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...........................................................................9
4
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
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