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 →

The February 2019 release of Power BI Desktop unveiled a new, out-of-the-box visual to Power BI called Key Influencers. Key Influencers is Power BI’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered visualization. Microsoft has long incorporated AI capabilities in Power BI through features such as Natural Language (Q&A) and Quick Insights. However, with Key Influencers report developers now have explicit control in leveraging AI to discover insights in their data. Even more, Key Influencers is essentially multiple visuals baked into one! The Key Influencers visual is comprised of two tabs: Key Influencers and Top Segments. The Key Influencers tab will display a ranked list of the individual contributing factors that drive the selected condition. The Top Segments tab will take this a step further and display groupings of key influencers and their impact on the selected condition. The Key Influencers tab runs a LOGISTIC REGRESSION to analyze your data and identify the main factors that influence a specific metric or condition. Scenario: The customers of a company are using a particular cloud service. The Product Manager of that company wants to conduct a survey and analyze factors (Key Influencers) that drive the customers to provide a negative feedback i.e low rating after using the cloud service. KEY INFLUENCERS TAB The Top Influencers are:- Role in Org is consumer The people whose role in the organization is consumer have 2.57 times more chances to provide negative feedback than people whose role is adminstrator or publisher. 2. Theme is usability Second most influencing factor is Theme is usability which means the most negative reviews are provided for Usability. All the Key Influencers tab gives us two panes of visuals. For example, on the left-hand pane you have an infographic of the key influencers themselves, ranked based on their relative impact on the condition being analyzed And the right-hand pane will display a chart containing the values of that attribute, along with the average percentage that value matches the condition. All these factors change continuously depending on the parameters.For example if we add a slicer of company size, the top influencers will change- TOP SEGMENTS TAB On the Top Segments tab, you will see how groupings of key influencers affect the selected condition.  The segments are ranked based on the percentage of records where the condition is met. The size of each segment bubble represents how many records (population count) are in the segment. LIMITATIONS The key influencers visual has some limitations: Direct Query is not supported Live Connection to Azure Analysis Services and SQL Server Analysis Services is not supported Publish to web is not supported .NET Framework 4.6 or higher is required. Hope this is helpful! For more such posts visit- https://www.cloudfronts.com/why-you-should-migrate-from-excel-to-power-bi-for-reporting/

The tips for formating SSRS reports have been covered here. The Default margin settings have been given as to avoid the blank page issue And give the report a formal look. Also, how to Align Page Number in center of the page has been showed. Default margin settings:- Aligning Page Number in center of the page :- Select Page Number Text Box-> Format->Center in Form Hope this helps! For more such blogs refer the below link. https://www.cloudfronts.com/how-to-use-level-up-for-dynamics-365-crm/

Microsoft Excel has traditionally been the go-to reporting tool for businesses, but Power BI offers powerful analytics and reporting features for organizations. With faster experimentation with visualizations, statistical functions and calculations across broad datasets and ability to derive answers on the fly through the rapid recombination of fields, it is clear that Power BI delivers far greater insight than Excel. Reasons Why You Should Migrate Reporting from Excel to Power BI: 1. Storing and Accessing Large amount of Data Power BI has very impressive compression abilities for Microsoft Excel and text/.csv files, which allows you to view, analyze and visualize huge quantities of data that cannot be opened in Excel. Large datasets don’t have to be cut down in size and aggregated to show more encompassing analysis. 2.Applications Excel does have some of the newer charts now, they can’t connect to the data model. But Power BI is ideal for Dashboards, alerts, KPIs, and visualizations, including analyzing your data visually. 3.Reports Excel reports are normal and ordinary comparing Power BI whereas Power BI offers Beautiful branded reports comparing Excel. 4.Cross Filtering Power BI allows advanced features in Cross filtering between charts unlike excel. 5.Dashboard Refreshment You can refresh data in Power BI. Excel does not allow dashboard refreshment. 6.DataSet Power BI has the capability of handling larger dataset. Excel can handle limited dataset only. 7. Incredible Cloud-based Features Once you have finished constructing your Power BI analysis, you need a way to publish and disseminate your dashboards and reports. In Excel this would typically involve emailing a large file around, putting it in a shared drive or SharePoint portal, and letting people know it has been updated.With Power BI offered “publish” this process has been completely revolutionized. 8.Natural Language Query This incredible feature allows users to type questions and get an answer, either in a default or user-specified form. This is useful for executives with specific questions and business users who are unfamiliar with Power BI or the data model behind the report. Power BI is an easy tool to use that helps propel organizations into a data driven culture. With powerful self-service abilities, no longer are business users dependent on IT for gathering, transforming and analyzing data. Automation of dataset integration, ease of expansion into new data sources, rapid visualizations, and easily deployable Row Level Security are amongst the many reasons Power BI is a necessity.Additionally, a cloud-based collaboration environment with features like Natural Language Query ease the process of data governance. In the age of analytics, it’s import for organizations to intelligently utilize the data they collect to rapidly evolve with changing business and consumer habits. For more such blogs refer the below link. https://www.cloudfronts.com/how-to-use-level-up-for-dynamics-365-crm/

Introduction: Converting Date/Time values according to a time zone is quite challenging task in SSRS Reporting. For D365 CRM online we can achieve this using CDate Function. I will demonstrate how to use CDate function with a dynamic time-zone parameter. Step 1: Add this reference to the report properties: Click on “References” and then click on “Add” button under “Add or remove assemblies”. Browse the following file from your BIDS folder. Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35 Click on Ok button to save the changes. Step 2: Create the parameter in the report data section in the “Parameters” folder as shown below: In the “Default Values” section check the click on “Add” Button. Enter the User Time Zone in the Formula and click on OK to Save the Changes. Step 3: To use this functionality is simply as follows: DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value))) Example: If the Expression or Formula is as follow: Last 30 =WeekdayName(Weekday(DateSerial(Year(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value), Month(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value),”1″).AddMonths(1).AddDays(-30))) The Replace it with: Last 30= WeekdayName(Weekday(DateSerial(Year(DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value)))), Month(DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value)))),”1″).AddMonths(1).AddDays(-30))) Note: This is an easy way of dynamically converting a time zone from UTC to the user’s local time using CRM Online. We have to replace all the formulae which contain the DateTime field value which is retrieved directly from FetchXML with the above mentioned Function to avoid issues in SSRS reports due to Time Zone Conversion.