Implementing Page-Level Security in Power BI

One of the most important aspects of designing and developing dashboards is managing user access.
Access control should be implemented at two levels:

1. Row-Level Security (RLS)
2. Page-Level Security (PLS)

In Power BI, only Row-Level Security (RLS) is natively supported. Before discussing the implementation, let’s briefly define these two security types:

• Row-Level Security (RLS): This type of security allows users with different access levels to see only the filtered data relevant to them in dashboards. For example, if a user with S1 access logs into the dashboard, they will only see data filtered for Store A1.
• Page-Level Security (PLS): This security method restricts user access to specific pages within a dashboard based on their permissions. For instance, if a dashboard contains pages P1 – P10, a user with S1 access can be restricted to viewing only P2, P3, and P9.

This article presents a custom approach to implementing Page-Level Security (PLS) in Power BI, as this feature is not directly supported by default.

Steps to Implement Page-Level Security (PLS) in Power BI:

1. Create a Dataset:
   • Define a dataset containing two columns:
     1. The user or group name
     2. The exact names of the dashboard pages that the user should have access to
2. Define Roles in Power BI:
   • Go to Manage Roles in Power BI and create roles based on the dataset from Step 1, assigning page access to each user or group accordingly.
3. Set Up a Home Page with Navigation:
   • Create a Home Page in the dashboard.
   • Add a filter visual that dynamically displays the available pages based on user access.
   • Implement an interactive button to navigate users to the selected page.
   • Hide all other pages except the Home Page.
   • Click on the Home Page and save the dashboard.
4. Upload the File to Power BI Report Server (PBIRS On-Premise):
   • Deploy the Power BI file to PBIRS On-Premise for access management.
5. Configure Row-Level Security for Page Access:
   • Go to Manage settings in PBIRS.
   • In the Row-Level Security (RLS) section, assign users to appropriate Page-Level Security (PLS) roles.
   • Once configured, users will only see the pages they have access to when they log in.

By following this approach, we can implement Page-Level Security in Power BI, allowing users to view only the relevant pages assigned to them.