Analyst in Action

Let's explore the realm of security in Power BI. I am a great fan of Power BI as a BI tool that allows to create intuitive visuals with such ease. You can easily share your reports with a large audience across your organization. Let's think of a scenario - your report contains some sensitive data that should not be accessed by all users. Or there are cases where certain reports shouldn't be accessed across different multiple departments. Power BI has answers to all such questions.  Let's start from the very top and understand the different types of security that you can achieve in Power BI - Basic Row Level Security (RLS), Page Level Security (PLS), and Object Level Security (OLS). Row-level security allows to give access based on the defined role. If you are creating a Power BI report this is one of the crucial steps. Check this  article  from Microsoft to learn about RLS in detail.  In this article, we will focus on  the Page Level Security  and  Obj...

Are you a fan of matrix visual in Power BI? If you are as I am, I always struggle to get the correct totals and get something else instead of the totals it can be average. After a lot of research and going over different community posts, finally we have found 3 common scenarios that can elevate your matrix to the next level. To start with, I am using Sample Superstore data. Let's first explain the 3 different scenarios that we will tackle - We  would like  to show both Total Sales and Average Monthly Sales across different categories and different periods. We  would like  to show the Average Sales in the row subtotals and Total Sales in the column subtotals. Last and the  most interesting scenario is to show the Total sales excluding the furniture sales in the row subtotals and total sales in the column subtotals. Let's start by getting the correct totals in a matrix. Generally, if  use  basic Sum, Average... functions in your measures then most likely...

Just think of a scenario, you are working on a Power BI report that is created by multiple developers and now you are debugging it. If you have no knowledge of the ins and outs of it you will get jaded by it very soon. But what if you see some description or textual information within the report? That will be the ray of light 💡.  As a best practice, if you are creating any report from scratch try to add a description to almost everything. Starting from the tables, columns, measures, calculation groups, field parameters..... How to do it? Okay, let's start by providing a description of the tables. I am using Sample Superstore data and want to provide a description - Contains sales data. To do so, go to the data model view. Select the table where you need to add the description. Under properties, you can provide a description under the description section. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!! That's basic and at Analyst in Action, we always strive to go beyond the basic knowledge. Let...

Let's think of a scenario, where you want to copy the bookmarks from one report to another. Most obvious approach is to just do a copy paste of the bookmarks. What's wrong with this approach? This approach only works for all visuals but not for bookmarks and field parameters.  If you are not familiar with basics of bookmarks and field parameters do refer to the beginners guide for bookmarks  and introduction to field parameters . Then how do you copy the bookmarks? Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR) for Power BI Project files (PBIP) will help you in achieving this. Let's check it out, I have 2 reports one contains the bookmark called Bookmarks PBIR Test (origin) and other one is Rolling Average PBIR Test (destination) .  Before we get started, you have to enable Power BI Project save option under preview features. Once enabled, restart Power BI desktop. There is a TMDL icon appearing on the left pane. What is TMDL and what's in it for me? There's a lot of possi...

Let's think of a scenario where you have asked to batch edit your long list of DAX, create repetitive measures over and over, copy whole set of measures from one PBIX to another. Until January 2025, if I encounter all those scenarios I always think of some external tools to achieve it. But but but Power BI does listen to you 😂 and now we have TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language). In today's blog we will explore the capabilities of TMDL.  Before we get started, TMDL is still in Preview features. You need to enable it under your settings and restart your Power BI desktop. You will see an icon for TMDL on the left pane. To learn more about TMDL do visit the detailed article from Microsoft Once you click on the TMDL it will lead to a separate section with all the introductory steps. To start with, we will change the summarise by for all columns from none to sum. Just drag and drop the Sample Superstore table. You can edit the none to Summarise by section for every column to S...