Episode 138 – March 2020 Power BI Desktop Update

This is episode 138 recorded on March 16th, 2020 where John & Jason talk about the March 2020 Power BI Desktop Update including New action types for buttons, Multi-column sort for tables, and the New Power BI Ribbon becomes the default Ribbon… or the Ribbon.

Show Notes

Reporting

• New action types for buttons
  • Page navigation
  • Drill through (preview)
• Multi-column sort for tables
• Dual axis for line chart
• Filter pane search
• Updates to decomposition tree
  • Bars per level formatting option
  • Updates to behavior of data bar length
• New ribbon is now on by default

Modeling

• New DAX function: COALESCE

Visualizations

• Waterfall chart by xViz
• Updates to ArcGIS Maps
  • New connection options
  • Enterprise support is now generally available
  • Support for multiple reference layers
  • New table of contents

Template Apps

• Azure DevOps dashboard by Data Maru
• TeamsPower by Encamina

Data preparation

• Query diagnostics is now generally available

Data connectivity

• Hive LLAP connector
• Cognite connector

Other

• Enhanced dataset metadata (preview)
• Using default system credentials for web proxy
• New instructor-led administrator in a day training

User Voice Picks

John

Subscription for Power BI reports from Report Server

I know this idea was recently (April 2019) shot down by Microsoft, even with over 2,000 votes in favor of it, but I’m bringing it up again. The simple fact is, we are bound by regulations that keep us from using the cloud service, so the on-premise Power BI Report Server is our only option for widespread report distribution. Paginated reports on PBIRS can be subscribed to, which makes the inability to add Power BI reports to subscriptions even more frustrating. This lack of support severely limits our ability to grow acceptance for the platform. I ask that you please reconsider your decision.

Jason

New DAX Function: FILTERCONTEXT()

There are a number of applications where you want a DAX expression to return every filter currently effecting a visual. There should be a function that does this. Today you can get this effect by creating an expression like: IF(ISFILTERED(),SELECTEDVALUE()) for every column you care about. or something even more complicated to trap multiple values. And it doesn’t trap equalities or other things.

Instead, there should be a single function that just returns the current context as a string.

On the report canvas, the new popup filter context card does a great job of highlighting this to users, but it doesn’t cover all use cases.

Some example applications:

Complicated DAX aggregations may need to know the exact filter conditions not just the resulting values in filtering column. Things like Accordian or Horizontal aggs could be even more efficient if you know whether someon picked 43 particular days, or just picked a date range with an equality.

Using Gil Raviv’s Power BI Pixel technique to track usage, you might want a verbose statement of context.

Creating label measures that show the current filter context explicitly: While the new filter cards are great they don’t work in zero applications dashboards. Also sometimes, you want the context to be plainly visible to all users.