Introduction: This blog will show you how you can color individual rows differently based on different conditions and the row headers in matrix (Not alternating rows). Our Scenario: I want to apply colors to different rows of the following Buckets: Current – No Color 1-30 Days Past Due – Yellow 31-60 Days Past Due – Orange 61-90 Days Past Due – Red 91 or More Days Past Due – Red Step 1: Create a new calculated column in your data source which applies a numeric value to each header type that you would like to have highlighted. We have created a Calculated Column using the following query. Step 2: Select the Matrix to which you want to apply the formatting and go to conditional formatting section in the Format Tab and turn the Background Color Option “On”. Step 3: The Conditional Formatting is applied for different fields in the Values section in the Matrix. So we will apply conditional formatting according to No.  field first. Select Format by “Rules”. In Based on field select “Sum of Color Column” and in Summarization select “Sum”. In the Rules section add the Rule as shown in the Screenshot.  Step 4: Apply the other rules for different colors same as above. Step 5: The Colors have been applied to different buckets according to our rule for “No.” Column. Step 6: Repeat the same steps by selecting different fields from the drop down under Conditional Formatting, one by one. Step 7: Thus we have colored the different rows of the Matrix successfully based on our condition.

In this blog I am going to explain you how to create a Date table in Power BI desktop. A date table is a table that contains one column of DateTime type with unique values. It’s also called CALENDAR table A data model typically contains a date table A date table is designed to slice dates It should contain all dates included in the period to analyse It should contain one column of DateTime type Each day should be represented by a single a row There should be no gaps in the data It should be marked as a date table Using a date table with only the relevant year is best practise It’s recommended to have a rich set of additional columns Give the data model the flexibility to perform time intelligence calculations by using specific DAX functions Slice data by using one of its columns Create relationships between a date table and other tables in the data model Filter and group data across multiple tables Types of Date tables There are two ways to create a table Automatic Date Tables Power BI automatically creates a date table for each Date or DateTime column in the model. This makes it possible to slice each date by year, quarter, month and day. Calculated Date Tables It can be done by using two DAX functions: CALENDAR and CALENDARAUTO Syntax: Dates = CALENDAR(<StartDate>,<EndDate>) Dates = CALENDAR (      FIRSTDATE(Table[column]),    LASTDATE(Table[column])        ) Calendar functions return a table with a single column named “Date” and a list of values for the dates. Calendar requires the boundaries of the set of dates. CalendarAuto searches among all the dates in the data model and automatically finds the first and last year referenced within the model. Dates = CALENDARAUTO() The final formula for the calculated table should look something like this: Date = ADDCOLUMNS ( CALENDAR (DATE(2018,1,1), DATE(2025,12,31)), “DateAsInteger”, FORMAT ([Date], “YYYYMMDD”), “Year”, YEAR ([Date]), “Monthnumber”, FORMAT ([Date], “MM”), “YearMonthnumber”, FORMAT ([Date], “YYYY/MM”), “YearMonthShort”, FORMAT ([Date], “YYYY/mmm”), “MonthNameShort”, FORMAT ([Date], “mmm”), “MonthNameLong”, FORMAT ([Date], “mmmm”), “DayOfWeekNumber”, WEEKDAY ([Date]), “DayOfWeek”, FORMAT ([Date], “dddd”), “DayOfWeekShort”, FORMAT ([Date], “ddd”), “Quarter”, “Q” & FORMAT ([Date], “Q”), “YearQuarter”, FORMAT ([Date], “YYYY”) & “/Q” & FORMAT ([Date], “Q”) ) Once the date table is in place, it is a good idea to mark it as a date table as shown here: This both simplifies the code to author time intelligence calculations and automatically disables the auto Date/Time feature. I hope this will help you.  

