Make better decisions using data. Pass Microsoft’s PL-100 Query Editor, DAX, and Models
Overview
- Competitors
- Showcase
- Products
- Install
- Pricing
- Typical workflow
- PL-300 certification
- Snippets from GitHub
- Dashboard In a Day (DIAD)
- Data source settings
- Power Query
- Modeling
- Report Builder App
- AI Builder in PowerBI
- DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions)
- Data Analytics
- Dashboards
- Workspaces
- Open & Configure
- Building blocks
- Other video tutorials on DA-100:
- Social Media around Power BI
- References
- More on DevOps
- More about Azure
The contribution of this article is a deep yet succinct hands-on step-by-step tutorial which is logically sequenced, with “PROTIP” marking hard-won, little-know but significant facts available no where else on the internet.
NOTE: Content here are my personal opinions, and not intended to represent any employer (past or present). “PROTIP:” here highlight information I haven’t seen elsewhere on the internet because it is hard-won, little-know but significant facts based on my personal research and experience.
Competitors
Competitors in the data visualization market:
- Wikipedia says Power BI was first released on July 24, 2015
- Tableau> launched in 2003 (purchased by Salesforce June 10, 2019) $2000/user/year
- Qlik
- Knowi supports native connectivity with NoSQL databases, do analytics directly on unstructured data NLP. search-based analytics in Slack.
In Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for Data Visualization products, Microsoft has been at the top-right for over a decade:
Gartner’s analysis RPA vendors in 2021
has Microsoft leading all others in “strategy” but not in “execution”:
Showcase
VIDEO: World Population Health Analysis shows “Key Contributors” analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6NspVReKz0
VIDEO: Beautiful Dashboard from the VIDEO: Northwind database
Tailwind Traders is a more recent sample database.
Products
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Microsoft’s Power BI product marketing home page:
“PowerBI” refers to a set of products and services:
- the Power BI Desktop Windows client program you install to run Flows AI Builder
- the Power BI Report Builder Windows client program
- the PowerBI” mobile app for iPhone and Android
- “connectors” to data
- Power BI Services in the Azure cloud for Data Analytics
Install
To view all options for installation, see:
powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads
LinkedIn Learning: Apps using Power BI can be launched from the Office 365 portal.
Mobile app
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On your mobile’s Store, search for “Power BI”.
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On your iPhone App Store app, click “Get” at
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-power-bi/id929738808
On Android, click “Install” at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.powerbim
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Click “Get”
Logo branding
That yellow “staircase” logo is the Power BI logo on all platforms.
“Power” means Power BI is part of Microsoft’s Power Platform”. See docs.microsoft.com.
- Power Automation
- Power Apps
- Power SharePoint
- Power Financials
Free Desktop app in LEARN free
PROTIP: You don’t need to setup an account or install an app while learning because Microsoft provides a virtual Power BI Desktop environment with LEARN labs.
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Click a FREE LAB link (below)
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Click “Launch Lab”, then “Start lab” to pop up a window (with no menu controls).
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Optionally, to cast the screen to a TV, right-click anywhere on the screen and select “Cast…” and select a device.
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Click the blue “Download Lab Files to D:\ Drive”.
REMEMBER: After 4 hours you start over with a blank instance.
github.com/MicrosoftLearning/PL-300-Microsoft-Power-BI-Data-Analyst contains labs used during Microsoft’s 3-day class to prepare students for the $165 PL-300 exam:
- Prepare the data
- Model the data
- Visualize and analyze the data
- Deploy and maintain assets
PL-300 takes the place of DA-100 class files.
BOOK: DA-100 Exam Ref by Danììl Maslyuk
Desktop App
CAUTION: Microsoft has NOT created a PowerBI Desktop app for Apple MacOS. However, you can still run PowerBI for Windows on MacOS by using one of these options:
- Install Windows on MacOS using Boot Camp
- Dual boot
- https://app.turbo.net/run/powerbi/powerbi
- Install and run Power BI on a Virtual Machine (on AWS), then remote in to that Virtual Machine.
- Install and run Power BI on a PC, then use a remote viewer to control that PC.
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Microsoft’s marketing web page:
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Testers usually prefer to download an .msi file to install so they can control when to manually update it periodically.
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=521662
Alternately, end-users typically prefer for the program to automatically update itself by installing from the Windows Store:
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Dismiss the yellow “Getting started” pop-up of Social links (below).
