PowerBI Custom Visual - pbiviz - "Can't contact visual server"

Question

I have started developing Power BI Custom Visualizations provided by Microsoft at the following link. develop-power-bi-visuals

However, I came across an issue when trying to debug the custom visualization using the Power BI Service.

I would create the basic template visual using pbiviz.new [ProjectName]. I could package and import the basic visual into either PBI Desktop or Web.

However, when I wanted to debug in web using the Developer Visual explained in this link set-up-power-bi-service-for-developing-a-visual, I kept getting an error "Can't contact visual server" per the following screenshot.

Answer 1

got to https://localhost:8080/assets/ add click on "Proceed to localhost (unsafe)" enter image description here

Answer 2

The issue turned out to be with the browser acknowledging the development certificate that is generated for localhost using pbiviz install-cert.

If you look at browser Dev Tools, you'll probably see an error "Failed to load resource" for localhost:8080/assets/status and if you navigate to this page, you'll get a message localhost refused to connect. ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.

I learnt that there is a setting in chromium based browsers (ie. Edge and Chrome) called #Allow invalid certificates for resources loaded from localhost.

You can get to this setting by navigating to edge://flags or chrome://flags and setting to enabled.

NOTE: I'd encourage you to research the possible security risks associated with changing this setting, but it should enable you to debug your visual.