Power BI Embedded is a Microsoft Azure service that is useful for the ISVs and developers to embed visuals, reports and even dashboard into the application. As Power BI Embedded is a PaaS analytics solution which provide Azure based capacity, Power BI embedded charge customers on an hourly basis there are n annual commitment for the Power BI Embedded service. As Power BI Embedded charges on hourly basis and there is no direct Auto Scaling feature available on Azure but, we do have API provided by using which we can scale the capacity. In this blog we are going to see how scale the Power BI Embedded capacity using PowerShell script. Before going to start we’ll first quick list the set up the prerequisites: You will need an Azure account, if you are implementing the PowerShell script for your organisation then you must have co-administrator role assign kindly keep in mind that if you have contributor role assign then you’ll not be able to make Automation account.(we’ll see about the Automation account in the later part of this blog.) Power BI Embedded subscription. Automation Account. I’m assuming you already have Azure account along with the subscription for the Power BI Embedded. Steps:- Create Automation Account:- Automation account is use to manage the Azure resource across all the subscription for the given tenant. To create Automation click on the create resource in your Azure portal as shown below and search for Automation account. Or you can type in search box Automation Account. 2. Click on create Automation Account and make sure to fill the following details. If you have multiple subscription then make sure to select proper subscription from drop-down. Make sure create Azure Run As account is selected to Yes (if you are co-administrator or administrator then it will by default selected to Yes). Once we create Azure automation account it will show under automation account. 3. Open the Automation account and go to the Connections and add below connection and types as shown below (Click on Add a connection and type the name and type as shown below) 4. For the AzureClassicRunAsConnection set the CertificateAssetName to AzureRunAsCertificate. 5. Add the Power BI Embedded subscription to your resource group. 6. Once we have Automation account ready go to the Runbooks under Process Automation in Automation Account. Runbook is useful for the routine procedures and operations. We can also use Azure Function app instead of Runbook. 7. Click on the Create a runbook and use fill following details. 8. Once we open runbook make sure to import the Module AzureRM.PowerBIEmbedded which can be installed by going to Module under Shared Resources then click on Browse gallery and search for the AzureRM.PowerBIEmbedded module. 9. Use the below PowerShell script which can also be found on the Power BI discussion site. $resourceGroupName = “<your resource group>” $instanceName = “<Power BI embedded instance name>” $azureProfilePath = “” $azureRunAsConnectionName = “AzureRunAsConnection” #”PowerBIAutoscale” $configStr = “ [ { Name: “”Weekday Heavy Load Hours”” ,WeekDays:[1,2,3,4,5] ,StartTime: “”06:45:00″” ,StopTime: “”23:45:00″” ,Sku: “”A4″” } , { Name: “”Early AM Hours”” ,WeekDays:[0,1,2,3,4,5,6] ,StartTime: “”00:00:00″” ,StopTime: “”04:44:00″” ,Sku: “”A1″” } , { Name: “”Model Refresh”” ,WeekDays:[0,1,2,3,4,5,6] ,StartTime: “”04:45:00″” ,StopTime: “”06:45:00″” ,Sku: “”A3″” } , { Name: “”Weekend Operational Hours”” ,WeekDays:[6,0] ,StartTime: “”06:45:00″” ,StopTime: “”18:00:00″” ,Sku: “”A3″” } ] “ $VerbosePreference = “Continue” $ErrorActionPreference = “Stop” Import-Module “AzureRM.PowerBIEmbedded” Write-Verbose “Logging in to Azure…” # Load the profile from local file if (-not [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($azureProfilePath)) { Import-AzureRmContext -Path $azureProfilePath | Out-Null } # Load the profile from Azure Automation RunAS connection elseif (-not [string]::IsNullOrEmpty($azureRunAsConnectionName)) { $runAsConnectionProfile = Get-AutomationConnection -Name $azureRunAsConnectionName Add-AzureRmAccount -ServicePrincipal -TenantId $runAsConnectionProfile.TenantId ` -ApplicationId $runAsConnectionProfile.ApplicationId -CertificateThumbprint $runAsConnectionProfile.CertificateThumbprint | Out-Null } # Interactive Login else { Add-AzureRmAccount | Out-Null } $fmt = “MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss” # format string $culture = [Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture $startTime = Get-Date Write-Verbose “Current Local Time: $($startTime)” $startTime = [System.TimeZoneInfo]::ConvertTimeBySystemTimeZoneId($startTime, [System.TimeZoneInfo]::Local.Id, ‘Eastern Standard Time’) Write-Verbose “Current Time EST: $($startTime)” $scheduleTimeMidnight = ($startTime).Date Write-Verbose “Schedule Time Base (Midnight): $($scheduleTimeMidnight)” $currentDayOfWeek = [Int]($scheduleTimeMidnight).DayOfWeek Write-Verbose “DOW: $($currentDayOfWeek)” $stateConfig = $configStr | ConvertFrom-Json #| Select-Object Sku, WeekDays, Name, StartTime, EndTime #, @{Name=”StartTime”; Expression={[DateTime]:Smiley TonguearseExact($_.StartTime, $fmt, $culture)}}, @{Name=”StopTime”; Expression={[DateTime]:Smiley TonguearseExact($_.StopTime, $fmt, $culture)}} Write-Verbose “Writing Config Objects…” foreach($x in $stateConfig) { Write-Verbose “Name: $($x.Name)” Write-Verbose “Weekdays: $($x.WeekDays -join ‘,’)” $x.StartTime = ($scheduleTimeMidnight).AddHours([int]$x.StartTime.Split(“{:}”)[0]).AddMinutes([int]$x.StartTime.Split(“{:}”)[1]).AddSeconds([int]$x.StartTime.Split(“{:}”)[2]) Write-Verbose “Start Time: $($x.StartTime)” $x.StopTime = ($scheduleTimeMidnight).AddHours([int]$x.StopTime.Split(“{:}”)[0]).AddMinutes([int]$x.StopTime.Split(“{:}”)[1]).AddSeconds([int]$x.StopTime.Split(“{:}”)[2]) Write-Verbose “End Time: $($x.StopTime)” } Write-Verbose “Getting current status…” # Get the server status $pbiService = Get-AzureRmPowerBIEmbeddedCapacity -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName switch ($pbiService.State) { “Scaling” { Write-Verbose “Service scaling operation in progress… Aborting.” end } “Succeeded” {Write-Verbose “Current Status: Running”} Default {Write-Verbose “Current Status: $($pbiService.State)”} } Write-Verbose “Current Capacity: $($pbiService.Sku)” # Find a match in the config $dayObjects = $stateConfig | Where-Object {$_.WeekDays -contains $currentDayOfWeek } # If no matching day then exit if($dayObjects -ne $null){ # Can’t treat several objects for same time-frame, if there’s more than one, pick first $matchingObject = $dayObjects | Where-Object { ($startTime -ge $_.StartTime) -and ($startTime -lt $_.StopTime) } | Select-Object -First 1 if($matchingObject -ne $null) { Write-Verbose “Current Config Object” Write-Verbose $matchingObject.Name Write-Verbose “Weekdays: $($matchingObject.WeekDays -join ‘,’)” Write-Verbose “SKU: $($matchingObject.Sku)” Write-Verbose “Start Time: $($matchingObject.StartTime)” Write-Verbose “End Time: $($matchingObject.StopTime)” # if Paused resume if($pbiService.State -eq “Paused”) { Write-Verbose “The service is Paused. Resuming the Instance” $pbiService = Resume-AzureRmPowerBIEmbeddedCapacity -Name $instanceName -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -PassThru -Verbose } # Change the SKU if needed if($pbiService.Sku -ne $matchingObject.Sku) { Write-Verbose “Updating Capacity Tier from $($pbiService.Sku) to $($matchingObject.Sku)” Update-AzureRmPowerBIEmbeddedCapacity -Name $instanceName -sku $matchingObject.Sku } } else { Write-Verbose “No Interval Found. Checking current capacity tier.” if($pbiService.Sku -ne “A2”) { Write-Verbose “No Interval Found. Scaling to A2” Write-Verbose “Updating Capacity Tier from $($pbiService.Sku) to A2” Update-AzureRmPowerBIEmbeddedCapacity -Name $instanceName -sku $matchingObject.Sku } } } else { Write-Verbose “No Interval Found. Checking current capacity tier.” if($pbiService.Sku -ne “A2”) { Write-Verbose “No Interval Found. Scaling to A2” Write-Verbose “Updating Capacity Tier from $($pbiService.Sku) to A2” Update-AzureRmPowerBIEmbeddedCapacity -Name $instanceName -sku $matchingObject.Sku } } Write-Verbose “Done!” 10. Above script not includes Capacity pause, we can add that in the script. 11. Once we done with the script click on Save and the Publish the script. 12. Create the Schedule under the Shared Resources … Continue reading Auto scale the Power BI Embedded capacity using Job Scheduler in Azure →

