Rui Romano

#SQLSatMadrid

Power BI Hacks
BIG Thanks to SQLSatMadrid sponsors
Platinum

Gold

#SQLSatMadrid
Sponsor sessions at 10:15 & 13:00
Don’t miss them, they might be getting distributing
some awesome prizes!

Also XBOX One & Raffle prizes at 17:45

#SQLSatMadrid
Head of BI @ DevScope

[email protected]

https://ruiromanoblog.wordpress.com

@RuiRomano

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruiromano #SQLSatMadrid
Agenda
This session is not
• Intro to Power BI
• Advanced DAX/M Tips
• Deep-Dive on anything

This session is
• Fast-paced, full of demos
• Learn useful techniques on Power BI
• Learn some productivity Hacks

#SQLSatMadrid
DevScope’s Suite of Power BI tools

Embed Power BI Reports in PowerPoint presentations, Word Try Now

documents or Outlook messages.

Schedule and automatically send Power BI data to anyone, Try Now

anywhere.

Connect data from Power BI or OLAP cubes to Excel, search

Try Now
for any values in the data model and apply filters in bulk.

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Keyboard Shortcuts on DAX Editor
See Link: xxlbi.com or biinsight.com
My Favorites:
CTRL + SHIFT + L Find and Replace ALL highlighted text
CTRL + D Find and replace highlighted text
SHIFT + ENTER New Line with Indent
CTRL + ALT + UP/Down Enter multiple lines at once
CTRL + SPACE Activate Intellisense
CTRL + K + C/U Comment/Uncomment multiple lines
ALT + UP/Down Move lines up/down
CTRL + G Go to line number
#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Use the Barcode Scanner
Little effort, big impact
IOS only 
PowerApps as alternative
Vote!

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Parameters

PBIX Templates
Change the values after Publish
Change the Database without Re-Publish
Change the Query without Re-Publish

Set the Type (don’t use “Any”)

Use REST API to change values
Set-PBIDatasetParameters => DevOps

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Value.NativeQuery

Centralize Connection settings

timeouts, maxdop,…
Query Parameters
Query as a separate step
No UI on Value.NativeQuery

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Folder Proxy
Local Folder

FolderProxy (M Query) Local Folder Sharepoint List

Redirects to: OR

FileSystem
or
Online Source(ex: Sharepoint) Folder Proxy

More productivity w/ online data

sources (ex: Sharepoint or DataLake)
M Query 1 M Query N

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – “Incremental Loading” w/ “Report Refresh”

Only loads on first refresh

Useful for Static Data (history) Sales – Current
>= 2018
Sales – History
< 2018

*Alternative to “Incremental Loading” Union()

Not Perfect

Use DAX to avoid duplicating tables

If there’s attributes to slice on the fact, then use UNION
Sales

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Measures as Dimension
Scorecards & KPIs
Reusability: YTD, LY,… for all the measures
One report for multiple analysis
*Performance hit

#SQLSatMadrid
 Tip – Measure as Image
A lot of flexibility on KPI’s

Use base64 to embed images in PBIX

Use SVG for more flexibility

Can do sparklines (David Eldersveld)

Only works on tables/matrix

This month ☺

Learn more: link1, link2, link3, link4 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Burguer Filter => Save Report Space
Bookmarks + Shapes + Visibility + Slicers

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Import Data from Online DataSets (powerbi.com)
Get the connection string from “Analyse in Excel”
Use “Get-Data” from OLEDB w/ DAX query Sales
(Workspace 1)
CRM
(Workspace 2)

Personal Gateway only 

*Not Supported! But it works ☺
XMLA endpoint coming…

Import

Sales & Opportunities

(Aggregated)
(Workspace 3)

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Excel Tables w/ DAX Queries
DAX query as a regular Excel Table

PowerQuery or Drillthrough*

Very useful for complex Excel Analysis

*Drillthrough Steps:
1. Analyse in Excel
2. Drillthrough
3. Edit Query
4. Write Dax

*Supported ☺

#SQLSatMadrid
Tip – Excel + Power BI Desktop
PBIDesktop has an Analysis Services Instance

Great for data validation at development time

Discover the TCP Port using netstat,

PowerBIPS.Tools, DAXStudio, SmartPivot

#SQLSatMadrid
 Tip – Export Data from Power BI Desktop
Export all data from PBIDesktop to CSV / SQL Server *Not Supported!
Very useful for:
Data Science data wrangling
Moving Data

PowerBIPS.Tools

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Know Tabular Editor
https://github.com/otykier/TabularEditor
*by Daniel Otykier

Can save you a LOT of time…

Ex:
- Copy measures between pbix
- Generate measures (ytd, ly)
- c#

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

 Tip – “Grow up” your PBIX

Why?
More space (+1GB/file)
More control => partitioning, perspectives, translations, scripting,…
Better DevOps => Source Control
Merge multiple Power BI models into singular AS Model
How?
- Using WebDesigner in Azure Portal (less control)
OR
- Using PowerBIPS.Tools - Convert-PowerBIToASTabular
More Contral, but Not Supported!

Learn more: link1, sqlbits session #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Power BI Report Rebind

Hundred of existing Power BI reports?

How to convert from Import to Live connection to AS?

1. Power BI Desktop => one by one
Remove all queries => Get-Data => Tabular (live)

2. REST API + PowerBIPS => automate

Learn more: link1, link2 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Power BI Data (Governance)
Use data available through:
- O365 Audit Logs
- REST API’s

Ex: Data Set Refresh History

Use RESTAPI to collect the refresh history
Build a Power BI Report over that data

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – REST API + Automation / DevOps

Use the REST API to:

Automation, Productivity, DevOps, Realtime…

Examples:
Export all pbix from PowerBI.com to Folder
Bulk Create Multiple Workspaces using Folders and Files
Sync between Workspaces: (ex: Dev to Prod)

Learn more: link1 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Power BI + Real Time!

Multiple ways => Choose the best for you!

Streaming DataSets => Quick w/ Low Effort (very fast…)
REST API => More Control (not so fast…)
DirectQuery/Live
Power BI Embedded (Ted Pattinson GitHub as sample)

Learn more: link1, link2 #SQLSatMadrid

Tip – Real-Time Session Voting

https://tinyurl.com/pbivoting
https://bit.ly/2HVi5ej

#SQLSatMadrid
Session Votes – Thank You!

#SQLSatMadrid
DevScope Suite of Power BI tools

Embed Power BI Reports in PowerPoint presentations, Word Try Now

documents or Outlook messages.

Schedule and automatically send Power BI data to anyone, Try Now

anywhere.

Connect data from Power BI or OLAP cubes to Excel, search

Try Now
for any values in the data model and apply filters in bulk.

#SQLSatMadrid
Contacts
▪ https://ruiromanoblog.wordpress.com/
▪ @RuiRomano
https://devscope.net

Links
https://powerbitiles.com/?app=Pro
https://github.com/DevScope/powerbi-powershell-modules

#SQLSatMadrid