.png)
Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service have been revitalized with game-changing features, making data modelling and integration with OneDrive and SharePoint a breeze. These enhancements are set to transform your Power BI experience, from seamless data management to streamlined collaboration and reporting. In this blog, we'll delve into the latest updates that promise to simplify your workflow and provide a familiar interface for all users. Let's explore the future of Power BI!
Power BI Desktop OneDrive and SharePoint integration
Power BI Desktop now offers easier integration with OneDrive and SharePoint, making it a breeze to access, save, and share reports stored in these platforms. This improvement is significant for Power BI authors who collaborate on reports before publishing on the Power BI service. These changes simplify the workflow, particularly for ad-hoc reporting, and provide a familiar Office interface for new users.
Additionally, you can now view Power BI reports stored in OneDrive and SharePoint directly in your web browser, eliminating the need to download both the Power BI file and Power BI Desktop for report viewing. This enhancement allows you to interact with your reports swiftly.
If you have specific preferences and want to disable some of these features, you can do so through the Fabric admin portal. For more detailed information, you can refer to the public preview announcement blog post. These updates promise to enhance the accessibility and usability of Power BI for a wide range of users.
Edit your data model in the Power BI Service – Updates
The Power BI team have introduced a new feature for editing your data model in the Power BI Service. Initially available as a preview feature in April, several enhancements have been made based on user feedback, with these features being released this month.
With the "Manage relationships" feature, you can now easily view and edit the relationships within your data model. Access it from the Home tab by clicking the "Manage relationships" button.
This opens a redesigned dialog that presents a comprehensive view of all your data relationships, allowing you to create new ones or modify existing ones.
Moreover, you can now filter and focus on specific relationships in your model, based on characteristics like cardinality and cross filter direction.
Model explorer public preview with calculation group authoring and creating relationships in the properties pane
The Model Explorer is now in public preview within the model view, offering a convenient way to see all your dataset semantic modelling objects in one place.
This enhanced visibility of the semantic model allows users to navigate between them with ease.
In addition, the properties pane for the dataset semantic model and new icons on the Data pane have been introduced, with further user interface improvements planned through December.
One noteworthy feature is the ability to create and edit calculation groups directly in Power BI Desktop using the Model tab of the Data pane. Calculation groups enable dynamic calculations to be applied to existing measures, enhancing flexibility and analytical capabilities. You can define DAX expressions for these calculation groups and add dynamic format strings from the properties pane.
Furthermore, you can now create relationships in the properties pane through the Model Explorer, streamlining the process without requiring data preview or validation until you're ready to apply the changes.
It's important to note that some modelling features like perspectives and cultures still need to be authored outside of Power BI Desktop, using XMLA write external tools or XMLA directly. For more information on these features, you can explore the provided links. To access these enhancements, ensure that you turn on the model explorer public preview switch in Power BI Desktop's options.
For the rest of the Power BI October 2023 update, click here, or if you would like to discuss Power BI for your business, email info@pt20.com.au or give us a call on +61 746 596 700.