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Set up BI Pixie Dashboard

BI Pixie Dashboard is a Power BI app that you connect to your BI Pixie data to see how your audience uses your Power BI reports. See BI Pixie Dashboard for a walkthrough of all the available pages and insights.

You install the dashboard from the BI Pixie Portal and then connect it to your data in Power BI.

The dashboard runs inside Power BI as a separate app rather than as part of the BI Pixie Portal, so you work with it as you would with any Power BI report: you can customize visuals, add your own pages, apply filters, share it with colleagues, and schedule automatic data refreshes. The imported data in the BI Pixie semantic model stays inside your own Power BI environment, so you can build your own reports on it and use Copilot and other AI agents to ask questions about your usage data in natural language.

Step 1: Install from the Overview Page

  1. Sign in to the BI Pixie Portal and go to the Overview page.
  2. In the BI Pixie Dashboard card, select Install in Power BI. Power BI opens in a new tab.
  3. In Power BI, choose a name for the new workspace that will be created for the app. By default it is named "BI Pixie" followed by the installation date. Confirm the installation. The app opens with sample data, so you can explore the dashboard pages right away.

Step 2: Connect to Your Data

After installation, the dashboard shows sample data. To connect the dashboard to your own BI Pixie data, select the Connect your data link in the yellow banner at the top.

BI Pixie Dashboard with sample data showing the Connect your data link in the yellow banner

Before you start the wizard, open the BI Pixie Portal in another tab and copy your SAS Token:

  • If you have a member role in your BI Pixie account, open the Account page and select Copy Token on the Dashboard Data Source card.
  • If you have an admin role in your BI Pixie account, open the Licenses page, expand the license you are setting up, and select Copy Token on the inline Dashboard Data Source section.

See Dashboard Data Source for details.

The connection wizard has two steps. The order of the steps may vary depending on your Power BI environment:

Step 1 of 2: The URL parameter is pre-filled when you install from the BI Pixie Portal and points at raw.githubusercontent.com (a public BI Pixie metadata file). Set the Authentication method to Anonymous and the Privacy level to Organizational. Select Sign in and continue.

Connect to BI Pixie dialog step 1 of 2 with URL and Anonymous authentication

Step 2 of 2: The Server and Path fields are pre-filled from the URL and point at *.dfs.core.windows.net (your dedicated BI Pixie data lake). Set the Authentication method to Shared Access Signature and paste the SAS Token you copied from the BI Pixie Portal into the credential field. Set Privacy level to Organizational. Select Sign in and connect.

Connect to BI Pixie dialog step 2 of 2 with Authentication method set to Shared Access Signature (SAS) and the SAS Token field highlighted, plus the Sign in and connect button

Power BI then refreshes the semantic model with your data. The first refresh can take a few minutes, depending on how much data you have.

Step 3: Set Up Scheduled Refresh

To keep your dashboard up to date with the latest engagement data, configure a scheduled refresh in Power BI:

  1. In the Power BI workspace where you installed the app, find the BI Pixie semantic model.
  2. Select the three-dot menu, and then select Settings.
  3. Expand the Refresh section and turn on Scheduled refresh.
  4. Set the refresh frequency. A daily refresh is suitable for most teams. Note that your BI Pixie plan includes a daily refresh limit, which you can monitor under Data Refreshes on the Usage tab of the Account page. See the FAQ for more details on refresh limits and troubleshooting.
  5. Select Apply.

Note: Workspaces with a Power BI Pro license support up to 8 refreshes per day. For more frequent refreshes or large data volumes, use a Power BI Premium or Fabric capacity. See Microsoft's data refresh documentation for details.

Opening the Dashboard from the Portal

Once the dashboard is installed, BI Pixie can find it and link you to it from the portal. To let BI Pixie find it, select Grant access in the BI Pixie Dashboard card on the Overview page. Granting access lets BI Pixie find your BI Pixie Dashboard app by name, using the App.Read.All scope, and link you from the card straight to the dashboard in Power BI. BI Pixie searches only the apps you can already open, and it drops anything that is not a BI Pixie app without storing it.

