While building that application, I came across a few gotchas and limitations around its architecture. But there is also another Fabric Apps pattern that takes a quite different approach. Instead of creating an operational database, it uses the relationships, measures and business logic we already have in a Power BI semantic model.
Microsoft calls this the Data App template. In this article, I compare it with the operational pattern from my previous exercise, which I refer to as a Business App. They both run on Fabric Apps, but what happens underneath is different. Their security requirements, sharing model and licensing are different too. So, let’s go through what I tested, what caught me out, and where I think each pattern makes sense.
Read on to learn more.