PROLOGIKA BLOG · IDEAS FROM THE FIELD
Practical perspectives on Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, semantic models, and the work of turning data into insight.
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I while back I did a TechEd presentation "Can Your BI Solution Scale?", when I discussed a methodology for load testing SSAS and SSRS. A customer wanted to ensure that its Tabular model can scale to thousands of deployed users when it goes live. You can still use the excellent Microsoft-originated AS Load Sim framework that I demonstrated in the presentation to load test Tabular.…
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SQL Server 2016 RC3 (last and feature complete RC) just came out for public review. It includes a couple of interesting UX enhancements. The first one is more of a teaser but shows you that Microsoft is committed to fulfill and go beyond its reporting roadmap. SSRS in native mode plays a central role in this roadmap as the on-premises BI reporting platform. The new…
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As Power BI gains a momentum, expect attacks from vendors to intensify. Do you know that there are thousands of vendors offering BI tools! There is not a month passed by when I'm not asked about some cool vendor. I usually don't criticize other vendors but sometimes I get provoked by their audacity and I need to keep 'em honest. Recently, a customer shared a Sisense whitepaper "Why…
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As I explained in a previous blog, the Power BI Enterprise Gateway allows Power BI reports to connect to on-premise data source. A gateway can support multiple data sources. When setting up a data source, you'll see the Users tab on the data source properties. The users you add here will have rights to publish reports that can connect to a data source serviced by…
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Embedding reports is an extremely popular scenario for ISVs and developers coding external (customer-facing) applications. As I wrote a while back in my "Power BI Embedded Dashboards Without Authentication UI" blog, Power BI supports REST APIs that allow developers to embed dashboards and reports. However, these APIs don't support custom security so you have to provision users with Power BI. Furthermore, a hybrid architecture (reports definitions…
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One of the announcements from the Data Insights Summit was the SandDance custom visual. Originating from Microsoft Research and coded in SVG, it not only allows you to visually explore data in versatile ways but it also demonstrates how far your custom visuals can go. This is a super visual that combines multiple visualizations, including column chart, grid, scatter chart, density chart, stack chart, and…
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I had an inquiry about how to implement in Power BI/Power Pivot/Tabular something similar to the new Level of Detail (LOD) Expressions feature in Tableau 9.0. A more generic question would be how to turn a measure into a dimension so that you can analyze your data by the distinct values of the measure. Now, in my opinion, most real-life requirements would go beyond just…
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Atlanta MS BI fans, join me for the next Atlanta MS BI Group meeting on Mar 28th and 6:30 PM. Luis Figueroa will show us how to do cloud ETL with Azure Data Factory. Allegient will sponsor the event. Don't forget to register at atlantabi.sqlpass.org. ate this meeting http://aka.ms/PUGSurvey, PUG ID: 104 Presentation: A Closer Look at Azure Data Factory Level: Intermediate Date: Monday, March…
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A unique and tremendously useful Power BI feature allows you to implement hybrid solutions where your data remains on premises (SSAS, SQL Server, Oracle, and other data structures) but only report and dashboard definitions are deployed to powerbi.com. This hybrid architecture gives you the best of both worlds: cutting edge cloud-based visualizations with on-premises security, scale, and single version of truth. Since no cloud application…
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A welcome usability enhancement in SQL Server 2016 Tabular is the ability to configure display folders to organize table fields and measures in logical folders. Previously, you had to use BIDS Helper or DAX Editor (for measures) to implement display folders. Starting with SQL Server 2016, you can just set the Display Folder property of a measure or a field. This adds the display folder…
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