Inside the Power BI Cookbook

Power BI Cookbook Complete

• Chapter 13 of the Microsoft Power BI Cookbook was completed earlier this week
• Earlier chapters were updated to include features released in the August update
• Part of Chapter 13 involves migrating a Power BI Data Model to Azure Analysis Services (or On-Premises SSAS); now supported by the Unified Gateway

FAQs:

1. Who is this for?
   • Primarily BI developers, BI/IT managers, and anyone that creates Power BI content or facilitates the distribution of Power BI content.
   • If you’re new to Power BI or you’re someone who consumes content created by others you still might find several examples intriguing and the recipes are laid out step-by-step with supporting details.
   • Those who build and manage datasets (sources, queries, relationships, measures) will derive the most value
2. Is this similar to your past blogs/papers?
   • No. The recipes are more structured, thorough, and easier to follow.
3. How is this different from other Power BI resources?
   • The book aligns with latest documentation and whitepapers including Planning a Power BI Enterprise Deployment
   • It’s different in the sense that both the M and DAX engines are utilized throughout the book and in it’s breadth of coverage across the platform
   • Additionally, several recipes such as with Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Chi-Square Tests, Model Metadata Documentation, SQL Server Query Store analysis, parameterized stored procedure retrieval, budget scenario building, and others represent new or uncommon approaches or patterns.

Not so good news

• Embedding Power BI into Custom Applications didn’t make it
• Power BI Report Server didn’t make it either
  • There definitely are SSRS 2016 Power BI Integration examples
• MS Flow is featured in two recipes but unfortunately PowerApps isn’t

Power BI Premium (and implications for licensing, distribution) App Workspaces, and page and time limits all took priority.

Good News

A new Power BI book could be on the way fairly soon, maybe Q1 2018. This book would likely target management and administration topics (ie project lifecycles, staged deployments), DirectQuery at scale with single sign-on, a chapter dedicated to the Power BI Report Server, a chapter dedicated to the On-Premises Gateway, scaling up/out scenarios as PBI Premium and Azure AS continue to evolve, latest and best custom visuals, the new report features previewed at Insight Summit, and of course DAX and M.