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Deploy BI Pixie on Power Platform

BI Pixie can be deployed on Power Platform or on Azure. We may refer to these two options as “deployment versions” and label them as the “Starter version” for Power Platform and the “Enterprise version” for Azure. But to avoid confusions, when we refer to the Enterprise version in the context of deployment, the term “Enterprise” is not related to the Enterprise pricing tier. You can deploy BI Pixie on Azure in any pricing tier of BI Pixie (Starting in February 2025, we now refer to the two deployments as “Starter Deployment” and “Azure Deployment”).

In this article, you will learn how to deploy BI Pixie on Power Platform. But before you start, you should note that using the Power Platform deployment can only support features in the Standard and Professional tiers.

Diagram of the two BI Pixie deployment options. The Starter version on Power Platform uses Power Automate, Dataverse and the BI Pixie Starter Power BI app. The Enterprise version on Azure uses Function Apps, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and the BI Pixie Enterprise Power BI app. BI Pixie Automation serves both.

Importing the BI Pixie Power Platform solution file into your Power Platform environment will allow you to set up a serverless web service that collects events from your BI audience and stores them in a Dataverse table. It is the first step in the deployment since the other components of BI Pixie rely on it.

Before you start, get the BI Pixie Power Platform solution from Microsoft AppSource:

To import the solution file, you will need to have a Power Platform environment with permissions to import solutions and a Microsoft license to use the Dataverse connector. Read more about Power Platform plans and licenses here or consult with your Power Platform admin.

If you expect high usage in the Power BI reports you wish to track, it is recommended to select an environment that will not exceed Power Automate request limits and the Dataverse maximal storage size (Learn here about Power Platform request limits). If you have high-volume usage, you can deploy BI Pixie using the Enterprise version.

How to install the solution

Follow this section with the permissions to install solutions in your Power Platform environment.

  1. Go to BI Pixie Starter Deployment on Microsoft AppSource and select Free Trial.
  2. Sign in to your Microsoft account, and in the Confirm your details to continue, select Free trial.
  3. You will be redirected to Power Platform admin center and will need to login again.
  4. The Install BI Pixie Starter Deployment will appear on the right pane.
    • In Select an environment drop-down, select the environment where you want to install BI Pixie.
    • Read the legal terms and privacy statements and check the two “I agree” checkboxes.
    • Select Install.
The Install BI Pixie Starter Deployment pane in the Power Platform admin center. Numbered markers show the Select an environment drop-down as step 1, the two I agree checkboxes as step 2 and the Install button as step 3.
  1. The installation of BI Pixie will start, as shown in this screenshot and it can take about 5 minutes to complete.
The Dynamics 365 apps list in the Power Platform admin center, with a banner saying the BI Pixie Starter Deployment installation has started and the BI Pixie Starter Deployment row showing the status Installing.
  1. When the installation is complete, go to Power Apps portal here, select the environment where you installed BI Pixie.
The Power Apps portal with the Environment selector in the header marked as step 1 and the Select environment pane open, where the environment to choose is marked as step 2.

In the next steps, you to setup the connection of the solution to Dataverse.

  1. In the left pane, select Solutions. In the Unmanaged table, select Default Solution.
The Solutions page in Power Apps with the Unmanaged filter selected and Default Solution highlighted in the list of solutions.
  1. In the Objects pane of Default Solution, enter Connection in the search box, and select Connection references.
The Objects pane of Default Solution in Power Apps. The word Connection is entered in the search box as step 1, and Connection references is highlighted in the results as step 2.
  1. In the Connection references table, scroll down and select Microsoft Dataverse BI Pixie Connection (Don’t use the search control, it will not find this item).
  2. In the Edit pane on the right, click the Connection drop-down, and select one of the existing Dataverse connections if you already have one, and click Save. Go to Step 13. If you don’t have existing connections in the drop-down, or choose to create a new one, click the + New connection below the Connections drop-down.
The Connection references table in Power Apps with Microsoft Dataverse BI Pixie Connection selected. In the Edit pane on the right, the Connection drop-down is open and the New connection option is highlighted.
  1. Follow this step if you clicked the + New connection in the previous step. In the new tab in your browser with the New connection page. Use the search control at the top right corner to search for dataverse connections. Click the green Microsoft Dataverse item. In the Microsoft Dataverse popup page, select Create and log in using your Microsoft account. You will now see the Microsoft Dataverse connection with your email address. Go back to the previous browser tab.
The New connection page in Power Apps. The word dataverse is entered in the search box as step 1, and the green Microsoft Dataverse connector is highlighted as step 2.
  1. Follow this step if you clicked the + New connection in step 10. Go back to the tab you opened in step 10, and click the Refresh button next to Connection. Now in Connection the drop-down, you will see your email address as the connection that you have created previously.
The Edit pane for the Microsoft Dataverse BI Pixie Connection in Power Apps. The Refresh button is step 1, the newly created connection in the Connection drop-down is step 2 and the Save button is step 3.
  1. Click Save changes in the prompt.
A Power Apps prompt asking to save changes to this connection reference, warning that the change affects every app and flow that depends on it. The Save changes button is highlighted.

