10.3 Dashboards and Advanced Distribution

Quick Answer: Dashboards are single-page canvases in the service that pin tiles from many reports, Q&A, Excel, and streaming sources. Clicking a tile navigates to its source report with filter context. Dashboard-only features include data alerts, the integrated Q&A box, and Feature on Home. Distribute content through apps (broad), sharing (targeted), subscriptions (automated), and embed (external) — and use Publish to web only for genuinely public data because it needs no authentication.

Dashboard design

Good dashboards monitor a few key metrics at a glance: lead with KPI tiles at the top, keep roughly 5-10 tiles, align tile sizing, add text tiles as section headers, and set custom tile links so a tile can jump to a specific detail report or URL.

Tile types

Dashboard-only features

• Data alerts on card/gauge/KPI tiles (threshold notifications) — not available on reports.
• Q&A box at the top: type a question, get a visual, and pin it as a new tile.
• Feature on Home (More options -> Feature on Home): sets the default landing dashboard for the workspace.

Tile click behavior

Clicking a tile that was pinned from a report navigates to the source report page with the relevant filter context, so consumers move from glance-level monitoring into full interactivity. (A tile with a custom link instead jumps to the URL/report you configured.)

Advanced distribution

SharePoint Online: Report -> Embed -> SharePoint Online, copy the URL, and add the Power BI web part to a page (viewers still need Power BI access and a license/Premium capacity). Microsoft Teams: add a Power BI tab to a channel and pick the report. Power BI REST API: automate refreshes, exports, permissioning, and CI/CD-style deployments.

Publish to web (public)

Report -> Embed report -> Publish to web (public) generates a public embed code and URL.

Warning: Publish to web is public and unauthenticated — anyone with the link can view and even reshare the data, and it can be indexed by search engines. Never use it for sensitive, confidential, or internal data; RLS is not enforced. A tenant admin must enable the feature, and it is blocked for content with sensitivity labels that prohibit it.

Dashboard vs. report: the full comparison

The single most-tested idea in this section is the dashboard/report distinction, so internalize the whole table:

The mental shortcut: a dashboard is a single-page monitoring wall that aggregates pinned tiles from across reports; a report is a multi-page interactive analysis bound to one model. Alerts and Feature-on-Home are dashboard-only; slicers, drillthrough, and bookmarks are report-only.

Distribution method decision guide

When a scenario asks "how should this be delivered," match audience to method:

Publish to web: the security rule the exam hammers

Publish to web is the one feature where a wrong choice is a security incident. It produces a public, unauthenticated URL and embed code; anyone with the link sees the data, it can be indexed by search engines, RLS is not enforced, and consumers can reshare freely. It must be enabled by a tenant admin, is blocked for content carrying sensitivity labels that prohibit it, and should be used only for data intended for the general public. Any scenario involving internal, confidential, or PII data and "embed for external/anonymous viewers" must use secure embedding, not Publish to web.

On the exam

Expect: identify a dashboard-only capability (data alerts, Feature on Home) versus report features (slicers, drillthrough, bookmarks); predict tile-click behavior (navigate to source report with filter context); choose the distribution method that fits the audience; flag Publish to web as public/unauthenticated, RLS-not-enforced, and unsuitable for sensitive data; and recall the 8 (Pro) / 48 (Premium) scheduled-refresh limits that often appear alongside distribution questions.