After granting consent, your installed dashboard appears in the Overview card with an Open link. An Open Dashboard button also appears in the portal sidebar for quick access from any page.

If you have multiple BI Pixie Dashboard installations (for example, in different workspaces), all of them will appear in the Overview card. You can hide installations you no longer need from the action menu.

When would you want multiple installations?

  • Version management: Keep different versions side by side, especially if you customize the BI Pixie Dashboard. With two versions side by side, you can test how your custom reports connect to a new version of the semantic model before switching over.
  • Team-level customizations (Standard and Pro plans): Multiple team members can install their own instances of the dashboard with different filters and customizations. Since all members can access the shared data container, you can manage who sees what by controlling access to each workspace.
  • Dedicated licenses (Enterprise plan): When you allocate separate licenses to different team members, the first assigned member in each license should install the BI Pixie Dashboard from the Overview page. Each license has its own connection parameters in its expanded card on the Licenses page. See Dashboard Data Source. The member can then share the Power BI workspace with other members assigned to the same license.

Updating the Dashboard

When a new version of BI Pixie Dashboard is available, BI Pixie shows an Update in Power BI button in the dashboard card on the Overview page. Select Update in Power BI to start the update.

Power BI will present three options for how to apply the update:

  • Update the workspace and the app: Overwrites both the workspace content and the published app with the new version. Your data connections and authentication are preserved, and an automatic refresh starts after the update. Choose this if you have not customized the dashboard.
  • Update only workspace content without updating the app: Updates the reports, dashboards, and semantic model in the workspace, but does not republish the app. You can then review the changes and decide what to include before you update the app yourself. Choose this if you have customizations you want to merge carefully.
  • Install another copy in a new workspace: Installs a fresh version in a new workspace without changing your current installation. Choose this if you want to keep your existing dashboard as-is and test the new version side by side.

For more details, see Microsoft's template app update documentation.

If the dashboard needs to be reinstalled (for example, after deleting the workspace), select Reinstall in Power BI on the Overview page to start a fresh installation.

Customizing the Dashboard

BI Pixie Dashboard is a Power BI template app, so you can customize it to fit your needs:

  • Edit existing pages: Open the app workspace in Power BI, find the report, and edit visuals, colors, or layouts to match your organization's style.
  • Add new pages: Create additional report pages with custom visuals or KPIs specific to your team.
  • Create thin reports: Build new Power BI reports that connect live to the BI Pixie semantic model, giving you full flexibility without modifying the original dashboard.
  • Create new measures: Add DAX measures in the thin report for custom calculations.
  • Share with your team: Publish the app within your organization so stakeholders can access engagement insights without needing BI Pixie Portal access.

For more information on working with Power BI template apps, see Microsoft's template apps overview and install and distribute template apps.

Troubleshooting

Cannot install the template app: If the Install in Power BI button opens Power BI but the installation is blocked, your Power BI admin may have disabled template app installations for your tenant. Your Power BI administrator can turn on the template app settings in the Power BI admin portal.

Dashboard refresh fails with a credentials error: The SAS Token on the semantic model has expired or has been revoked. To fix the error, copy the current SAS Token from the Account page of the BI Pixie Portal and paste it into Power BI's Edit credentials dialog. For step-by-step instructions, see Dashboard Data Source.

If you need further help, you can contact support.

What's Next

  • BI Pixie Dashboard: A walkthrough of all dashboard pages and the insights they provide.
  • BI Pixie Metrics: A reference of all metrics available in the dashboard.
  • Use Heatmap: Enable visual-level click tracking and view heatmaps.
  • Dashboard Refresh: Understand refresh limits, optimize your refresh window, and scale beyond the import refresh.
  • Dashboard Data Source: How the SAS Token works, when to rotate it, and how to update the credential in Power BI.
  • AI Readiness: Score your semantic models for Copilot and data agents, and benchmark the AI of your choice against your own data: Copilot, a Fabric data agent, or a generic AI agent.