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Why API Integration?

The Power BI API integration enables direct publishing of semantic models from Honeydew to the Power BI Service without requiring manual downloads. This approach provides several key benefits:
  • Streamlined workflow: Publish models directly from Honeydew without downloading .pbit or .pbix files first
  • Accessibility: Users without Power BI Desktop can still publish models to Power BI Service
  • Automation: Enables automated publishing workflows and CI/CD integration

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API Integration

Honeydew integrates with the Power BI API through a service principal authentication, using a Microsoft Entra ID App.
You will need your Cloud Application Administrator or Application Administrator to complete these steps — you may not have access yourself. This will be required if the creation of registered applications is not enabled for the entire organization.
1

Create an Entra ID App

You will need your Cloud Application Administrator or Application Administrator to complete these steps — you may not have access yourself. This will be required if the creation of registered applications is not enabled for the entire organization.
  1. Open the Azure Portal
  2. In the search bar, search for App registrations. Open it and start a new registration by clicking New registration
  3. On the Register an application page, enter the following details:
    • Name: Honeydew Power BI Integration
    • Supported account types: Accounts in this organizational directory only (Single tenant)
    • Redirect URI: Leave blank
  4. Click Register
  5. On the homepage of your newly created application, from the Overview screen, copy the values for the following fields and store them in a secure location:
    • Application (client) ID
    • Directory (tenant) ID
  6. From the left menu of your newly created application page, open Manage > Certificates & secrets
  7. Click New client secret
  8. In the Add a client secret dialog, enter the following details:
    • Description: Honeydew Power BI Integration
    • Expires: Choose an appropriate expiry date
  9. Click Add
  10. Copy the value of the newly created client secret and store it in a secure location
2

Create a security group in Microsoft Entra ID

You will need your Cloud Application Administrator or Application Administrator to complete these steps — you may not have access yourself.
  1. Open the Azure Portal
  2. In the search bar, search for Microsoft Entra ID and select it from the drop-down list
  3. In the left menu, expand the Manage section, and click Groups
  4. At the top of the page, click New group and enter the following details:
    • Group type: Security
    • Group name: Honeydew Power BI Integration
    • Membership type: Assigned
    • Under Members, click No members selected, in the Add members dialog that opens up search for the application you created in the previous step (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration) and click Select to add it.
  5. Click Create to create the group
3

Assign security group and role in Microsoft Power BI workspace

You will need to be at least a member of the Microsoft Power BI workspace to which you want to add the security group to complete these steps — you may not have access yourself. Ensure that you add the security group from the homepage and not the admin portal.
  1. Open the Microsoft Power BI Service Homepage
  2. Click on Workspaces in the left menu bar
  3. Click on the workspace you want to add Honeydew access to (repeat these steps for each workspace)
  4. In the top bar, on the right, click Manage Access
  5. Click Add people or groups and search for the security group you created in the previous step (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration)
  6. In the role drop-down, choose Member as the role
  7. Click Add to add the group
4

Enable extra admin API settings in Microsoft Power BI

You will need your Power BI Administrator to complete these tasks — you may not have access yourself.
To enable the Microsoft Power BI admin API:
  1. Log in to the Power BI Admin Portal
  2. In the left menu under Admin Portal, click Tenant settings
  3. Under the Developer settings heading, click to expand Service principals can use Fabric APIs and ensure it is Enabled
    • Under Specific security groups (Recommended), add the security group created above (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration)
    • At the bottom of the expanded section, click the Apply button
  4. Under the Admin API settings heading, configure the following:
    • Click to expand the Service principals can access read-only admin APIs expandable and ensure it is Enabled
      • Under Specific security groups, add the security group created above (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration)
      • At the bottom of the expanded section, click the Apply button
    • Click to expand the Enhance admin APIs responses with detailed metadata expandable and ensure it is Enabled
      • Under Specific security groups, add the security group created above (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration)
      • At the bottom of the expanded section, click the Apply button
    • Click to expand the Enhance admin APIs responses with DAX and mashup expressions expandable and ensure it is Enabled
      • Under Specific security groups, add the security group created above (e.g. Honeydew Power BI Integration)
      • At the bottom of the expanded section, click the Apply button
5

Provide access to Honeydew connection in Power BI

You must have at least User with resharing permissions in Power BI for the Honeydew connection to complete these steps.
  1. Open the Microsoft Power BI Service Homepage
  2. In upper right corner click the gear icon for Settings and then click on Manage connections and gateways
  3. In the Connections tab, identify the connection used for Honeydew (note that it should have a Gateway cluster name configured).
  4. Click on the three dots next to the right of the connection name, and then click Manage users in the popup menu.
  5. In the Manage users dialog, search for the security group created above. Provide the group with the User permission and click Share.
6

Configure Honeydew

Only users with the Admin role in Honeydew can complete these steps.
  1. In Honeydew, go to the Settings page
  2. Click on Power BI in the left menu
  3. Fill in the following fields:
    • Application ID: The Application (client) ID from the Entra ID App you created
    • Tenant ID: The Directory (tenant) ID from the Entra ID App you created
    • Client Secret: The client secret from the Entra ID App you created
  4. Click Save
7

Test the integration

  1. In Honeydew, click on the branch, and in the menu click on Branch Integrations -> Power BI -> Publish to Semantic Model
  2. In the dialog that opens up, select the domain to publish, the Power BI workspace to publish to, and provide a name for the Semantic Model (or choose an existing one to override).
  3. Click Publish to publish the semantic model to Power BI.
  4. Once the publishing is completed, click on the link in the notification to open up the semantic model in Power BI.
  5. In Power BI Service, create a new report using the published semantic model as the data source, and validate that you are able to build reports successfully.