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The menu at left:
QUESTION: What are goals?
app.powerbi.com SaaS account
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Use Microsoft’s Edge browser here because that was used to test functionality for PowerBI. (Use another browser for documentation).
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PROTIP: Click the avatar on your browser to select the profile associated with the email account you want to use.
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Get a PowerBI SaaS account associated with your work account at:
PROTIP: PowerBI.com does not accept personal (gmail) accounts.
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PROTIP: Add this to your bookmarks.
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Sign in to the Power BI service on Azure
Pricing
DOCS: Levels of pricing (See comparison table):
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Power BI Pro is included in Microsoft 365 E5, or $9.99/month by itself for up to 1 GB/model
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Power BI Premium per user (PPU) $20/month/user of up to 100 GB/model
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Power BI Premium $4,995/Per capacity/month for autoscale of up to 400 GB/model, on-prem. Power BI Report Server. That’s a yearly commitment billed monthly.
PROTIP: It may seem counter-intuitive, but self-service BI users are given “Pro” licenses and “occasional users” are assigned Premium licenses for viewing BI content.
Total users | # Pro Self-service | # Premium Viewers |
---|---|---|
200 | 50 | 150 |
700 | 100 | 600 |
5,000 | 4,000 | 1,000 |
Premium means:*
- Refresh of 48/day (vs. 8/day)
- Max. 100 TB (vs. 10 GB/user)
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unlimited data streaming (no 10K rows/hour limit)
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Workspaces (assigned to a Premium Capacity)
- Deploy PowerBI content to multiple regions
- Gateway to On-prem. Power BI Report Server
- Store Power BI data to Azure Data Lake Storage Gens
- XMLA endpoint read/write connectivity
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Dataflows (Direct Query, linked and computed entities, enhanced compute engine)
- Paginated (RDL) reports
- Advanced AI (text analytics, image detection, automated machine learning) - AutoML & Azure ML
- Row-level security
- Content Pack
What is a Premium “capacity” unit?
This is so complicated that it takes installing Microsoft’s PowerBI-Tools-For-Capacities app from GitHub.
With Gen 2, refreshes get spread out over a 24 hour period and don’t impact other queries from users. Gen2 adds autoscaling which instead of throttling, deals with spikes by calling on other vCores. References:
- https://debbiesmspowerbiazureblog.home.blog/2021/01/21/power-bi-premium-generation-2-first-look/
References:
- https://www.eyecademy.com/ultimate-power-bi-licensing-3/
- https://www.epcgroup.net/power-bi-cost/
- https://whitepages.unlimitedviz.com/2017/09/understanding-the-power-bi-capacity-based-skus/
- https://dynamics.folio3.com/blog/difference-between-power-bi-pro-vs-free-vs-premium/
PROTIP: To save money, consider PowerBI Robots which automatically takes screenshots of Microsoft Power BI dashboards and reports and sends them anywhere, to an unlimited number of recipients.
Typical workflow
Author -> Publish -> Consume
Microsoft defines two types of users: Business users who interact with content created, then shared by designers.
The most common flow of activity:
- Bring data into Power BI Desktop and create a report (based on template?).
- Publish to the Power BI service, where you can create new visualizations or build dashboards.
- Share dashboards with others, especially people who are on the go.
- View and interact with shared dashboards and reports in Power BI Mobile apps.
In Preview 2021 is Deployment Pipelines using GitHub and Azure DevOps for PowerBI.
REMEMBER: Land Use Planning on PowerBI desktop which is limited to 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels high. Be proactive at dividing that real estate.
PL-300 certification
Pay $165 to pass exam PL-300 “Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst” to become a “Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate”. Threshold for passing:
A minimum score of 700 (70 percent) on the overall exam.
- LEARN: Get started
- LEARN: Prepare data [for analysis] (15-20%)
- LEARN: Model the data (30-35%)
- LEARN:Visualize and analyze the data (25-30%)
- LEARN: Manage workspaces: Deploy and maintain assets (20-25%)
PL-300 replaces the exam DA-100 “Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI” to become a “Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate”.
- LEARN: Prepare data [for analysis] (20-25%)
- LEARN: Model the data (25-30%)
- LEARN:Visualize the data (20-25%)
- LEARN: Analyze the data (10-15%)
LEARN: Manage workspaces: Deploy and maintain deliverables (10-15%)
“LEARN” (above) contain labs which provide free time on a Power BI Desktop.
