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Tips for authoring template apps in Power BI

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When you're authoring your template app in Power BI, part of the process is the logistics of creating the workspace, testing it, and putting it into production. But the other important part is obviously authoring the report and the dashboard. You can break down the authoring process into several components. Working on these components helps you create the best possible template app:

  • Queries. With queries, you connect and transform the data, and define parameters.
  • Data model. In the data model, you create relationships, measures, and Q&A improvements.
  • Report pages. Report pages include visuals and filters to provide insights into your data.
  • Dashboard and tiles. Dashboards and tiles offer an overview of the insights included.
  • Sample data. A sample makes your app discoverable immediately after installation.

You might be familiar with each piece as existing Power BI features. When you build a template app, there are other things to consider for each piece. This article describes theses considerations along with tips other helpful information related to authoring template apps.

Queries

For template apps, queries developed in Power BI Desktop are used to connect to your data source and import data. These queries are required to return a consistent schema and are supported for Scheduled Data refresh.

Connect to your API

To get started, you need to connect to your API from Power BI Desktop to start building your queries.

You can use the data connectors that are available in Power BI Desktop to connect to your API. You can use the Web data connector (Get data > Web) to connect to your Rest API or the OData connector (Get data > OData feed) to connect to your OData feed.

Note

Currently, template apps do not support custom connectors. We recommend exploring using Odatafeed Auth 2.0 as a mitigation for some of the connection use-cases or to submit your connector for certification. For details on how to develop a connector and certify it, see Data Connectors.

Consider the source

The queries define the data that's included in the data model. Depending on the size of your system, these queries should also include filters to ensure your customers are dealing with a manageable size that fits your business scenario.

Power BI template apps can run multiple queries in parallel and for multiple users concurrently. Plan your throttling and concurrency strategy and ask us how to make your template app fault tolerant.

Schema enforcement

Ensure your queries are resilient to changes in your system. Changes in schema can break the model during refresh. If the source could return null or a missing schema result for some queries, consider returning an empty table or a meaningful custom error message.

Parameters

Parameters in Power BI Desktop allow your users to provide input values that customize the data retrieved by the user. Think of the parameters up front to avoid rework after investing time to build detailed queries or reports.

Note

Template apps support all parameters except Any and Binary.

Additional query tips

  • Ensure that all columns are typed appropriately.
  • Assign columns informative names. For more information, see Q&A.
  • For shared logic, consider using functions or queries.
  • Privacy levels are currently not supported in the Power BI service. If you get a prompt about privacy levels, you might need to rewrite the query to use relative paths.

Data models

A well-defined data model ensures that your customers can easily and intuitively interact with the template app. Create the data model in Power BI Desktop.

Note

You should do much of the basic modeling, such as typing and column names, in the queries.

Q&A

The modeling also affects how well Q&A can provide results for your customers. Be sure to add synonyms to commonly used columns, and properly name your columns in the queries.

Additional data model tips

Make sure you've:

  • Applied formatting to all value columns. Apply types in the query.
  • Applied formatting to all measures.
  • Set default summarization. In particular, set No calculation when applicable, for unique values, for example.
  • Set a data category, when applicable.
  • Set relationships, as necessary.

Reports

The report pages offer extra insight into the data included in your template app. Use the pages of the reports to answer the key business questions your template app is trying to address. Create the report using Power BI Desktop.

Additional report tips

  • Use more than one visual per page for cross filtering.
  • Align the visuals carefully, with no overlapping.
  • Ensure that the page layout is set to 4:3 or 16:9 mode.
  • Ensure that all of the aggregations presented make numeric sense, for instance, averages or unique values.
  • Check that slicing produces rational results.
  • Include your logo on at least the top report.
  • Ensure that elements are in the client's color scheme to the extent possible.

Note

A single template app cannot include more than 20 reports.

Dashboards

The dashboard is the main point of interaction with your template app for your customers. It should include an overview of the content included, especially the important metrics for your business scenario.

To create a dashboard for your template app, just upload your PBIX through Get data > Files, or publish directly from Power BI Desktop.

Additional dashboard tips

  • Maintain the same theme when pinning so that the tiles on your dashboard are consistent.
  • Pin a logo to the theme so consumers know where the pack is from.
  • Suggested layout to work with most screen resolutions is five to six small tiles wide.
  • All dashboard tiles should have appropriate titles and subtitles.
  • Consider groupings in the dashboard for different scenarios, either vertically or horizontally.

Sample data

A template app, as part of the app creation stage, wraps the cache data in the workspace as part of the app, which has the following benefits:

  • Allows the installer to understand the functionality and purpose of the app before connecting data.
  • Creates an experience that drives the installer to further explore app capabilities, which leads to connecting the app semantic model.

We recommend having quality sample data before creating the app to ensure that the app's report and dashboards are populated with data. Try to keep sample data size as small as possible.

Publishing on AppSource

Template apps can be published on AppSource. Follow these guidelines before submitting your app to AppSource:

  • Make sure that you create a template app with engaging sample data that can help the installer understand what the app can do. Empty reports and dashboards won't be approved.
  • Template apps support sample data-only apps.
  • Have instructions for the validation team to follow that include credentials and parameters they can use to connect to the data.
  • Your application must include an app logo in Power BI and on your cloud partner portal (CPP) offer.
  • Configure the landing page.
  • Make sure to follow the documentation about the Power BI app offer.
  • If a dashboard is part of your app, make sure it's not empty.
  • Install the app using the app link before submitting it. Make sure that you can connect the semantic model and that the app experience is as you planned.
  • Before uploading a PBIX file into the template workspace, make sure to unload any unnecessary connections.
  • Follow Power BI best design practices for reports and visuals to achieve maximum impact on your users and for getting approved for distribution.

After publishing the template app on AppSource, consider creating a download link from your website to either:

  • The AppSource download page, which can be viewed by publicly. Get the link from your AppSource page.
  • Power BI, which can be viewed by a Power BI user.

In order to redirect a user to the app's download link in Power BI, see the following code example: GitHub repo.

Screenshot shows the Github Repository Usage app.

Automate parameter configuration during installation

If you're an ISV distributing your template app via your web service, you can create automation that configures template app parameters automatically when your customers install the app in their Power BI account. This approach makes things easier for your customers. It also increases the likelihood of a successful installation because they don't have to supply details that they might not know. For more information, see Automated configuration of a template app installation.

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