Answers to common questions about ArcGIS for Power BI are provided.
Account
- What's included in ArcGIS for Power BI?
- Why does the documentation state that when accessing Power BI Report Server with the ArcGIS for Power BI visualization, it consumes credits if my ArcGIS account is through ArcGIS Enterprise?
- Is there a technical reason that Report Server only supports ArcGIS Enterprise?
- Will Report Server become available for ArcGIS Online?
Content
- I have shapefiles, GeoJSON files, and other geometries that I want to use in my maps from my Microsoft Power BI reports. How do I do this?
- I see that Esri provides demographic data to enrich my Power BI data. What demographic information is available? Is it free?
- When geocoding, is there a limit to the number of points that can be sent? If so, what is the limit? Is there a limit per day?
- I received an error when I tried to add a map, data, or a layer to my ArcGIS for Power BI map. Why?
- I see that your help says that the maximum number of records I can select is 250. Why is that?
Security
- I received a warning message when I tried to use ArcGIS for Power BI and my IT department is concerned. What is this about?
- What data is sent between Power BI and ArcGIS? Is this data stored by Esri?
- Does Esri offer a service in which this data is not collected for internal use or shared with any partners?
- Is my address list, data files, or search history ever shared for marketing purposes with any Esri partner?
Account
The following table lists what you can do with the guest user and ArcGIS account types:
| Guest user | ArcGIS account |
|---|---|
Add ArcGIS maps to your data. This is included with Microsoft Power BI; there is no additional cost. | Access private ArcGIS content from ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise with your organizational subscription. |
Add United States demographic reference layers. | Add reference layers from ArcGIS and ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. |
Access publicly shared maps. | Access verified, ready-to-use data curated from authoritative sources along with private content from your ArcGIS organization. |
Map and view locations. | Map and view up to 10,000 additional locations per map. |
Perform spatial analysis, such as finding similar locations, creating a ring buffer or drive time analysis, and so on. | Perform spatial analysis, such as finding similar locations; creating a Buffer/Drive time analysis that includes walking, trucking, rural driving time; and so on. |
Create map visualizations using four basic basemaps. | Access all Esri basemaps along with your organization's basemaps and custom basemaps. |
For more information, see the ArcGIS for Power BI section in the Accounts topic.
Why does the documentation state that when accessing Power BI Report Server with the ArcGIS for Power BI visualization, it consumes credits if my ArcGIS account is through ArcGIS Enterprise?
ArcGIS for Power BI through Power BI Desktop or Power BI Online configurations makes use of a service proxy to process ArcGIS geocoding and GeoEnrichment service requests. This does not charge you credits. However, when support was added for Power BI Report Server, it was discovered that the service proxy configuration would not work, as the proxy organization applies strict Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policies.
Credits are only consumed if ArcGIS Enterprise is proxied to an ArcGIS Online organization. Using locally installed, custom locators installed in ArcGIS Enterprise to access these services does not consume credits.
Essentially its a security reason. Service proxy requests are made from recognized URLs like https://app.powerbi.com or https//pbi.microsoft.com. When you add data to the component, your ArcGIS organization recognizes that the request is from an approved source and will geocode and enrich the data.
However, when the request comes from the Power BI Report Server, those same known URLs either are not supplied or do not exist. Because Power BI Report Server can be configured internally, the originating URL may be any configuration, such as http://unknown-org.com. There is no way for the service proxy to capture all potential URLs, and Report Server does not tunnel through the service proxy. See System settings and locators for more information.
At this time, all requests and configurations must come through an ArcGIS Enterprise instance that uses its own locators to access geocoding, GeoEnrichment, and networking services so that the component does not make use of the service proxy. If any ArcGIS Enterprise services are funneled through to ArcGIS Online, credits will be consumed.
Content
I have shapefiles, GeoJSON files, and other geometries that I want to use in my maps from my Microsoft Power BI reports. How do I do this?
ArcGIS for Power BI can import custom geometries from ArcGIS as reference layers. Reference layers can include points, lines, or polygons and can be used for visualization or as a selection tool to highlight and filter other visuals.
To use your files as reference layers, your user type and role settings must have appropriate permissions to create and share content from your ArcGIS account to ArcGIS Online. After you save your geometries to your ArcGIS organization as a feature layer, they are available in ArcGIS for Power BI.
Learn more about the following:
- Upload shapefiles to your organization.
- Add a custom reference layer to ArcGIS for Power BI.
I see that Esri provides demographic data to enrich my Power BI data. What demographic information is available? Is it free?
Esri provides a subset of United States demographics that can be used in reference layers and information cards at no charge.
When you sign in to your ArcGIS account, you can access demographic data from across the globe. Paid subscribers also have access to ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, a browsable, ever-growing collection of layers from around the world that you can use in your maps.
When geocoding, is there a limit to the number of points that can be sent? If so, what is the limit? Is there a limit per day?
Yes. Geocoding limits are applied on a per-map basis. For guest users, there is also a monthly cap.
| Guest user | ArcGIS account |
|---|---|
3,500 locations per map | 10,000 locations per map |
10,000 locations per month | No monthly limit |
See Accounts for more information about using ArcGIS for Power BI with a guest user account or an ArcGIS account.
If you can't add content to ArcGIS for Power BI, it may be due to the following:
- The data you are trying to add does not contain location information (it can't be mapped). See Data preparation to determine whether there is a way to adjust the data.
- You don't have adequate permission to add that content—for example, if your ArcGIS account, user type, role, or organization settings do not allow you to add the type of data you attempted to add, or the content is private and not shareable. Contact your system administrator about your permission settings to confirm your user type and role settings are adequate for what you're attempting to do.
System performance can be significantly impacted when you select more than 250 features on the map. If you select 400 points on the map, for example, there is a higher chance that those data points will not be selected in the corresponding Power BI visualizations. Additionally, services such as Information cards and Buffer/Drive time analysis frequently time out before they can render. Read the Microsoft Large datasets, data point limits, and data strategies article to learn more about data limitations in Microsoft Power BI.
Security
I received a warning message when I tried to use ArcGIS for Power BI and my IT department is concerned. What is this about?
ArcGIS for Power BI is a third-party visual—meaning that Microsoft didn't build it. You must be aware that you are using a map visual that was built by Esri and that, depending on the functionality used, location data may be sent to Esri for geoprocessing.
The ArcGIS for Power BI visual was designed to protect user privacy. Esri does not store user data from ArcGIS for Power BI and only the information necessary for geoprocessing is sent, not your entire dataset. See Security and compliance for additional information.
Only the data needed to geocode an address (that is, the data placed in the Location field well) is passed to Esri servers. This data is only used to generate location information for the map and is not stored by Esri servers. For more information, see Data transfers to Esri.
Does Esri offer a service in which this data is not collected for internal use or shared with any partners?
Esri does not store this data and it is not shared. You can also use the Latitude and Longitude field wells to map point data instead of using the Location field well. When using latitude and longitude locations, no data is passed to Esri for geocoding, but you will need to convert all location data to precise latitude and longitude coordinates before you add it to the map.