Power BI Weekly
Issue #306 - 6th May 2025
A handful of announcements this week. The first is the new Fabric SQL Database Integration with Power BI Desktop, a new preview feature to connect to Fabric SQL Database via the OneLake Catalog. We've also been told about the (inevitable) deprecation of Datamarts in favour of Fabric Data Warehouse, and we've been told that the XMLA endpoint is going to switch to be read/write by default next month to reduce confusion, particularly when using external tools to integrate with your semantic models.
Elsewhere this week, Jon Stjernegaard Vöge has written a detailed article describing Migrating from Power BI Premium Capacity to Fabric Capacity (Cross Region) – What you should know (a situation I'm sure many of you find yourselves in), and Chris Webb has written about Documenting Power BI Semantic Models With Fabric Data Agents, showing a mostly impressive set of responses from the Agent.
🛠️ Data Prep
- On the Power BI blog, Priyanka Langade writes Unify Datamart with Fabric Data Warehouse!
- On the Fabric blog, Sukhwant Kaur (@MSPowerBI) announces Fabric SQL Database Integration: Unlocking New Possibilities with Power BI Desktop
- Dhruvin Shah (@DhruvinShah16) describes how to Clean Data in Power BI | Episode 03 | Beginner Series Step-by-Step Tutorial
- On the Power BI community blog, John Basha discusses Automating Daily Treasury Interest Rates in Power BI Using Power Query
- Rick de Groot (@Rickmaurinus) talks about Allocating Yearly Budgets to Months in Power Query M
🧩 Data Modeling
- On the Microsoft Fabric Café YouTube channel, Mehrdad Abdollahi presents #FabricCoffee with Greg Strzyminski - Simplify your DAX with window functions in Power BI
- On the Purple Frog Systems blog, Callum Bryant (@PurpleFrogSys) writes about BLANK() Function Not Working As Expected
- On the Power BI community blog, Ajay Babu Inturi blogs about Creating an interactive Dynamic TOPN Selection in Power BI for Real-Time and Dynamic Insights
- Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) discusses The Only Price Volume Mix Video You'll Ever Need
- Also on the Power BI community blog, Trupti Shirsat describes How to add UNICHAR icons in Power BI using measures
- Mehdi Safiri covers Time intelligence functions in Persian calendar [Persian]
- On the Data Bear blog, Boniface Muchendu (@DataBearLTD) describes Power BI Modeling and Mobile Enhancements
- Dhruvin Shah (@DhruvinShah16) talks about Relationships in Power BI | Episode 04 | One-to-Many, Many-to-Many, Cross Filtering
📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity
- On the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya describes how to Display Selected Slicer Value in a Card in Power BI
- Also on the Power BI community blog, Suparna Babu writes about Exporting Selected Columns from Power BI Table Chart with Field Parameters
- On the Data Bear blog, Boniface Muchendu (@DataBearLTD) explains How to Create Carousel Buttons in Power BI, discusses Style Presets in Power BI and describes Unlocking the Power of Dynamic Filters in Power BI
- On the Microsoft Fabric Café YouTube channel, Mehrdad Abdollahi presents Paula García Esteban - Design Systems for Power BI: Transforming Dashboard Development
- Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) writes about Quarterly KPIs on the Go: Rethinking Power BI for Mobile-First Insights
🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations
- On the Fabric blog, Kay Unkroth (@MSPowerBI) discusses Enabling broader adoption of XMLA-based tools and scenarios
- Jon Stjernegaard Vöge describes Migrating from Power BI Premium Capacity to Fabric Capacity (Cross Region) – What you should know
- Dániel Gábor Patkós describes Automating BPA with C# in Tabular Editor + GitHub Actions
- Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) blogs about Documenting Power BI Semantic Models With Fabric Data Agents
- Valerie Junk (@porcubi) describes Incremental Refresh in Power BI
- Shivanshu Bisht explains how to Migrate Power BI Semantic Model & Report to New Lakehouse in Another Workspace | Fabric Tutorial
- On the Power BI community blog, Olayemi Awofe covers Power BI Source Control (End-to-End Guide)
🌐 General
- On the SQLBI blog, Kurt Buhler (@kurtbuhler) discusses Tools in Power BI
- Reid Havens (@HavensBI) presents Learn About Power BI Consulting (with Eugene Meidinger)
- On the MSSQLTips site, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) blogs about Microsoft Fabric vs Power BI