Power BI Weekly Newsletter Issue #251

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Data Prep

Covering: Power Query (M), Dataflows, Data connectors, AI Insights

• Adam Saxton (@GuyInACube) describes How to connect to Microsoft Fabric Items from Power BI Desktop?
• Patrick Leblanc (@GuyInACube) discusses Decoding Direct Lake: The Truth Behind DirectQuery Fallback
• Chris Webb (@cwebb_bi) talks about Best Practices For Power BI On Databricks Webinar

Data Modeling

Covering: DAX (Measures & Calculated Tables/Columns), Relationships, Analysis Services, Composite models

• On the SQLBI blog, Marco Russo (@marcorus) blogs about Vpax Obfuscator and DAX Optimizer – Unplugged #57
• On the SQL Server Central blog, Koen Verbeeck (@Ko_Ver) explains How to Optimize Power BI Semantic Model Performance with Vertipaq Analyzer
• Chandeep Chhabra (@chandeep2786) describes How to Perform VLOOKUP in Power BI and talks about Who bought A but not B? . . . (Pattern Analysis in Power BI)

Report Authoring and Interactivity

Covering: Layout and formatting, Visualizations, Interactivity, Themes, Mobile reports, Dashboards

• Erik Svensen (@donsvensen) delves into Power BI – Combine visual calculations and numeric parameters to create a dynamic moving average period
• Also on the Learning Science YouTube channel, Learning Science explains How to calculate moving average at visual level in Power BI without using complex DAX measure
• Andrzej Leszkiewicz (@avatorl) covers HTML/CSS in core Power BI visuals
• Reid Havens (@HavensBI) describes Turning Beast to Beauty: Removing Chart Junk in Power BI

Deployment, Security and Operations

Covering: Workspaces and Apps, Template Apps, Deployment Pipelines, Gateways, Security, Sharing, Licences, Admin operations, Developer Tooling

• Chris Wagner (@KratosBi) describes Everything About Power BI Security
• Philipp Lenz (@lenz_philipp) writes about Dynamic subscriptions with email in Power BI – Part 1
• Nikil Prabhakar wonders Is Data Activator ready for Prime Time?
• Ignacio Barrau (@ignacho_07) covers [Fabric] Data Activator - Triggers y alerta instantánea [Spanish]

General

Covering: Cross-topic announcements & feature summaries, Whitepapers, Community events, Learning Resources & Certifications, Podcasts, Sample reports, End-to-end walkthroughs

• On the Power BI blog, Saveen Reddy (@MSPowerBI) shares the Power BI March 2024 Feature Summary
• Paul Turley (@paul_turley) walks through Moving from Power BI to Microsoft Fabric

Useful Links

• Power BI Maturity Scorecard - 97% of the Fortune 500 are using Power BI. Only 20% of analytics deliver business value. How do you score?
• Azure Weekly - Interested in Azure? Sign up to our sister newsletter Azure Weekly to receive all the week's Azure news
• M language reference - Official Power Query M Reference
• PowerQuery How - Alternative M Language Reference created by Rick de Groot, including improved function explanations, code formatting, practical examples and further reading
• DAX Studio - Useful open source tool for executing and analyzing DAX queries, founded by Darren Gosbell
• DAX Guide - Your go-to reference on the DAX language, created by the SQLBI team
• Power BI Visuals Reference - An exhaustive list (as of Sep. 2018) of all Power BI native & custom visuals, placed into separate categories, again created by the SQLBI team
• Report Theme Generator - A handy report theme generator created by the Power BI Tips and Tricks team
• Power BI Theme templates - Detailed Power BI Theme templates for all the native visuals, created by David Eldersveld
• Power BI from Rookie to Rock Star - Free, detailed eBook to get up and running with Power BI, written by Reza Rad
• Power BI Architecture diagram - An informative Power BI Architecture diagram, created by Dustin Ryan
• Power BI Whitepapers - A list of official Power BI whitepapers, covering Security, Premium deployment, Advanced Analytics and more