In this blog we are going to embed a Power BI report into webpage, to do so below are the steps, 1. Go to https://app.powerbi.com/ and create new report or we can publish already created report, in this case, we have one sample report, which contain three pages Page1: Team Scorecard Page2: Industry Margin Analysis Page3: Executive Scorecard 2. Open the report to be embedded and Go to File ->embed Upon clicking on Embed, we will get following popup, which contain link that can be used for embedding and HTML code. 3. Now we have to paste the html code into HTML page, we can edit the iframe height and width 4. Now open the HTML page in the web browser then we can see the Power BI Report, in this, we can apply the filter, when we load the HTML page then we need to sign in. In this way, we can embed Power BI reports into Webpages.

In this blog we going to Set which page to open when the Power BI report is embedded We can do the customization in the embed code as per requirement for the page loading. We have to open the report and click on each page and note down the URL to get page name So report page names are, Team Scorecard: ReportSection2 Industry Margin Analysis: ReportSection Executive Scorecard: ReportSection1 2. We have to append the code &pageName=ReportPageTabName to the URL e.g. https://app.powerbi.com/reportEmbed?reportId=c772790a-7b9f-43fb-99eb-42f560e95cf6&autoAuth=true&ctid=26c4b2e4-ec07-4c7b-92e5-97f52865e98b&config=eyJjbHVzdGVyVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93YWJpLXNvdXRoLWVhc3QtYXNpYS1yZWRpcmVjdC5hbmFseXNpcy53aW5kb3dzLm5ldCJ9&pageName=ReportSection 3. We can do change in the URL for all report pages, embed in the webpage,below is HTML and JavaScript code for doing customization 4. When we open this page in web browser it will look like, when we click on any button to load report it will be loaded or we can set the default report page to load when the webpage is opened. 5. When we click first button i.e. Team Scorecard first page of the report will load Similarly for other pages, In this way we can embed Power BI report in webpages and do customization.

In this blog I am going to explain you how to create a custom URL for your text column in Power BI desktop. You can create hyperlinks in tables and matrix in Power BI desktop. Before jumping to use a new feature in Power BI desktop, I am showing you how we had done previously. Step 1: Import sample data in Power BI desktop. Step 2: If the hyperlink doesn’t already exist as a field in your dataset, use Power BI Desktop to add it as custom column like “WebURL”. Step 3: In Data view, select the column and in the Modeling tab choose the dropdown for Data Category. Step 4: Select Web URL. Step 5: Switch to Report view and create a table or matrix using the field categorized as a Web URL. The hyperlinks will be blue and underlined. Step 5: If you don’t want to display a long URL in a table, you can display a hyperlink icon instead. Note that you can’t display icon in matrix. Select the table to make it active. Select the Format icon to open the Formatting tab. Expand Values, Iocate URL icon, and turn it on. Step 6: Now we want a web link on custom column, so first we uncategorized the WebURL column. In Data view, select the column and in the Modeling tab choose the dropdown for Data Category. Step 7: Switch to Report view and remove the WebURL column from the table. Select the table to make it active. Select the Format icon to open the Formatting tab. Expand Conditional formatting, select filed that you want to active hyperlink and locate Web URL, and turn it on. Step 8: Turn Web URL on, one popup will be appeared in this you have to select WebURL field and click on OK button. Step 9: Result look like below screenshot, now you hover on column field you can clearly see the hyperlink. I hope this will help you.  