Microsoft FREE & Class Labs
https://github.com/MicrosoftLearning/PL-300-Microsoft-Power-BI-Data-Analyst/tree/Main/Allfiles/Labs contains hands-on lab exercises used during the 3-day Course PL-300T00: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst
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01-prepare-data-with-power-query-in-power-bi-desktop/Solution
Using “Sales Analysis.pbix”:
Configure many-to-many relationships (so a salesperson’s sales, based on their assigned territories, are analyzed and compared with sales targets, using the SalespersonRegion bridging table with Cross Filter Both Direction.) To avoid the ambiguity of two possible filter propagation paths between the Salesperson and Sales tables being internally resolved based on a “least number of tables” assessment by Editing the Relationship to not active.
- Open Power BI Desktop
- Set Power BI Desktop options
- Connect to source data
- Preview source data
- Use data preview techniques to better understand the data (exploring and profiling the data in the Power Query Editor window) The Queries pane contains one query for each table checked. View Column Quality, Column distribution, Column profile.
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02-load-data-with-power-query-in-power-bi-desktop
- Apply various transformations
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Apply queries to load them to the data model
- Create model relationships
- Configure table and column properties
- Create hierarchies
- Create quick measures
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04-create-dax-calculations-in-power-bi-desktop
Used in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS Tabular for creating:
- Calculated Tables (new table derived from another table, such as a calendar) Recalculated when table pulled from is updated/refreshed. Unlike Power Query-sourced tables, calculated tables can’t be used to load data from external data sources. They can only transform data based on what has already been loaded into the data model.
- Calculated Columns (connecting disparate data sources with multiple key columns)
- Calculated Measures (Ratios/Percentages, needs a Dynamic Aggregator to work) Cannot be naked. Not calculated immediately.
I attended Microsoft’s 4-day live DA-100T00 class by Linda Larkin, but I highly recommend everyone to walk through the (free) lab instructions in English (and other languages) by Shannon Lindsay. The class Modules and labs aka.ms/da100labs
PROTIP: The numbering of Skillpipe modules and labs may not be exactly the same. So below I’ve combined links from the book, direct links to labs, and Microsoft’s 76 free “LEARNing paths”. “FREE LAB” (below) contain labs which provide free time on a virtual Power BI Desktop.
PROTIP: Many find that they need to go through each lab 2-3 times to gain “muscle memory” to know where to click in the GUI.
Module 1. Get Started with Microsoft Data Analytics
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FREE LAB: Prepare Data in Power BI Desktop = LAB 01-prepare-data-with-power-query-in-power-bi-desktop.md 45 min.
Module 2. Get Data in Power BI = Prepare Data in Power BI
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FREE LAB: Load Data in Power BI Desktop = LAB 02-load-data-with-power-query-in-power-bi-desktop.md
- Apply various transformations
- Apply queries to load them to the data model
Module 3. Clean, Transform, and Load Data in Power BI
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FREE LAB: Model Data in Power BI Desktop, Part 1 = LAB 03-configure-data-model-in-power-bi-desktop.md
- Create model relationships
- Configure table and column properties
- Create hierarchies
- Create quick measures
Module 4. Design a Data Model in Power BI
- FREE LAB:
Model Data in Power BI Desktop, Part 2 = LAB 04-configure-data-model-in-power-bi-desktop-advanced.md
Using “Sales Analysis.pbix”:
- Configure many-to-many relationships (so a salesperson’s sales, based on their assigned territories, are analyzed and compared with sales targets, using the SalespersonRegion bridging table with Cross Filter Both Direction.) To avoid the ambiguity of two possible filter propagation paths between the Salesperson and Sales tables being internally resolved based on a “least number of tables” assessment by Editing the Relationship to not active.
- Configure many-to-many relationships (so a salesperson’s sales, based on their assigned territories, are analyzed and compared with sales targets, using the SalespersonRegion bridging table with Cross Filter Both Direction.) To avoid the ambiguity of two possible filter propagation paths between the Salesperson and Sales tables being internally resolved based on a “least number of tables” assessment by Editing the Relationship to not active.
