We are using the PowerBI API to deploy reports to the PowerBI Service (not embedded). Currently we have written a command line tool that takes a few parameters and performs the import. However, we are not able to use this on our build server or as a service because it requires interactive authentication. We have tried registering and using both native and web apps in the developer portal, but both approaches require and integrated login (pop up) somewhere up the chain. Ideally I would like to run the command line tool with an API Key and Secret, not associated with any user and perform the operations required.
There appear to be a couple of work arounds:
- Write a wrapper service (this requires extra infrastructure, hosting, maintenanc etc) - not ideal.
- Use a user account, log in once interactively and accept the grants and then revert to usernamer and password authentication - like a service account - this seems to be the most appealing.
In short, I'd just like to know if I am missing a trick in setting up headless authentication for the API with an API Key and Secret, is it at all possible? (I always end up with a 403 Forbidden using the web app keys generated on the developer portal).