The sharing Power BI Content expanded further on 08 Mar 2018, where by you can now share content with email addresses such as Outlook.com or Gmail.com

In this blog post I will walk through how this is done.

I will demonstrate what it looks like for the user who receives the email, and ensure that they can log in and see the report that is shared with them.

Ensure that you have got External Sharing Enabled

The first step is to ensure that External Sharing is enabled on my Power BI Tenant

NOTE: You will have to be a Power BI Admin or an Office 365 Admin to see the settings below.

  • I ensured I was logged into the Power BI Service.
  • I then clicked on Settings and then Admin portal
  • I then clicked on Tenant settings, I then expanded the section called Share content with external users
  • As shown above it was enabled.
  • NOTE: I can modify this so only specific security groups will have the capability to Share to External Users.

Sharing a report with external email address

  • I am going to demonstrate how to easily it is to share with an external email address.
  • I went to my App Workspace.
  • I then clicked on Publish App and put in the required details.
  • On the section called Access, this is where I put in the external email address.
  • I then clicked on Finish
  • NOTE: You can also share via a Dashboard or Report, and if you do this is what the Sharing experience will look like below.
  • But I would suggest using the App Sharing mechanism as a best practise.
    • NOTE: I would suggest sharing using an App
    • This brought up the Share report dialog, where I put in the external user’s email address
    • As you can see above, it is going to a Hotmail.com email address.
      • It also highlights that this is being sent to an email address outside my organization.
      • Great to see it there, and should hopefully make people aware who are able to share externally that they are indeed sharing externally.
    • I then clicked on Share
    • I got a pop up showing that it was indeed shared successfully.

What happens with the recipient receives the email

  • I next open the recipient email and I see the following
  • I then click on the link within the email.
  • This then opens the link and I am presented with a dialog letting me know that I have been invited to access app.powerbi.com
  • I then click on Next
  • Because I am using an @Hotmail email address it prompts me to enter a password and click Sign In
  • I then get to Power BI, where I am prompted with the following screen asking for a Power BI Pro Account
    • NOTE: This is as per the standard licensing, where if you share or are the recipient of a Shared Dashboard, Report or App, you will be required to have a Power BI Pro License, of if possible have a Power BI Pro Trial license.
  • I clicked on Try Pro for free for this example
    • I received a second screen letting me know more details.
    • I clicked on Start trial.
    • I got another window notifying me that it was successful.
    • I clicked Close
  • I could now see the report

Conclusion

This was a quick blog post to walk through all the steps when sharing a Dashboard, report or app with an external user to an Outlook.com or Gmail.com email address

If you have any comments or suggestions please leave them in the comments below.