Module 5 Create Model Calculations using DAX in Power BI
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FREE LAB: Create DAX Calculations in Power BI Desktop, Part 1 = 05-create-dax-calculations-in-power-bi-desktop.md
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FREE LAB: Create DAX Calculations in Power BI Desktop, Part 2 = LAB 06-create-dax-calculations-in-power-bi-desktop-advanced.md
Module 6 Optimize Model Performance
- No lab
Module 7 Create Reports
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FREE LAB: Design a Report in Power BI Desktop, Part 1 = LAB 07-design-report-in-power-bi-desktop.md
- Design a report
- Configure visual fields and format properties
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FREE LAB: Design a Report in Power BI Desktop, Part 2 = LAB 08-design-report-in-power-bi-desktop-enhanced.md
- Sync slicers
- Create a drillthrough page
- Apply conditional formatting
- Create and use bookmarks
Module 8 Create Dashboards
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FREE LAB: Create a Power BI Dashboard = LAB 09-create-power-bi-dashboard.md
- Pin visuals to a dashboard
- Use Q&A to create dashboard tiles
- Configure a dashboard tile alert
Module 9 Create Paginated Reports in Power BI
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FREE LAB: Perform Data Analysis in Power BI Desktop = LAB 11-perform-data-analysis-in-power-bi-desktop.md
- Create animated scatter charts
- Use a visual to forecast values
- Work with the decomposition tree visual
- Work with the key influencers visual
Module 10 Perform Advanced Analytics
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FREE LAB: Create a Power BI Paginated Report = LAB 10-create-power-bi-paginated-report.md
NOTE: Paginated (RDL) reports require a Premium license.
- Use Power BI Report Builder
- Design a multi-page report layout
- Define a data source
- Define a dataset
- Create a report parameter
- Export a report to PDF
Module 11 Create and Manage Workspaces
Module 12 Manage Datasets in Power BI
Module 13 Row-level Security
Snippets from GitHub
# Sales All Region measure definition Sales All Region = CALCULATE(SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS(Region))
# Sales % All Region measure definition (replace Sales All Region measure) Sales % All Region = DIVIDE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS(Region) ) )
# Sales % Country measure definition Sales % Country = DIVIDE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS(Region[Region]) ) )
# Sales % Country measure definition (2) Sales % Country = IF( ISINSCOPE(Region[Region]), DIVIDE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS(Region[Region]) ) ) )
# Sales % Group measure definition Sales % Group = DIVIDE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS( Region[Region], Region[Country] ) ) )
# Sales % Group measure definition (2) Sales % Group = IF( ISINSCOPE(Region[Region]) || ISINSCOPE(Region[Country]), DIVIDE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), REMOVEFILTERS( Region[Region], Region[Country] ) ) ) )
# Sales table: Sales YTD measure definition Sales YTD = TOTALYTD(SUM(Sales[Sales]), 'Date'[Date], "6-30")
# Sales table: Sales YoY Growth Sales YoY Growth = VAR SalesPriorYear = CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), PARALLELPERIOD( 'Date'[Date], -12, MONTH ) ) RETURN SalesPriorYear
# Sales table: Sales YoY Growth (2) Sales YoY Growth = VAR SalesPriorYear = CALCULATE( SUM(Sales[Sales]), PARALLELPERIOD( 'Date'[Date], -12, MONTH ) ) RETURN DIVIDE( (SUM(Sales[Sales]) - SalesPriorYear), SalesPriorYear )
Other DA-100 Video Tutorials
Helen Wall has several courses on LinkedIn Learning:
- https://www.linkedin.com/learning/power-bi-essential-training-3/create-rich-interactive-reports-with-power-bi
- https://www.linkedin.com/learning/advanced-microsoft-power-bi/reducing-data-headaches
Pluralsight’s courses on PowerBI features Stacia Misner Varga and others.
CloudAcademy.com
Dashboard In a Day (DIAD)
Microsoft’s “Dashboard In a Day” (DIAD) are one-day, hands-on virtual workshops to expose business analysts to Power BI.
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Download the zip file
DashboardinaDayAssets.zip
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Unzip it (to 454.6 MB). CAUTION: I tried to put the zip into a github repo, but got blocked by this error:
remote: error: GH001: Large files detected. You may want to try Git Large File Storage - https://git-lfs.github.com. remote: error: See http://git.io/iEPt8g for more information. remote: error: File Data/USSales/sales.csv is 141.49 MB; this exceeds GitHub's file size limit of 100.00 MB To github.com:wilsonmar/powerbi-diad.git
- In Finder, expand (for folders A4, Data, Letter, Reports).
