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Certification

Custom visuals, like any other software, can contain malware code and steal data. To make Power BI users more secure, Microsoft set up a certification program for visuals developed by third-party vendors, such as OKVIZ.

The certification guarantees that the visual meets certain requirements like:

Not calling external services except Power BI core services
Not storing underlying data anywhere
Not using insecure code and adhering to some coding standards
Using the latest SDK API available
Be published on the Microsoft AppSource marketplace

You can review all the criteria in this article: Get your Power BI visual certified

The certification is optional; vendors do not need to apply it to their visuals for publication in AppSource.

Non-certified Power BI visuals are NOT automatically unsafe. They may not have been certified for various reasons, such as using proprietary licensing systems or allowing users to use remote resources.

Pros and Cons

Not all OKVIZ visuals are certified—or do we offer both certified and uncertified versions (see below). This is because the certification process imposes certain limitations that can restrict your control over the visuals.

Here are the main pros and cons of certified visuals compared to uncertified ones:

Certified Visuals

✅ Microsoft-Guaranteed Security
- Certified visuals code is reviewed by Microsoft to ensure it is free from malicious elements and vulnerabilities.
✅ Exporting Support
- Certified visuals can be included in email subscriptions and exported to PDF/Power Point.
✅ Sandbox Environment
- Certified visuals cannot call external services, ensuring that your data is not sent anywhere.
❌ Sandbox Environment
- This limitation can prevent the legitimate use of some features, like accessing remote resources essential for the visual’s functionality.
✅ Automatic Updates
- Updates are automatically applied to all users, ensuring that everyone is using the latest version.
❌ Automatic Updates
- There is only one global version of a certified visual for all Power BI users, which cannot be frozen or managed individually.
- The updates are applied automatically, which can lead to unexpected changes in visuals behavior or report design without prior notice.
❌ Update Latency
- The certification and deployment process takes up to 4 weeks, and it must be repeated on every visual update, so fixes can take a long time to be available to users.
- Version rollbacks (which are useful in case of regressions) are not immediate: they require 1 week to take effect.

Uncertified Visuals

NOTE: The following pros and cons consider cases where uncertified visuals are installed from the vendor’s website. Since uncertified visuals can also be published on AppSource, some of the cons—particularly those related to the update process—may not apply.

Vendor Trust
- You must rely on the custom visuals vendor’s commitment to security and reliability.
❌ Exporting Support
- Uncertified visual do not support email subscriptions or export to PDF/Power Point.
✅ No Limitations
- Uncertified visuals can access remote resources, which can be essential for some features.
✅ Faster Updates
- Custom visual vendors can roll out updates immediately upon release, bypassing the delay of Microsoft’s certification process.
✅ Version Control
- Organizations can decide when to update visuals or roll back to a previous version, offering better management of potential issues and regressions.

In summary:

Certified visuals cannot be controlled.
Automatic updates mean you relinquish the ability to freeze or manage versions as per your business needs.
Certified visuals are guaranteed by Microsoft, but licensing from a third-party vendor means you make a deal and trust that vendor to maintain and update the product.
This is a common scenario with software licenses: you trust the vendor to provide a secure and reliable product.

OKVIZ Certified Visuals

Here is a list of our visuals that are certified:

OKVIZ Uncertified Visuals

These visuals, instead, are not certified:

Note the from AppSource and from OKVIZ labels: the former indicates that the visual is certified only if downloaded from the Microsoft AppSource marketplace, while the latter indicates that the same visual is not certified if downloaded from our website.

Enabling Uncertified Visuals

Uncertified visuals may have been disabled in your organization – learn how to enable them here: Enable Custom Visuals