Topic Nine
Power BI Service
Everything you build in Desktop lives only on your machine. Power BI Service is where reports become shared, secured, and delivered to the people who need them. This topic follows the full journey — from securing data before publish to sharing it with the right people in the right way.
How the Class Flows
We follow a deliberate sequence — security first, then publish, then share. Each step reveals why the next one exists.
1
Power BI Desktop
Define Row-Level Security roles
RLS is a filter applied before the data reaches the reader —
they never see data outside their role, even if they access the same report file.
We create three roles in Desktop before publishing.
Egypt
[country] = "Egypt"
Sees Egypt data only
Lulu
[branch] = "Lulu Hyper"
Sees Lulu branch only
VIP
No filter applied
Sees all data
Image / video coming soon
2
app.powerbi.com
Explore Workspaces in the Service
Before publishing, we visit the Service to understand where content lives —
two types of workspace, with very different purposes.
My Workspace
Personal
Your private sandbox. Only you can see what's published here.
Not for sharing — use it to test and explore before
moving content to a group workspace.
Group Workspace
Team
A shared space for a team. Members can be assigned different roles —
Admin, Member, Contributor, or Viewer.
This is where shared reports live.
3
Power BI Desktop → Publish
Publish — the .pbix splits into two parts
Home tab → Publish → select your workspace.
Power BI automatically separates the file into two distinct artifacts in the Service.
Source file
Report.pbix
Your local Power BI Desktop file containing everything
Publish
Report
The pages, visuals, and layout
Semantic Model
The data, relationships, DAX, and RLS roles
4
Power BI Service
Share the report — and see what happens
We share the report with a colleague. They open it and see no data.
This is the expected result — RLS is active, but the user has not been
assigned to a role yet. The moment we assign them to the Egypt role,
they refresh and see only Egypt data. This makes the value of RLS immediately obvious.
To assign a user to an RLS role: go to the Semantic Model in the workspace
→ Security → select the role → add the user's email address.
Image / video coming soon
5
Power BI Service
Three ways to deliver content
A report in the Service can be delivered to consumers in three different ways —
each with a different level of interactivity and control.
Report
Direct link to the report in the workspace. The reader sees all pages and
can interact with filters and slicers.
Requires workspace access — not suitable for large external audiences.
App
A published collection of reports packaged for end users. Consumers access
it through the Apps section — no workspace access needed.
Best for broad distribution.
Dashboard
A curated single-page canvas of pinned tiles from one or more reports.
Service-only — cannot be built in Desktop. Used for at-a-glance monitoring
and real-time alerts.
Workspace Permissions
Group workspaces have four roles. Assign carefully — the higher the role, the more the user can change or delete.
| Role | View content | Edit reports | Publish content | Manage workspace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Viewer | Yes | No | No | No |
| Contributor | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Member | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Image / video coming soon