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If you’re in the US, delete the A4 folder containing pdf files formatted for European printers. If you’re in Europe, delete the “Letter” folder. They both contain:
- Lab 0 - Prerequisites and Document Structure.pdf
- Lab 1 - Accessing and Preparing Data.pdf
- Lab 2 - Data Modeling and Exploration.pdf
- Lab 3 - Data Visualization.pdf
- Lab 4 - Publishing and Accessing Reports.pdf
- Lab 5 - Collaboration.pdf
The Reports folder contains Solution pbix files.
BlueGranite.com recorded (in 2020)how to do each in a YouTube videos, listed by date here:
- Intro
- Lab Prerequisites [2020]
- Accessing Data [2020 Lab 1 Part 1]
- Preparing Data [2020 Lab 1 Part 2]
- Data Modeling [2020 Lab 2 Part 1]
- 02 Accessing Data [Feb 2020]
- 03 Data Prep [Feb 2020]
- 04 Data Modeling & Exploration Part A [Feb 2020]
- 05 Data Modeling & Exploration Part B [Feb 2020]
- 06 Data Modeling & Exploration Part C [Feb 2020]
- DIAD [Mar 2021]
- DIAD [Apr 2021]
- DIAD [Jun 2021]
VIDEO: AltisConsulting (UK) on Oct 1, 2020 promote their DIAD delivery.
Data source settings
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In the Home ribbon:
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Click a data source among the icons or
click “Get Data” drop down.- Excel
- Power BI datasets (.pbix file extension)
- Power BI dataflows
- Microsoft SQL Server (relational): AdventureWorksDW2020 or TailspinToys2020-US
- Analysis Services
- Text/CSV
- Web
- OData feed
- Black query More: Azure:
- Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL database)
- Finance Azure Analysis Server Cubes (Azure Analysis Services)
- (online services)
PROTIP: For security reasons, imports of local copies of data into reports are not allowed. So use DirectQuery storage mode.
Data locations:
- Local
- OneDrive cloud - Business
- OneDrive cloud - Personal
- SharePoint Team Sites cloud
Load CSV from GitHub
PROTIP: This is a good demo of using Text Paste
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To load a file from GitHub, click Raw, then highlight and copy the URL, such as:
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Switch to Power BI Desktop.
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In Home, click “Get Data”, “Text/CSV”, “Web”, yellow “Connect”.
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With “Basic” selected, click in the URL field to paste into.
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If you’re within a LEARN window, click the blue lightning bolt at the upper-left corner to select “Type Text”, “Type Clipboard Text”, and paste this and click OK:
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With “Basic” selected, click in the URL field to paste:
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In “Access Web Content”, pull down “Select which level to apply these settings to” and select the lowest item.
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Click yellow Connect.
STATUS: I’m getting an error here. Working on it.
The default import hard-codes column names. VIDEO:
Load OData Northwind
- Get Data
- OData feed
- In URL: https://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc
- OK for Navigator.
- Select tables.
Power Query
Power Query is the query engine used by Power BI and Excel.
The “Power Query M formula language is optimized for building highly flexible data mashup queries. It’s a functional, case sensitive language similar to F#” – powerquery.io.
- Click the “Transform” button to open the Query Editor.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/clean-data-power-bi/
Modeling
Manage Relationships
Report Builder App
This is done on Windows machines (not macOS).
AI Builder in PowerBI
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-builder/flow-text-translation
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Sign in to Power Automate (https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/)
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Select My flows in the left pane, and then select New flow > Instant cloud flow.
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Name your flow, select Manually trigger a flow under Choose how to trigger this flow, and then select Create.
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Expand Manually trigger a flow, and then select +Add an input > Text as the input type.
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Replace Input with My Text (also known as the title).
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Select + New step > AI Builder.
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Select Translate text into another language in the list of actions.
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Select My Text from the Dynamic content list.
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Select the target language in the Translate to input.
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The model will automatically detect the source language for you. But optionally, you can select a source language in the Translate from input to specify the language of the text in My Text input.
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In successive actions, you can use any columns extracted by the AI Builder model, such as “Send me an email” notification of the translated text with property Text from the text translation model.
