Since last year, Microsoft made a habit of featuring template apps coupled with its Power BI Desktop monthly releases. YouTube Analytics and Agile CRM Analytics for Dynamics 365 are just two of the apps that have been granted the spotlight in recent months.
Today, the tech giant has announced a new capability for template apps, allowing template app publishers to automate the process of template app installation configuration for their customers. Configuring parameters is considered a tedious process by many users, which means that they often end up quitting the installation of template apps without connecting them to their data.
Now, however, automated configurations can be created with ease through the following steps:
- Create an Azure application for authenticating to Power BI API’s.
- Integrate your service/app with Power BI automation API’s to pass the necessary parameters in the template app installation link (See the following Azure function sample to get you started)
- Redirect users to their Power BI account where they’ll install the preconfigured template app.
Essentially, with the addition of this capability, the process of manual parameter configuration from the user end - termed a frequent "source of frustration" for customers - can be completely removed. With working samples available for use already, Microsoft has noted that the preconfiguring template apps should be quite straightforward to implement.