Sending a Power BI Table Embedded in an Email via Power Automate

In order to send a Power BI table embedded directly in the body of an email using Power Automate, you can follow these structured steps:

1. Prerequisites

• Power Automate Access: Ensure you have access to Power Automate and appropriate permissions.
• Power BI Report: Have an existing Power BI report containing the desired table.
• Email Permissions: Ensure your email service (e.g., Outlook) is set up within Power Automate.

2. Create Power Automate Flow

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Trigger

1. Open Power Automate: Go to the Power Automate website.
2. Create a New Flow: Choose the appropriate trigger for your flow, such as "Recurrence" for a scheduled email or "When an HTTP request is received" for trigger-based flows.

Step 2: Add Action to Retrieve Data

1. Add Action: Use the "Power BI" connector.
2. Choose an Action: Select "Run a query against a dataset" if your data is structured or if you can directly embed a table.

Step 3: Construct HTML Table

1. Add Data Operations: After retrieving the data, use the "Create HTML table" action.
   • Configure the action by setting the "From" field to the output of your previous action (the Power BI data).
   • This will create an HTML representation of your data.

Step 4: Send Email

1. Add Email Action: Use the "Send an email (V2)" action (for Outlook or appropriate email client).
2. Compose Email:
   • In the "Body" field, embed the HTML table created in the previous step.
   • You may need to use the expression editor to extract the HTML content.

Example of Email Composition:

• To: Specify recipient email addresses.
• Subject: Craft your email subject.
• Body: For the body:

Hello Team,

Here is the Power BI table data:



Best regards,
Your Name

Step 5: Test and Publish

1. Test the Flow: Ensure to test the flow with sample data to verify that everything works as intended.
2. Save and Publish: Once confirmed, save the flow and set it to run based on your defined trigger.

3. Detailed Explanation

• HTML Table Creation: The "Create HTML Table" action transforms your data into a format that can be interpreted by email clients for display as a table.
• Embedding HTML: Most modern email clients will render HTML, allowing the embedded table to appear as a structured table within the email body rather than as an attachment.

4. Considerations

• Email Client Compatibility: Ensure that the recipients' email clients support HTML emails.
• Data Size: Be cautious with the amount of data being sent; large tables may get truncated or distorted in email clients.
• Automation Limits: Understand Power Automate’s limits concerning connectors and actions in a single flow to avoid unexpected failures.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you should successfully be able to send a Power BI table embedded in an email using Power Automate. This method enhances communication by providing direct access to critical table data without requiring attachments.

For further learning, consider exploring detailed courses on the Enterprise DNA Platform that focus on advanced Power Automate techniques.