CSL, July 2024
Last month was a quiet month for updates. This month, MS have added the ability to customize reference layers in Azure Maps visual, made DAX query view available in live connect and updated Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR).
Reporting
Customize your reference layers in the Azure Maps visual
This month, MS has announced several more improvements to reference layers: CSV support, new customization options, and dynamic URL sources!
First, the Azure Maps visual now supports CSV files as data sources for reference layers! Just as you can already use GeoJSON, Shapefiles, WKT, and KML files, you can now upload a CSV file instead in the reference layer section of the formatting pane.
You can also now format reference layer shapes from within the formatting pane. Previously, Azure Maps required you to define the color and width of points, lines, and polygons from within your reference layer files. Otherwise, these shapes would be drawn on your maps with the default colors and formatting. This requirement brought additional complexity to working with your reference layers in Power BI, since the files needed more than just the data you intended to visualize. Now, MS have added these standard formatting settings to each type of object in your reference layers in the formatting pane, so you can customize them directly from within Power BI!
Lastly, for those of you who need your reference layers to change with time or other data-bound conditions, you can now provide a dynamic URL using conditional formatting! This allows you to set custom logic to determine the reference layer URL the Azure Maps visual will use. For example, you can load in different reference layers based on the categories selected by a slicer, like to visualize performance of different product lines over the same geography.
Modeling
Announcing general availability of enhanced row-level security editor in Power BI Desktop
MS are excited to announce the general availability of the enhanced row-level security editor in Power BI Desktop! With this editor, you can quickly and easily create row-level security roles and filters. Simply choose ‘Manage roles’ from the ribbon to open the editor.
By default, this will open an easy-to-use drop-down interface for creating and editing security roles all without having to write any DAX!
If you prefer using DAX or need it for your filter definitions, you can switch to use the DAX editor to define your role. This is a rich editor complete with autocomplete for formulas (intellisense). It also allows you to easily verify the validity of your DAX expressions by selecting the check button and revert any changes by selecting the X button. At any point you can also switch back to the default editor by selecting ‘Switch to default editor’. All changes made in either editor persist when switching interfaces when possible, giving you maximum flexibility as you create your row-level security roles.
DAX query view is available in live connect
Following an update to DAX query view in May, MS have implemented some feedback. With this release you can write DAX queries with DAX query view when live connected to a published semantic model in Power BI Desktop!
This includes live connecting to Direct Lake semantic models created in Microsoft Fabric. Live connects to your published Direct Lake, import, DirectQuery, or composite semantic model in Desktop and use the DAX query view to quickly view data without having to create any visuals. Use quick queries to have a DAX query generated for you from any table, column, or measure, and Copilot can help you as you write your DAX queries.
This can be helpful to further your analysis beyond report authoring even when you are using a published semantic model managed by someone else.
Add or update multiple measures in DAX query view
Another popular ask for DAX query view is also now available – add or update the model with multiple measure changes.
In a DAX query, you can use the DEFINE syntax to add a measure. These DAX query scoped measures are helpful for authoring DAX formulas and trying them out with different groups by columns before adding them to the model. In DAX query view, MS made it easy to then add these measures to the model by clicking the text between the lines above the DEFINE MEASURE. DAX queries also allow you to define many measures at once, so it can be tedious to click each one.
This can be handy to quickly format all your DAX formulas at once.
- In DAX query view, right-click in the Data pane and choose Quick queries > Define all measures in this model
- Click the Format query button in the ribbon.
- Click Update model with changes button.
Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR) update
The following previously announced limitations of the PBIR format have been resolved:
- Can’t be exported to PPTX or PDF.
- Can’t be included in Subscriptions
- Mobile layouts aren’t applied.
- Can’t be utilized in Power BI Embedded.
To learn more about Power BI updates in July 2024, view the full MS summary.
If you would like support in your Power BI projects, get in touch with CSL by emailing info@csl-uk.com.