After you deploy the solution, you can find the following components when you open BI Pixie solution in the Solutions page under Managed or All.

  • BI Pixie Web Trigger: A Power Automate cloud flow that intercepts the usage and engagement events from your Power BI instrumented reports.
  • BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory: A Power Automate cloud flow that intercepts the inventory updates from BI Pixie automation including the list of instrumented reports with stats about their pages and visuals.
  • BI Pixie Events: A Dataverse table that is used to store all the intercepted events.
  • BI Pixie Inventory: A Dataverse table that is used to store all the inventory information.
  • BI Pixie Inventory Visuals: A Dataverse table that is used to store the inventory visuals for the Visual Clicks Heatmap.

Post-installation verification

To verify that the installation of the solution was successful, go to Power Apps, and in the environments dropdown, select the environment you used to import the solution. In the left sidebar, select Flows and confirm you see BI Pixie Web Trigger and BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory under the Cloud flows tab. You may have other cloud flows in your environment. You can use the search control and enter “BI Pixie” to find the the two cloud flows of BI Pixie.

The Flows page in Power Apps on the Cloud flows tab, listing the two installed flows, BI Pixie Web Trigger and BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory.

Select Tables on the left sidebar. Select All, and enter “BI Pixie” in the search bar. You will find the tables: BI Pixie Events, BI Pixie Inventory and BI Pixie Inventory Visuals.

The Tables page in Power Apps. Tables in the sidebar is step 1, the All filter is step 2, the search text BI Pixie is step 3, and the three tables BI Pixie Events, BI Pixie Inventory and BI Pixie Inventory Visuals are step 4.

Getting the web trigger URLs

In order to start collecting information from the pixies and analyze usage and engagement events from your Power BI reports, you will need to extract the web trigger URLs from each of the two BI Pixie Cloud Flows that you installed. These URLs are created by Microsoft during the import of the solution and are unique to you. Don’t share the URLs outside your organization.

The URLs are used by the web triggers in the cloud flows to collect the events from the pixies and the inventory information. In this section, you will learn how to extract the URLs. You will use these URLs in the configuration file of BI Pixie Automation that will described in the next article.

Go again to Power Apps, and in the environments dropdown, select the environment you used to import the solution. Select Flows in the left sidebar, and click the pencil icon of BI Pixie Web Trigger to edit the cloud flow.

The Cloud flows tab in Power Apps with the pencil Edit icon highlighted on the BI Pixie Web Trigger row, which opens the flow to retrieve its web trigger URL.

Note that BI Pixie Web Trigger is not editable.

Expand the first step “When a HTTP request is received” by clicking on it, as highlighted by bullet #1 in the screenshot below.

Click the copy icon of the HTTP GET URL as highlighted by bullet #2 in the screenshot below.

The BI Pixie Web Trigger flow in the Power Automate editor. The When a HTTP request is received step is marked as step 1, and the copy icon beside the HTTP GET URL is marked as step 2.

Paste the URL and save it; you will need it as the configuration value for pixies_flow_endpoint_url parameter of the automation’s configuration that will be explained in the next article.

Now, let’s get the URL from the second cloud flow. Select Flows in the left sidebar, and in Cloud flows tab click the pencil icon of BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory to edit it.

The Cloud flows tab in Power Apps showing the pencil Edit icon on a flow row, the same action used here to open BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory and retrieve its web trigger URL.

Expand the first step “When a HTTP request is received” as highlighted by bullet #1 in the screenshot below.

Click the copy icon of the HTTP POST URL as highlighted by bullet #2 in the screenshot below.

The BI Pixie Web Trigger Inventory flow in the Power Automate editor. The When a HTTP request is received step is marked as step 1, and the copy icon beside the HTTP POST URL is marked as step 2.

Paste the URL and save it; you will need it as the configuration value for pixies_inventory_flow_url parameter of the automation’s configuration that will be explained in the next article.

What’s Next

Instrument your Power BI reports