In this blog I am going to explain you how to send an e-mail to any audience when a Power BI data alert is triggered. Step 1: Create a sample of Power BI report using visuals like gauge, KPI or card title. Step 2: Publish your Power BI report on app.powerbi.com site. Step 3: Pin individual visuals like gauge, KPI or card title. Step 4: Go to dashboard page, select chart and click on ellipsis Step 5: Click on Manage alerts, click on Add alert rule Here you can set the threshold condition and based on above and below amount. Also set maximum notification frequency either at most every 24 hours or at most once an hour. Step 5: Login to https://flow.microsoft.com/ Step 6: Create a Templates “Send an e-mail to any audience when a power BI data alert Is triggered” After clicking on continue button Set Alert Id that have been created on manage alert in Power BI. Click on Save button. Step 7: Whenever data changes on Power BI dataset and alert rule condition satisfied this Power Automate flow is triggered and send mail to target audiences. I hope this will help you.

Hello Friends, in this blog we will see how to add effects to Power BI buttons. Steps: Open Power BI desktop and select blank button from ribbon. Now add a rectangular strip to your button to look more attractive with the following configuration. Now add another button with transparency 50 % in default state just to create the feel of not focused state. Make sure to turn off background. Add hover state configuration for fill property of newly added button. Place the button on your old button. Final button will look like this. You can add click state for button  Hope this helps.

This blog will explain how to use “What If” Parameter in Power BI desktop. Via What If parameter in Power Bi can easily give you the ability to dynamically transform your data. Using this parameter will allow to demonstrate how your data change under various scenarios. For example, how much revenue would you have if your products were at 5%, 10% or 15% of the retail price. Another scenario would be to show create a marketing mix to show how profit would change due to different investment in each channel and also if company increased or decreased its budget then how the revenue amount will be change etc. How to use What IF parameters in Power BI Step 1: Click the Modeling tab in the top ribbon. Step 2: Click the What IF parameter from the top ribbon. Step 3: The What If parameter window will open, provide details such as Name, Data Type, Minimum, Maximum and Default number. Step 4: Lastly, you can add an optional slicer. Step 5: A table with a calculated measure will be created A generated series that spans the specifications of your parameter. A selected value function that changes as the parameter changes. Let’s do it practically Scenario: You have a list of Azure usages details like server name, VM name and cost. Company would like to create a parameter that allows them to apply usage so that company can see the overall cost of each year when different usages are applied. Company would like to have a parameter that spans from 0% to 50% with a 5% increment. You can see how this parameter is created by viewing the new table: Once the What If parameter is created you have your generated series that looks like: Usages Percentage = GENERATESERIES(0, 0.5, 0.05) And you will have a selected value functions that looks like this: Usages Percentage Value = SELECTEDVALUE(‘Usages Percentage'[Usages Percentage],0) Both of these are automatically created for you. Apply the parameter to your data In this case, company want to apply the usage to total cost. This can be easily done with a calculated measure. Usages = SUM(AzureUsages[TotalCost])*’Usages Percentage'[Usages Percentage Value] The final result you can pull into a cluster column chart or table so that company can see how the cost is affected by the usage parameter as you slide it to different usage values. I hope this is helpful. Check out my other blog here https://www.cloudfronts.com/embed-secure-power-bi-report-using-python-web-application-with-flask-in-visual-studio-2015/

In today’s business intelligence world, Power BI has become a beloved among many. In this blog, I am going to cover Power BI best practices, that will assistance to you while developing the Power BI report. Company Logo Use the logo in their background. Data Timestamp to show, when it was refreshed last We can implement it, to show the end user, when the data was refreshed last. Less use of scrollable Page End users always feel difficulty when the report has a scrollable page. We do not recommend making the page scrollable if not necessary. Instead of making page scrollable, use Bookmark and Selection Pane. Census dashboard doesn’t have a scrollable page which is good. Use Basic Reporting Filter Power BI provides the following type of filters. Visual Level Page Level Report Level Use the filters wisely as per your requirement. Pull data from views, not tables Importing data from tables in a SQL Server, MY SQL or Oracle database creates strong dependencies between the physical data model and the reporting engine. Whenever table structures change, it’s best to pull relational data from views. Filter before import If you’re importing data into Power BI instead of a live connection, it’s best to limit the amount of processes that happen inside the tool. Power BI has a limit for the amount of data that’s allowed to be imported, so any steps to avoid reaching that limit will be a plus. Narrow tables are faster than short and wide tables If the performance is slowing down as you’re adding data, it’s mostly due to wide tables.  