Introducing Microsoft Power BI Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo (Free PDF)

 

This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book.

Introducing Microsoft Power BI enables you to evaluate when and how to use Power BI. Get inspired to improve business processes in your company by leveraging the available analytical and collaborative features of this environment.

Be sure to watch for the publication of Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo's upcoming retail book, Analyzing Data with Power BI and Power Pivot for Excel (ISBN 9781509302765).

Free PDF Download: Introducing Microsoft Power BI Alberto Ferrari and Marco Russo

Contents

Introduction ....................................................viii

Downloads.....................................................................xi

Installing the companion content ..................xii

Acknowledgments.....................................................xii

Free ebooks from Microsoft Press .................... xiv

Errata, updates, & book support....................... xiv

We want to hear from you.....................................xv

Stay in touch................................................................xv

Chapter 1: Introducing Power BI .....................1

Getting started with Power BI................................ 4

Uploading data to Power BI .................................10

Introducing natural-language queries .............13

Introducing Quick Insights....................................16

Introduction to reports...........................................22

Introducing Visual Interactions ...........................30

Decorating the report.............................................37

Saving the report......................................................40

Pinning a report.........................................................41

iv Contents

Refreshing the budget workbook ......................43

Filtering a report .......................................................50

Conclusions .................................................................55

Chapter 2: Sharing the dashboard.................57

Inviting a user to see a dashboard ....................58

Inviting users outside your organization....66

Creating a group workspace in Power BI........71

Turning on sharing with Microsoft OneDrive

for Business .................................................................76

Viewing reports and dashboards on mobile

devices...........................................................................94

Conclusions .............................................................. 101

Chapter 3: Understanding data refresh ..... 103

Introducing data refresh ..................................... 105

Introducing the Power BI refresh

architecture .............................................................. 107

Introducing Power BI Desktop.......................... 111

Publishing to Power BI......................................... 117

Installing the Power BI Personal Gateway.... 120

Configuring automatic refresh ......................... 128

Conclusions .............................................................. 130

Chapter 4: Using Power BI Desktop ........... 132

v Contents

Connecting to a database .................................. 134

Loading from multiple sources ........................ 141

Using Query Editor................................................ 145

Hiding or removing tables ................................. 159

Handling seasonality and sorting months... 163

Conclusions .............................................................. 179

Chapter 5: Getting data from services

and content packs ........................................ 181

Consuming a service content pack................. 183

Creating a custom dataset from a service ... 197

Creating a content pack for your

organization............................................................. 211

Consuming an organizational content

pack............................................................................. 216

Updating an organizational content pack ... 223

Conclusions .............................................................. 227

Chapter 6: Building a data model............... 230

Loading individual tables.................................... 232

Implementing measures ..................................... 236

Creating calculated columns............................. 239

Improving the report by using measures..... 242

Integrating budget information....................... 244

vi Contents

Reallocating the budget...................................... 256

Conclusions .............................................................. 262

Chapter 7: Improving Power BI reports ..... 264

Choosing the right visualizations .................... 267

Choosing between standard visuals.......... 274

Using custom visualizations .............................. 283

First steps with custom visualizations ....... 284

Improving reports by using custom

visualizations....................................................... 291

Identifying conditions when custom

visualizations are required............................. 299

Using DAX in data models ................................. 303

Creating high-density reports .......................... 311

Conclusions .............................................................. 320

Chapter 8: Using Microsoft Power BI

in your company........................................... 323

Getting data from existing systems................ 325

Understanding differences between

data refresh and live connections .............. 328

Using relational databases on-premises.. 330

Using relational databases in the cloud... 335

Using live connections to Analysis

Services ................................................................. 338

vii Contents

Integrating Power BI with Office...................... 340

Publish Excel data models in Power BI..... 340

Consume Power BI content from Excel .... 343

Using Power BI Tiles from Office Store .... 350

Managing security to access data................... 360

Using row-level security ................................. 364

Extending and customizing Power BI ............ 370

Creating custom visualizations for

Power BI................................................................ 371

Introducing the Power BI REST API............ 372

Pushing real-time data to Power BI

dashboards .......................................................... 376

Power BI embedded in applications.......... 381

Conclusions .............................................................. 383

About the authors........................................... 386