Data Classification in Power BI

Power BI Data ClassificationIn many corporations depending on the type of data is being used there could be different types of the sensitivities that should be applied to that data. Data Classification fulfills in Power BI Service this matter very easily. In today’s post you’ll learn how to setup Data Classification in Power BI Service.

First of all I want to inform you that Data Classification is NOT a sort of security or privacy setting. It is only a TAG which is all about informing Power BI users across a corporation to take extra care when they want to share data with other people inside or outside of that corporation. For instance some data might be OK to be shared externally outside the company, but, the other data might not be shared with groups of people even within that corporation.

Depending on your corporation you might have different levels of sensitivity like

  • High Sensitive Data
  • Medium Sensitive Data
  • Low Sensitive Data

So depending on what level of sensitivity, for instance for High Sensitive Data, the Power BI users should be really careful of who they share Power BI Dashboards and data with. In Power BI Service we can easily setup data classification on our dashboards so anyone who is looking at that dashboard is able to understand how sensitive that dashboard is and who they can share it with.

Requirements

To be able to setup Data Classification in Power BI Service you have to:

In case that you want to add another admin user,and if you already integrated your on-premises Active Directory with Azure Active Directory (AD) then you can either grant necessary admin rights to that user from your Azure portal in Azure AD or directly from Office 365 Admin Centre.

The user needs to be an Office 365 “Global Administrator” to be able to setup data classification in Power BI Service. A global administrator will have access to “Admin Portal” panel within Power BI Service which includes data classification and many more other important settings.

Make a User Global Administrator in Office 365

After you signed into your Power BI Service account,

  • Click “Admin” tile from the app launcher

Office 365 Admin Centre

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Power BI Desktop Query Parameters, Part 3, List Output

List Output in Power BI Query Parameters

In the previous posts, here and here, I explained how you can use Power BI Desktop Query Parameters for many different use cases. Power BI development team added another cool feature to Power BI Desktop on July 2016 which is the ability to add a List Query output to a query parameter as it’s “Suggested Values” (formerly “Allowed Values”). This feature is very useful and from now on we are not restricted to proviode a static list of values in “Manage Parameters”. In this post I show you how to use a list output in query parameters.

Note: This feature is NOT available in DirectQuery mode at the time of writing this post.

Requirements

In this post as usual I’ll connect to a SQL Server database as a sample. To be able to follow this post you have to have:

  1. The latest version of Power BI Desktop (current version is 2.38.4491.282 64-bit (August 2016))
  2. AdventureWorksDW

Scenario

In the first post of these series I explained how to create dynamic data sources using Query Parameters. You also learnt how to use Query Parameters in Filter Rows. But, what if we want to filter query results based on the values of a column from a particular table? Previously we couldn’t answer these sort of questions if we want to filter FactInternetSales based on a selected values of EnglishProductName column from DimProductCategories using Query Parameters. But, now we can easily implement those sort of scenarios.

Let’s implement this scenario.

Loading Data into the Model:

  • Open Power BI Desktop
  • Get data from SQL Server and connect to Adventure Works DW 2016 CTP3
  • Select “FactInternetSales”, “DimProduct”, “DimProductSubCategory” and “DimProductCategory” tables then click “Load”

Power BI Desktop Loading Data into the Model

  • Switch to “Relationships” view to make sure the relationships detected correctly then click “Edit Queries” from the ribbon

Power BI Desktop Edit Queries

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Query Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SSMS and SSDT

Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SSMS and SSTD

A while ago I wrote a blog post about Azure SQL Data Warehouse and Power BI which I explained how to install a new instance of Azure SQL Data Warehouse and how to visualise your Azure SQL DW data in Power BI. In this post I explain how to query an Azure SQL DW in SSMS and Visual Studio.

Requirements

Querying Azure SQL Data Warehouse from Visual Studio

Prior the latest release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2016, the only available tool for querying an Azure SQL Data Warehouse was SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Visual Studio 2013 or 2015. Here is how you can use SSDT 2015 to query an Azure SQL Data Warehouse:

  • Open SQL Server Data Tools 2015
  • Click “SQL Object Explorer” from View menu

SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

  • Click “Add SQL Server”

Add Server to SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

Connect to Azure SQL Data Warehouse in SQL Server Object Explorer Visual Studio

  • Enter “Server Name”
  • If you don’t recall server name then open a web browser and log into Azure portal
  • Click “SQL databases”
  • Click any desired Azure SQL Data Warehouse you created before. Make sure the database is “Online”

Azure SQL Data Warehouse in Azure Portal

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Analyse Power BI Data in Excel

A while ago I wrote a blog post about Power BI Publisher for Excel. Today I want to explain some new features added to the publisher. In this post you learn how to analyse Power BI data in Excel. Using the new Power BI Publisher for Excel, not only can we pin an Excel range or chart to a Power BI dashboard directly from Excel, but also we are now able to easily connect to a Power BI service, select any group workspaces and analyse a desired report or dataset.

Requirements

  • Desktop versions of Microsoft Excel 2007 and later
  • Download and install Power BI Publisher for Excel
  • Power BI Publisher for Excel add-in will be enabled by default after you install it, however, if you don’t see the “Power BI” tab in the ribbon in Excel you can enable it from File –> Options –> Add-ins –> COM Add-ins –> tick Microsoft Publisher for Excel.

Enable Power BI Publisher for Excel

Connect to and Analyse Power BI Data in Excel

Analyse Power BI Service Reports or Datasets in Excel (From Power BI Service)

Previously we could analyse Power BI data in Excel directly from Power BI service by:

  • Log in to Power BI Service
  • Clicking ellipsis button of a desired dataset and clicking “Analyse in Excel”

Analyse Power BI Data in Excel from Power BI Service

  • Clicking ellipsis button of a desired report and clicking “Analyse in Excel”

Analyse Power BI Reports in Excel from Power BI Service

  • Doing either way, it downloads an “odc” file that could be opened in Excel.

Analyse Power BI Data in Excel from Power BI Service Enable Data Connection

  • Now you can analyse the data in Excel using pivot tables and pivot charts.

Analyse Power BI Data in Excel

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