Power BI Weekly

Issue #44 - 4th February 2020

The Power BI team broke its silence last week, with a number of announcements:

Also released last week was the Power Platform: 2020 release wave 1 plan , including details on upcoming features across all tools within the Power Platform. A few particularly exciting announcements for Power BI, including Dataflows DirectQuery and Incremental refresh for Pro users! Check that link out for more information.

We have a couple of in-house blogs for you this week, which many of you Analysis Services users will appreciate. Last year endjin spent 12 weeks building an Azure solution to help process over 1.5B rows of data to display to the user in less then 3 seconds. This was powered by the incredibly powerful, yet often overlooked Azure Analysis Services. My colleague James Broome, Director of Engineering, is writing an 8 part series on this service. The first two were published this week: 8 reasons why you might want to integrate into a custom application and Integration options using .NET, REST APIs and PowerShell.

Elsewhere this week, Chris Webb has described how to Visualize Power Query Diagnostics Data In A Power BI Decomposition Tree, and Parv Chana has shown us an interesting Heat map technique with data smoothing.

🛠️ Data Prep

Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) describes Visualising Power Query Diagnostics Data In A Power BI Decomposition Tree
On the RADACAD blog, Leila Etaati (@leila_etaati) explains how to Analyse the JSON File with Power Query
Also on the RADACAD blog, Reza Rad (@Rad_Reza) explains how to Combine Multiple or All Sheets from an Excel File into a Power BI solution Using Power Query Dynamically
On the Power BI community blog, Guilherme Antunes (@gsantunes_) wonders Why can't I change the Data Source in Power BI (disabled button)?
Gil Raviv (@gilra) highlights that The Facebook Connector is being retired in Excel
Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) explains how to Refer to Previous Row and Next Row in Power Query
On the Visual BI blog, Minh Dang writes about Automated Machine Learning in Power BI

🧩 Data Modeling

On the endjin blog, James Broome delves into Azure Analysis Services: 8 reasons why you might want to integrate into a custom application and covers integration options using .NET, REST APIs and PowerShell
On the RADACAD blog, Reza Rad (@Rad_Reza) discusses Removing the Total Value for a Column in the Table Visual of Power BI Using ISFILTERED and talks about Calculating Stock on Hand Using DAX: Power BI Inventory Model
On the Enterprise DNA blog, Sam McKay (@_EnterpriseDNA) shares a number of blogs: Calculating Weekly Sales w/DAX in Power BI, Power BI Advanced Analytics: Secondary Table Logic Techniques, Detecting & Showcasing Outlier Results In Power BI, How To Use The Built-in Analytics For Power BI Scatter Charts and Time Comparison For Non Standard Date Tables In Power BI
On the Power BI community blog, Pravin Wattamwar discusses Connecting to a Tabular Model Using Power BI
Erik Svensen (@donsvensen) blogs about DAX Time intelligence and the 29th of February

⚙️ Report Design and Visualizations

Zach Renwick (@zachrenwick) describes Customizing Power BI with Custom Branding and Themes
Phil Seamark (@PhilSeamark) writes about Dynamic Columns based on values
Patrick Leblanc (@GuyInACube) describes how to Use Conditional Formatting to format another column in Power BI
Parv Chana (@parvchana) writes about a Heat map technique with data smoothing
On the CSG Pro blog, Brian Grant (@BrianGrantBI) provides a Power BI Tutorial: Advanced Report Interaction Video Series
On the xViz blog, Bhupinder Singh talks about the Waterfall Chart – Advanced Custom Visuals for Power BI
On the Power BI Tips and Tricks blog, Stephanie Bruno (@StephTBruno) writes about the Power BI Field Finder
On the Enterprise DNA blog, Sam McKay (@_EnterpriseDNA) describes a Visualization Technique for Power BI: Using Dark Backgrounds

⚙️ Data Exploration

On the RADACAD blog, Reza Rad (@Rad_Reza) writes Say No to Export Data, Yes to Analyze in Excel: Power BI and Excel Can Talk
On the Enterprise DNA blog, Sam McKay (@_EnterpriseDNA) shares some Best Practices In Using The Q&A Feature
Nicky van Vroenhoven (@NickyvV) writes A Form, a Flow and a Power BI Streaming Dataset Walk Into a Bar - Part 2

🚀 Deployment, Security and Operations

On the Power BI blog, Lukasz Pawlowski (@lukasztweets) blogs about The Publish to web default is changing and it affects who can create public embed codes and undefined explains how to Announcing: Improved report usage metrics in modern workspaces
Also on the Power BI blog, Kay Unkroth writes about the Improved report usage metrics in modern workspaces
Jiří Neoral (@JiriNeoral) writes Power BI a PowerShell [Czech]
Patrick Leblanc (@GuyInACube) discusses Power BI shared dataset NOT DISAPPEARING!
Adam Saxton (@GuyInACube) writes about 3 things Power BI admins should be aware of in Office 365
On the Prologika blog, Teo Lachev (@tlachev) writes about Power BI Embedded, Service Principals, and SSAS
On the Blue Granite blog, Katy Ghormley describes Monitoring Adoption with Office 365 Audit Logs and Power BI Admin API
Gilbert Quevauvilliers (@GilbertQue) provides an Intro into Power BI Premium
Brett Powell (@BrettPowell76) blogs about some Power BI Warning Signs

🌐 General

On the Power BI blog, Miguel Martinez (@maikelson) highlights the Power BI Report Server January 2020 Feature Summary
Adam Saxton (@GuyInACube) asks Do you know what a Power BI seed file is??? (Roundup | Jan 27, 2020)
On the Power BI community blog, Mike Carlo (@PowerBITips) presents Power BI 2019 in Review
Bill Anton (@SQLbyoBI) writes about some of the New Features Coming to Power BI in 2020
Matthew Roche (@SQLAllFather) asks Have you looked at the Power BI roadmap lately?
Rafael Mendonça (@rafaelmpsantos) writes Pai Rafael traz a lista de features previstas no Power BI para 2020 [Portuguese]
Treb Gatte (@tgatte) describes how to Get Started with Power BI