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Run in Azure DevOps pipeline:
https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/PowerBI-CICD-using-Azure-DevOps/ba-p/769244
DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions)
DAX = Data Analysis eXpressions (formula-based language) is like Excel functions (such as AVERAGE), operators, and constants used in formulas to calculate or return one or more values.
DOCS:
DAX Queries are used in Power BI analysis services and DAX Studio.
DAX Formulas are used in Power BI and Power Pivot.
VIDEO: VIDEO: DAX Formular sample syntax with “=” operator:
- measure=FUNCTION(table[column])
DAX Functions
Each function references a complete column or table.
A function can return a table.
Data Analytics
Core components of analytics are divided into the following categories:
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Descriptive - what has happened based on historical data. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as return on investment (ROI) track performance toward key objectives.
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Diagnostic - answers why events happened. discover the cause of these events. why these events improved or became worse. Identify anomalies
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Predictive - answers questions about what will happen in the future. identify trends
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Prescriptive - answer questions about which actions should be taken to achieve a goal or target. patterns in large datasets.
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Cognitive help you learn what might happen if circumstances change, to determine how to handle these situations.
Roles and tasks:
- Business analyst
- Data analyst - Tasks: Prepare, Analyze, Model, Manage, Visualize
- Data engineer
- Data scientist
- Database administrator
Dashboards
Workspaces
Workspaces are used to share content:
- a different workspace for different audiences (Sales, HR, etc.)
- different environments (DEV, TEST, PROD)
- to split the load: hosted in a separate workspace a report with a very high consumption rate kept separate from other reports with low rate of consumption.
References: https://radacad.com/how-to-organize-workspaces-in-a-power-bi-environment
Open & Configure
Mobile config
- Open the app. Sign in via Authenticator. Choose a certificate if prompted.
Desktop config
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To open Power BI Desktop,
click the yellow Power BI icon at the bottom of the screen. -
To dismiss the yellow “Getting Started” pop-up,
click the upper-right corner of the pop-up.NOTE: You can get that pop-up again by clicking “Getting started” in the File menu.
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Click “File” on the top menu.
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Click “Options and Settings”, “Options”.
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Under menu category CURRENT FILE:, Data Load:
Capacity config
To use Power BI Premium Capacity, assign a workspace to a capacity.
To configure workloads:
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in the Power BI admin portal
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In Capacity settings > PREMIUM CAPACITIES, select a capacity.
DOCS: Each capacity size selected specifies a static mix of v-cores, memory, and limits on render rate. Excess cores or memory or render quota you don’t use, you lose.
Size v-cores GB Mem Peak renders / hour Cost / Hour Cost / Month A1 1 3 300 ~$1 $720 A2 2 5 600 ~$2 $1,440 A3 4 10 1,200 ~$4 $2,880 A4 8 25 2,400 ~$8 $5,760 A5 16 50 4,800 ~$16 $11,520 A6 32 100 9,600 ~$32 $22,040 EM1 1 3 1-300 - $625 EM2 2 5 301-600 - $1,245 EM3 4 10 601-1,200 - $2,495 P1 8 25 2,400 - $4,995 P2 16 50 4,800 - $9,995 P3 32 100 9,600 - $19,995 “A” (Azure) SKU is “for testing and other scenarios” - a Platform-as-a-Service and set of APIs for those ISVs who are using Power BI as the data visualization layer of an application they develop. Power BI Embedded capacity is billed hourly, can be purchased hourly, and can be paused – meaning no long-term commitments to a specific capacity. This pausing capability is critical for small ISVs that don’t yet have the revenue stream to support monthly commitments.
While the capacity of the Power BI Embedded A1 SKU is equivalent to the Power BI Premium EM SKU, ISVs pay a slightly higher effective monthly price for the flexibility mentioned above.
“EM” SKUs (EM1-EM3) for content “EMbedding” of PBI Reports. Currently, this can be accomplished through the use of the SharePoint Power BI web part for modern pages, or through tabs in Microsoft Teams. Available only through volume licensing plans purchased through Microsoft Azure.. You can’t purchase them directly.
“P” (Premium) SKUs (P1-P3) vCores - embedding and enterprise features: Share Power Reports, dashboards and datasets through Power BI Apps (Workspaces), Ad hoc dashboard sharing from personal workspaces. Includes a license to install Power BI Report Server on-premises. But you’re getting a business application vs. a set of APIs.
- Under MORE OPTIONS, expand Workloads.
