Power BI Weekly
Issue #202 - 11th April 2023
This week we've been given the official announcement of the topic I've been banging on about for the last couple of weeks, and that's the public preview of the Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL). Currently the only way to utilize this new format is through the TOM API, but in the future it will be baked directly into Microsoft products. Another huge announcement this week is the general availability for composite models on Power BI Datasets and Analysis Services models - a feature that came into preview in December 2020, if you can believe it! As promised by Jeroen, this includes some improvements that were guaranteed for the GA of this feature, such as the ability to utilize the feature without having to have the Build permission / Contributor role. As ever, well done to the Power BI team for their hard work over the last 2.5 years. The final announcement this week is the new Deployment Pipelines feature: View item’s code changes before deploying it, which will show a diff view of your report's changes to maintain confidence in the updates you're making.
Elsewhere this week, my colleague Barry has shared a recording of his SQLBits 2023 lightning talk about Creating a high performance Data Team: lessons learned from the field, and Kurt Buhler is back with another great blog describing How to manage “Reporting Objects” in a Power BI Dataset.
🛠️ Data Prep
- Alex Powers (@notaboutthecell) writes about 5 Tips for Learning Data Types in Power Query Formula Language
- Rick de Groot (@Rickmaurinus) talks about Lookup Values in the Same Table with Power Query M
- Reid Havens (@HavensBI) describes Where to Find Data for your Power BI Practice? (with Roland Szirmai)
- Brian Julius (@_EnterpriseDNA) describes How To Capture and Clean On-Screen Data To Use In Power BI
- Patrick Leblanc and Pat Mahoney (@GuyInACube) describe how to Setup a Reverse Hybrid Table without using Tabular Editor for Power BI
- Allison Kennedy (@ExcelAllison) writes about Power BI DimTime table
- On the Excel Basement YouTube channel, Rahim Zulfiqar Ali (@rahimzulfiqar) describes how to Import / Migrate Excel workbooks [DATA MODEL, SCHEMA, EXPLICIT MEASURES (DAX)] into Power BI Desktop
🧩 Data Modeling
- On the Power BI blog, Rui Romano (@RuiRomano) announces the Announcing public preview of the Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL)
- Also on the Power BI blog, Jeroen ter Heerdt (@jeroenterheerdt) shares Announcing general availability for composite models on Power BI Datasets and Analysis Services models
- On the SQLBI blog, Marco Russo (@marcorus) covers Optimizing SWITCH on slicer selection with Group By Columns
- ,, Alberto Ferrari (@FerrariAlberto) describes Displaying only child values in parent-child – Unplugged #46
- On the MSSQLTips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) writes about What is a Snowflake Schema and how to use in Power BI
- Brian Julius (@_EnterpriseDNA) describes How To Tune Up Your Power BI Data Model With The Best Practice Analyzer
- Reid Havens (@HavensBI) covers Hiding Measures from [DAX] Intellisense and describes Hiding Measures with Tabular Editor
- Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) writes about Understanding The “A Measure Is Used In Cross Highlighting” Error In Power BI
- Sam McKay (@_EnterpriseDNA) explains How To Use Variables In DAX Formula With Power BI [2023 Update] and talks about Calculating Averages Per Weekdays or Weekends Using DAX In Power BI [2023 Update]
📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity
- Kurt Buhler (@kurtbuhler) describes How to manage “Reporting Objects” in a Power BI Dataset
- Brian Julius (@_EnterpriseDNA) describes How To Fix Spaghetti Line Charts In Power BI
- Dhruvin Shah (@DhruvinShah16) describes how to Effortlessly Embed Your Live Power BI Report in PowerPoint
- On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science explains How to add Power BI interactive visuals in PowerPoint Presentation and describes Custom visual in Power BI
- Gaelim Holland (@_EnterpriseDNA) describes How To Create A Word Cloud Of Any Shape In Power BI Using Python
- Kim Leblanc covers Power BI: Appliquer tous les segments avec un bouton [French]
- Miguel Félix covers Algo diferente no Power BI [Portuguese]
- On the Towards Data Science blog, Thomas A Dorfer (@ThomasADorfer) describes Advanced Time-Series Anomaly Detection with Deep Learning in PowerBI
- On the Excel Basement YouTube channel, Rahim Zulfiqar Ali (@rahimzulfiqar) talks about Insert Star Rating Visual Look into Microsoft Power BI via REPT & Emoji, describes Conditional Formatting based on String Fields in Microsoft Power BI, blogs about Field Parameters in Power BI | Changing Columns & Measures in Visuals Easily with Field Parameters and describes Field Parameters in Microsoft Power BI - Dynamic Axis & Measures
- Bas Dohmen (@HowToPowerBI) blogs about Totals Option for Fields Parameters in Power BI
🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations
- On the Power BI blog, Lee Benjamin writes Now on Deployment Pipelines: View item’s code changes before deploying it
- On the RADACAD blog, Reza Rad (@Rad_Reza) describes Data-Level Security in Power BI and writes about Deployment Pipelines in Power BI: How the Software Development Lifecycle Works?
- Gilbert Quevauvilliers (@GilbertQue) delves into Power BI Gateway – How to allow multiple users to use the same data source for their dataset
- Adam Saxton (@GuyInACube) discusses Where are the Power BI Gateway logs? I thought I knew...
- Lars Schreiber (@SchreiberLars) covers So reparierst Du eine gescheiterte geplante Aktualisierung Deines Power BI Datasets [German]
🌐 General
- On the Excel Basement YouTube channel, Rahim Zulfiqar Ali (@rahimzulfiqar) shares Free Practice Assessment MCQs for Exam PL-300 Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Certification