In this article, we are going to learn about some of the interesting features of Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop.
Q&A Feature
This feature is available in Power BI Desktop as a visual and in Power BI service as an attribute in a Dashboard. It allows users to type in their questions using natural language.
Q&A in Power BI Desktop
The Q&A visual in Power BI Desktop gives us several “chiclets” which show recommended questions/queries. This visual only works when you have created other visuals in your report. The Q&A visual also allows users to enter their own queries and create relevant visuals based on the questions asked. If you add the Q&A visual to your report and then publish it, it will be available in the report if not, you’d have to create a dashboard to access this feature.
Q&A in Power BI Service
The Q&A feature is only available on a dashboard and not a report. It can be found at the bottom of the dashboard in Power BI Mobile and at the top left of the dashboard in Power BI Service.
Q&A in Power BI desktop
Q&A in Power BI Service
As you type in your question you will get many suggestions and a visual will be created dynamically to answer what queries you may ask.
When typing in your questions, if you notice some words are greyed out, it means Power BI does not recognize that word. Kindly use this documentation to learn about tips on asking questions with Q&A.
Once you have your desired answer and are satisfied with the visual, you can pin your visual to the dashboard. However, if the dashboard was shared with you, you will not be able to pin the visual.
That’s not all, another interesting feature is that you can also specify the visual you want with your question. Cool Right?
Data-Driven Notification in Power BI Service – Alerts
Alerts are an excellent feature that allows users to set notifications on specific visuals to notify them when the data changes. For example, an alert can be set for a KPI visual to notify stakeholders in their mailboxes when a big sale has been made. Alerts can only be created in Power BI Service. It supports any License be it free, Pro, or Premium Licenses. Alerts are applicable to just three visuals which are card, KPI, and Gauge visual. Also, Alerts are only available for Dashboards tiles/visuals and not reports.
Creating an Alert
It is quite easy to create an alert, first, you’ll have to create a dashboard – this requires you to pin relevant visuals from your report. Those pinned visuals are called tiles on the dashboard.
Next, you’ll click on the three dots on the tile and navigate to Manage alerts.
A prompter will pop up to set the alert.
Click on + Add alert rule to set up your alert.
Ensure the active option is on, set your condition appropriately then save and close.
Managing an alert
Saved alerts can be managed in the same way we create alerts. You can either make edits or delete the alert.
You can also manage alerts via the settings.
Navigate to Alerts under settings. You can edit or delete alerts.
Great points to note
- Alerts aren’t supported for card tiles with date or time measures.
- Alerts only work with numeric data types.
- Alerts only work on refreshed data. They don’t work on static data.
- Because alerts are only sent if your data changes, you don’t receive duplicate alerts for an unchanged value.
- Alerts only work on streaming datasets if you build a KPI, card, or gauge report visual and then pin that visual to the dashboard.
- You can create up to 250 alerts across all your models.
- You can only see the alerts you created.
Data-Driven Notification (Alerts) – Let’s take the extra mile with Power Automate.
Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based automation service that is ideal for automating processes, workflows, and tasks within and between numerous services. Let’s learn how to automate generating an email from an alert in Power BI Service.
We need to sign to Power Automate first. Then Navigate to Templates and type in “Power BI” into the search box. Next, Select the “Send an e-mail to any audience when a Power BI data alert is triggered” option.
Let’s build the flow!
- Click on Continue
- In the Alert ID box, click on the drop-down to pick the Power BI Alert.
- In the “To” box, type in the email address you want this alert to be sent.
- Click on New step to add another action or Save and test your flow.
Data lineage
The lineage view is a feature found in the workspaces in Power BI service. It can be likened to a family tree as it shows the ancestral origin of a report. Lineage view enables users to understand the flow of data from the data source to its destination. This is because it can be quite challenging for users to adjust complex projects that are connected to multiple data sources.
Power BI projects usually comprise various composites i.e., reports, dashboards, datasets, datamarts, and dataflows. Datasets, dataflows, and datamarts can be connected to external data sources such as SQL Server, and to external datasets in other workspaces. External data sources and datasets make it harder to know where the data is coming from.
Looking into the Lineage View
Every workspace automatically has a lineage view however, you need at least a contributor role in the workspace to view it.
In this view, you’ll see all the elements within the workspace in their individual cards like dataset, data source, and report, you’ll also see how the data flows from one point to the other. If your data source has a gateway, you will see the gateway name on the data source card, and on the dataset and dataflow cards, you will see the last refreshed time.
To get more information about any of the card elements, all you need to do is double-click on the card and a pane appears on the right that gives you more information.
To see the lineage of a specific report, click on the double arrow at the bottom of the card. Power BI highlights all the elements related to that report and dims the rest.
Impact Analysis
When considering making changes to your report, it is pertinent to understand the potential impact of those changes both at the dataset level and/or the data source level.
Impact analysis for the dataset.
Impact analysis for the data source
Impact analysis provides you with information that can help you make this assessment. Impact analysis can be conducted on either the dataset or the data source.
When you click on the impact analysis button, a panel that shows the breakdown of the impact will appear.
- The impact summary displays the total number of views for all elements related to the dataset, as well as the number of potentially impacted workspaces, reports, and dashboards.
- The notify contacts feature enables users to create a message about any dataset/source changes made and sends it to the contact lists of the affected workspaces.
- The usage matrix/summary displays impacted reports and dashboards, as well as the total number of viewers and views for each report and dashboard, where:
- Viewers: The number of distinct users that viewed a report or dashboard.
- Views: The number of views for a report or dashboard
The usage metrics relate to the last 30 days, excluding the current day. The count includes usage coming via related apps. The metrics help you understand dataset use across the tenant, as well as assess the impact any changes to your dataset might have.
Bookmarks
A bookmark in Power BI lets users capture a certain view of a report page. To use a bookmark in Power BI, you have to navigate and select the bookmark and selection in the view tab. Bookmarks can be used to manipulate your report view in different ways. It can be used to create slide shows, can be used to toggle between visuals on a certain page, page navigation, buttons, etc.
In this illustration, we would explore how to use bookmarks to toggle between visuals.
First, you have to select bookmark and selection. The Selection pane gives you an overview of all the different elements that are on your report page.
On a new page, I have two visuals placed on each other, the show and hide option in the selection pane helps to show and hide visualizing a report. I have hidden the bar chart and will create a bookmark “byRegion.”
Next, I hide the column chart – total_revenue by region and add another bookmark to capture the report.
To bring this all to life, I would insert buttons to activate.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored some of the impressive features Power BI offers from AI-based Q&A to creating automated data-driven notifications, data lineage which gives you sort of an ancestral view of your project’s components, and lastly bookmarks.
In most cases, using any of these features can have a significant impact on the whole report experience.
I’d like you to explore them all and drop your feedback in the comment section below.
Thanks for reading!