- Enable one or more workloads and set a value for Max Memory and other settings.
- Select Apply.
Capacity Monitoring
PROTIP: New Relic has dedicated capacities monitoring integration” which makes capacity management easier:
Metric | Unit | Description |
---|---|---|
queryDurationMilliseconds | Milliseconds | DAX Query duration in last interval |
queryPoolJobQueueLength | Count | Number of jobs in the queue of the query thread pool |
qpuHighUtilizationMetric | Count | QPU High Utilization In Last Minute, 1 For High QPU Utilization, Otherwise 0 |
memoryMetricBytes | Bytes | Memory. Range 0-3 GB for A1, 0-5 GB for A2, 0-10 GB for A3, 0-25 GB for A4, 0-50 GB for A5 and 0-100 GB for A6 |
memoryThrashingMetricPercent | Percent | Average memory thrashing |
The number of vCores for each SKU is split between backend and front-end processing.
Building blocks
The basic building blocks in Power BI:
- Visualizations – Visual representations of data, sometimes just called visuals
- Datasets – Collections of data that Power BI uses to create visualizations
- Reports – Collections of visuals from a dataset, spanning one or more pages
- Dashboards – Single-page collections of visuals built from reports
- Each app from the AppSource is a collection of ready-made visuals, pre-arranged in dashboards and reports.
- The canvas is the area in the center of the Power BI service.
- Tiles within Dashboard
Common data sources like Microsoft Excel files, databases, or Microsoft Azure data, real-time Azure Synapse Analytics tables that combine with other databases and real-time sources to build a moment-by-moment dataset.
Power BI can software services (aka SaaS providers or cloud services): Salesforce, Facebook, Google Analytics, and more.
Other video tutorials on DA-100:
Social Media around Power BI
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Microsoft’s YouTube channel is where @JustynaLucznik (Principal Program Manger) show videos.
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powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog by Microsoft Program Managers
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community.powerbi.com forums managed by Microsoft
DA-100 Practice exams
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Whizlabs ???
References
More on DevOps
This is one of a series on DevOps:
- DevOps_2.0
- ci-cd (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery)
- User Stories for DevOps
- Git and GitHub vs File Archival
- Git Commands and Statuses
- Git Commit, Tag, Push
- Git Utilities
- Data Security GitHub
- GitHub API
- Choices for DevOps Technologies
- Pulumi Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Java DevOps Workflow
- AWS DevOps (CodeCommit, CodePipeline, CodeDeploy)
- AWS server deployment options
- Cloud services comparisons (across vendors)
- Cloud regions (across vendors)
- Azure Cloud Onramp (Subscriptions, Portal GUI, CLI)
- Azure Certifications
- Azure Cloud Powershell
- Bash Windows using Microsoft’s WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
- Azure Networking
- Azure Storage
- Azure Compute
- Digital Ocean
- Packer automation to build Vagrant images
- Terraform multi-cloud provisioning automation
-
Hashicorp Vault and Consul to generate and hold secrets
- Powershell Ecosystem
- Powershell on MacOS
- Jenkins Server Setup
- Jenkins Plug-ins
- Jenkins Freestyle jobs
- Docker (Glossary, Ecosystem, Certification)
- Make Makefile for Docker
- Docker Setup and run Bash shell script
- Bash coding
- Docker Setup
- Dockerize apps
- Ansible
- Kubernetes Operators
- Threat Modeling
- API Management Microsoft
- Scenarios for load
- Chaos Engineering
More about Azure
This is one of a series about Azure cloud:
- Azure cloud introduction
- Azure Cloud Onramp (Subscriptions, Portal GUI, CLI)
- RDP client to access servers
- Bash Windows using Microsoft’s WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
- Microsoft PowerShell ecosystem
- Azure Cloud Powershell
- PowerShell DSC (Desired State Configuration)
- PowerShell Modules
- Azure Networking
- Azure Storage
- Azure Compute
- Azure cloud DevOps
- Dockerize apps
- Kubernetes container engine
- Hashicorp Vault and Consul for keeping secrets
- Hashicorp Terraform
- Ansible
- Microsoft AI in Azure cloud
- Azure Monitoring
- Azure KSQL (Kusto Query Language) for Azure Monitor, etc.
- Dynatrace cloud monitoring
- Cloud Performance testing/engineering
- Cloud JMeter