Power BI Weekly
Issue #307 - 13th May 2025
A couple of announcements this week: there have been some improvements to Fabric Copilot to help write DAX queries, which "include overall correctness of the DAX queries, deeper understanding of how to utilize DAX row and filter context, and how to use semantic model features such as inactive relationships" and also "increased stability, meaning similar user requests phrased in different ways create similar or identical DAX queries", which is brilliant news. DAX has enough complexity as it is, without you having to worry about understanding whether Copilot has spat out garbage or not. Hopefully we're inching towards DAX outputs that can largely be trusted - but always test your measures! On the Fabric side this week, we've been told about the general availability of Shortcut cache and on-prem gateway support, which is great news for those of you with hybrid/cross cloud data connections. And great news for your bill-payers too. Aside from announcements this week, lbendlin (sadly I can't figure out their name) has described a Streamlined process for appending multiple files with similar structure in a folder in Power Query, and Chris Webb has demonstrated how to Find Events Linked To A Specific Power BI Visual In Fabric Workspace Monitoring.
🛠️ Data Prep
- Marcus Wegener (@PowerBIler) covers Mehr Beispieldaten für Power BI in Microsoft Fabric [German]
- lbendlin shares a Streamlined process for appending multiple files with similar structure in a folder
🧩 Data Modeling
- On the Power BI blog, Zoe Douglas (@MSPowerBI) discusses Fabric Copilot to help write DAX queries improvements
- Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) describes how to Master Filter Context in Power BI – From Basics to Expert
- On the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya describes What-If Parameters in Power BI: Create Interactive & Predictive Reports, describes how to Unlock the Power of the UNICHAR() Function in Power BI and writes about Understanding PERCENTILE.INC vs PERCENTILE.EXC in Power BI
- Jason Cockington (@JasonCockington) writes about Calculated Columns vs Measures in DAX
- Valerie Junk (@porcubi) talks about DAX Info.View Functions in Power BI and discusses Profit and Loss Statement in Power BI – Financial Report
- Purna (Chandoo) Duggirala (@r1c1) explains How to create SVG DAX Measures in Power BI (Easy, step-by-step Tutorial with Sample File)
- Parul Sagar (@parulsagar) writes about The Case for Reset Points: Smarter Tracking in Learning Analytics
📊 Report Authoring and Interactivity
- On the Power BI community blog, Samrat Majumder covers Showing Partial Quarter and Full Quarter values in same visual with previous year's Partial Quarter
- Bas Dohmen (@HowToPowerBI) talks about New Design Options in Power BI | Style Presets
🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations
- On the Fabric blog, Trevor Olson (@MSPowerBI) announces Shortcut cache and on-prem gateway support (Generally Available)
- Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) blogs about Finding Events Linked To A Specific Power BI Visual In Fabric Workspace Monitoring
- Ignacio Barrau (@ignacho_07) covers [PowerBi][Fabric] Scanner API [Spanish]
- On the Power BI community blog, Anmol Malviya describes how to Change Database Server Directly from Power BI Service (No PBIX Download Needed)
🌐 General
- Maya Ben Dov (@MSPowerBI) talks about Empowering Frontline workers with Power BI
- On the Microsoft Fabric Café YouTube channel, Mehrdad Abdollahi presents #FabricCoffee with Lakshmi Ponnurasan - Beyond the Basics: Discovering Power BI’s Best-Kept Secrets
- On the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science (@learn_scitech) presents Podcast: Power BI for Data Science