Power BI reacts much faster using narrow and long tables versus short and wide ones. Remove unused fields Whenever adding more and more data, you will notice the pbix file size increasing.  One of the best and quickest ways to reduce the pbix file is to remove any unused fields. How: Click Edit Query > then select the table you want to remove the fields from > Click Choose Columns. Label all of your steps As you’re going through and modifying the imported data, Power BI creates a history that allows you to seamlessly go back and remove any changes that might break the datasets.  Furthermore, labelling each of these steps allows you to easily remember what each does. Limit the visuals in dashboards and reports The Microsoft Power BI performance best practices highlight that placing many visuals in a single report is responsible for it. This is what you need to do in order to limit the number of visuals in dashboards and reports: Limit to a minimum of eight widget visuals in every report page and keep the grids to a minimum of one in every page The pages should be limited to no more than 30 points (cards: 1, gauges: 2, charts: 3, maps: 3, grids: 5) Keep the tiles limited to no more than 10 per dashboard. Remove unnecessary interactions between visuals Do you know the secret of improving Power BI report performance? Here’s a clue! You can make that possible by removing unnecessary interactions between visuals. This is possible because of the reason that all visuals on a report can interact with one another by default. The interactivity should be controlled and modified for optimal performance. Further, you can reduce the number of queries fired at the backend and improve report performance by disabling unwanted interactivity. Enable Row-Level Security (RLS) Power BI only imports the data that the user is authorized to view, with RLS that restricts user access to certain rows in a database depending on the characteristics of the user executing a query. But how to attain substantial performance gains? You can enable this by combining Power BI roles with roles in the backend. Moreover, you need to test all roles prior to rolling out to production. Use Microsoft AppSource certified custom visuals The Power BI certified custom visuals are verified by Microsoft to have robust as well as well-performing code. These AppSource visuals have passed rigorous quality testing and are the only custom visuals that can be viewed in Export to PowerPoint and email subscriptions. Avoid using hierarchical filters We recommend, not to use any hierarchical slicers in the report. Currently, we have observed that no hierarchical slicers are used in the report. Experience an enhanced performance in Power BI by using multiple filters for the hierarchy. Categorize the data for Power BI reports One of the best practices in Power BI is to provide data categorization for the Power BI reports (HBI, MBI, LBI). The Power BI data classification enables you to raise user awareness about the security level that is required to be used. This also helps you to understand the way reports should be shared inside as well as outside the organization. The categories can be listed as: HBI or High Business Impact data, that requires users to get a policy exception to share the data eternally. LBI or Low Business Impact as well as MBI or Medium Business Impact, that do not require any exceptions. Use the On-premises data gateway It is suggestible as well as one of the best practices to use on-premises data gateway instead of Personal Gateway for it takes data and imports it into Power BI. But why Enterprise Gateway? It is more efficient while you work with large databases as Enterprise Gateway imports nothing. Use separate Power BI gateways for “Direct Query” and “Scheduled Refresh” Using the same gateway for Scheduled Data Refresh and Live Connection slows down the Live Connection performance when the Scheduled Data Refresh is active. It is suggestible for you to create separate gateways for Live Connection and Scheduled Refresh to avoid such issues. Test each custom visual on a report for ensuring fast report load time The Power BI team doesn’t thoroughly test the custom visuals that are not certified. So, while handling large datasets or complex aggregations, the custom visuals might perform poorly. What should you do when the chosen visual … Continue reading Top 20 Best Practices of Power BI →