a logical grouping or separation of reports that customers can construct based on their requirements. Multiple reports can be stored in each workspace, and different users can access the reports. The workspace also gives users access control, allowing them to be given multiple roles within the workspace, each of which allows them to view or update datasets and dashboards according to their role.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Can you have more than one app in a Power BI workspace?
No. Per workspace, only one app can be published. Updates to reports and dashboards aren’t accessible to app viewers until the app is relaunched, however dataset changes are always visible right away.

2. How to Share Power BI Assets with an Organization?
There are three ways to share a Power BI report, dashboard, or app with everyone in an organization.
1. Make sure that everyone has access.
2. Create a web-based report.
3. Share an app to the entire company.
Grant Everyone Access

By creating an “All Users” dynamic group in Azure Active Directory, an individual report or dashboard can be shared with everyone in a company.
Create a web-based report.
A report can be published to the web, which means it will be published to an Azure public location outside of the present workspace. To do so, go to the report and pick Share->Embed Report->Publish to Web from the Share menu (public).
Share an App with Your Entire Company
Apps feature built-in functionality that allows them to be shared throughout a whole company. Follow these steps to achieve this:
Go to the Workspace tab (cannot be done with My Workspace).
– To update the app, click the Update App icon.
– Select Permissions from the drop-down menu.
– Select the entire company.

3. How do I manage workspace in Power BI?
Select the arrow next to Workspaces in the Power BI service > More options (…) next to your workspace name > Edit this workspace. If you’re a workspace admin, you’ll only see Edit this workspace. You can rename the workspace here, as well as add or remove members and delete it.