Adding Power BI reports to NXT Webview?

Dan Kirk

I've been experimenting with Power BI, and through use of the Power BI Connector I can retrieve RE data and create reports in Power BI Desktop. I've successfully tested out publishing reports to the Power BI online service. Now, I'm wondering if these reports can be added into Webview directly, so that users can avoid the Power BI service altogether to gain access to custom reports or dashboards. Is this possible?

Margaret Williams

I have been wondering the same thing Dan…I would like to know from Blackbaud since they are ending their partnership with Microsoft if this will be impossible? I hope not - keeping all of our dashboards on the NXT platform would only increase the use of NXT among leadership.

Dan Snyder

Just to clarify, BB is not ending their partnership with Microsoft just pivoting to utilize some more modern tools. Yes, things like Power Automate will not be for everyone, but in terms of Power BI reports being added to NXT, that can be done. See resources for creating an add-in here.

I am fairly certain that to see these reports you would still need a Power BI license though. Maybe @Heather McLean or @Ben Lambert can share more as I have not actually taken the plunge to add a BI report as an add-in yet.

Edit: I did a bit more digging and here is something from Microsoft that you will need a license to see the add-in.

Heather McLean

@Dan Kirk - have you reviewed the documentation the Power BI Host SPA? This allows you to drop in Power BI dashboards within the RE NXT webview UI.

Dan Kirk

Dan, it does appear that each user would need a Power BI license, as it still seems to require a login to Power BI when a report is added into Webview as a tile. I'm going to test it out some more, but I'm not crazy about the idea of each user in RE being required to have an additional login and license in order to view an embedded Power BI report. Then again, the non profit prices for license are very inexpensive, and if it can be made seamless for the end user then I can see it working well.

Elaine Tucker

Dan Snyder‍ thank you for the links and the research! It's a little over my head, but it looks promising.

Dan Snyder

@Elaine Tucker It actually is pretty easy if you sit down and focus on it. I had a few minutes at the end of the day yesterday and since all the links/pages were open I took a stab at it and was able to get a link to a BI report set up on our NXT Home Page in not too long at all. And it is still there today!