Get the November update of PowerBI Desktop

You can easily download PowerBI Desktop from Microsoft Store and launch it within minutes.

If you never had PowerBI, you may need to fill up this form.

 You have two options.

 This comes up first but you can ignore it. It has lots of good information and links to videos if you are new.

Here is the working screen of the app.

 You can get the version number from here using About.

This is the November version.

New feature list from Microsoft Site:

Reporting

• Expand & collapse matrix row headers
• Copy & paste between Desktop files
• Updated filtering experience (preview)
• Report accessibility improvements

Analytics

• Color saturation on visuals upgraded to use conditional formatting
• Related questions in the Q&A explorer

Modeling

• New modeling view (preview)
• Composite models now generally available
• Modeling accessibility improvements
• New DAX functions
  • Optional DrilldownFilter argument for the RollupAddIsSubtotal function
  • NonVisual function
  • IsInScope function

Custom visuals

• Calendar by MAQ Software
• Ratings by MAQ Software
• Hourglass Chart by MAQ Software
• Forecast Using Multiple Models by MAQ Software
• Pie Charts Tree

Data connectivity

• Azure DevOps Server connector
• PDF Connector support for Start Page and End Page parameters
• Improved Azure Consumption Insights connector

Here is a video summarizing features:

SQL Server 2019 is in Public Preview now

Users as well as enterprises will be looking more and more at security and compliance features and SQL Server 2019 in Public Preview is just the thing they would love. Of course, it has the usual features of mission-critical availability; industry-leading performance and advanced analytics. Of course, you have to keep in mind that Power BI has become a part and parcel of SQL Server.

This is how Microsoft introduces SQL Server 2019:
"
Transform your business with a unified data platform. SQL Server 2019 comes with Apache Spark and Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) for intelligence over all your data.
"

Here are some highlighted description:

Intelligence over any data:
'SQL Server is a hub for data integration. Deliver transformational insights over structured and unstructured data with the power of SQL Server and Spark.'

Choice of language and platform:
'Build modern applications with innovative features using your choice of language and platform. Now on Windows, Linux, and containers.
'
Industry-leading performance:
'Take advantage of breakthrough scalability, performance, and availability for mission-critical, intelligent applications, data warehouses, and data lakes.
'
Advanced security features:
'Protect data at rest and in use. SQL Server has been the least vulnerable database over the last 8 years in the NIST vulnerabilities database.
'
Make faster, better decisions:
'Power BI Report Server gives your users access to rich, interactive Power BI reports, and the enterprise reporting capabilities of SQL Server Reporting Services.
'

You can read more about it here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2019

Connecting to SQLite using Power BI

Power BI is the Microsoft product for business intelligence. SQLite is well known for its use in mobile platforms and embedded apps.

There is no native way of connecting to SQLite using Power BI, but you could use the ODBC driver which was described in an earlier post.

Read here:

ODBC Drivers for SQLite:

Read here:

Creating ODBC DSN for SQLite3:

https://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2018/04/creating-odbc-dsn-for-connecting-to.html

Connecting to SQLite3 using Power BI is easy. Here are the steps.

Launch Power BI and open the Get Data menu as shown.

In the list in the Other clic on ODBC.

Highlight the DSN, ODBCSQLite and Click OK. 

Change it to Windows (this may not be necessary) and click Connect.

The From ODBC window is displayed. Click on Advanced Options to display the pane where you can write a SQL Statement.

It goes through from processing and since there is no table by that name, it returns an error.

Now change the SQL Statement to the following:

Select * from Users

After some processing it get connected.

Now you can find the table details in Navigator as shown.

Power BI does not show the tables and write a query you need to know the objects you created in SQLite database.

Add a SLICER and filter your data to Visualize

SLICER control provides filtering capability to the report, both Basic and Advanced.

Here is a clustered column chart from one of my previous posts.
The data of Male/Female/Total populations for several states in India is shown.

This uses a Clustered Column chart shown.

The next image shows the data behind the above report.

Only very few of the Indian States haven been chosen for the report and if you had had all of the States in this view it will be more crowded. Now how do I just filter a State from this report. You can do this by adding a SLICER (shown in the next image and you find thiss under VISUALIZATIONS).

You click and add the SLICER. The SLICER gets added to the report as shown. Here is a List of all STATES in the report. Instead of a List , you could also opt for a Drop-down list.

Now using the Basic filtering you can manipulate the report to show the one for the STATE you choose in the LIST as shown (Herein PUNJAB is chosen).

In addition to Basic you also have Advanced filtering where you can impose further conditions on your choice for the states.

Using the condition that the STATE name starts with 'C', the number of States is reduced. Now you can choose from this reduced LIST.

Get the July 23, 2018 Power BI and test drive

You can download Power BI Desktop from link shown at the end , or get it from Microsoft Store (Search for Power BI in Windows Store).

Power BI is Microsoft's Business Intelligence software that allows you turn out eye-catching reports from a variety of data sources offering superb visualization. What is more? It is updated every month to bring in new functionalities; improve existing ones and offering new data connectivity options.

I downloaded from Windows store and it looks like there are two versions of Power BI. I chose the first option.

The full name of the product I installed is the following:

These are the new features of the July 2018  (2.60.5169.3201)
update:


Modeling
Composite models (preview)

Reporting
New visual header with more flexibility and formatting
Wallpaper formatting
Theming update – more visual and page control (preview)
Tooltips for table and matrix
Turn tooltips off for visuals
Slicer accessibility
Formatting pane improvements
Stepped line support for line and combo charts
Turn off combo chart data labels for individual series
Sorting experience improvement

Analytics
Distribution factor insights

Custom visuals
Power BI certified category
Disabling specific organizational visual
Visio custom visual generally available
Mapbox custom visual generally available
DataText Box custom visual
China Scatter Map custom visual

Data Connectivity
IBM DB2 DirectQuery connector (preview)
Improvements to Web By Example connector
Support for importing multiple custom tables
Automatic completions for specifying sample values
Exposure of attribute selectors in HTML.Table function
SAP HANA – Default values for variables in Variable Input experience


Download link & feature summary and  here.

Usage of TREEMAP data visualization in Power BI

A treemap represent an entity of items in a rectangle where each item occupies a rectangle and all entities are inside the single rectangle( not unlike a map of a state containing all the counties, a map unlike treemap is not in a rectangle).

This is supported visualization type in Power BI.

Treemap.png

I am using the data from this post  of filtered sales by employees in the Northwind database on SQL Server 2016 using a direct query.

On a new page, click treemap under visualization to add the treemap to the page as shown,

Treemap_0

Drag fields LastName and UnitPrice to the treemap and the treemap changes as shown. Each rectangle now corresponds to an employee with its area in proportion to the sales made by the employee.

Treemap_00

You can add other formatting as shown

Treemap_000

You can add Spotlight to the treemap using the Spotlight menu as shown.

Treemap_2

You can also add tooltip in the Group page.

Treemap_3