HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft Power BI Update Adds Shape Map View, Azure Data Connectors and...

Microsoft Power BI Update Adds Shape Map View, Azure Data Connectors and Row-Level Security

The Desktop version of the business analytics tool recently has received a major update adding some and improving other features for report views, data access, the available data connectors and the Query Experience.

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Starting with the Power BI June Update, is offering detailed resources about each new feature of the analytics tool. There are now demo videos and articles/ available so users can quickly understand what each improvement is about.

With the June 2016 Update, Power BI runs now at Version 2.36.4434.362, which can be downloaded from here.

It brings a new Shape Map feature which allows to show relative comparisons of regions on a map by applying different colors to different regions.

As Microsoft points out, in contrast to the Map visual, Shape Map cannot show precise geographical locations of data points on a map. Its purpose is mainly to show relative comparisons of regions on a map by coloring them differently.

New in the Report View are also Searchable slicers, Configurable line chart labels and New sign-in entry points.

Row Level Security (RLS)

The added RLS option which is still in Preview state can be used to restrict data access for given users at the row level. You can define a Role and an associated security filter in the Power BI desktop and then assign members to that Role.

Data Connectors

Microsoft has also added Azure Enterprise Data Connectors which enable users to pull information from their Azure accounts and based on that to build reports and analytics.

The existing connectors for SAP HANA and SAP BW have been improved to allow multi-select of values for Variables/Parameters and Support for Hierarchies in SAP BW. The OData connector now supports importing Open Type columns from OData feeds.

In the Access Database connector users can now easily “select related tables” by adding a new button into the Navigator dialog.

Other Query Experience Improvements

  • Templates – option to Load or Edit
  • Query parameter enhancements:
    • Option to always allow Parameter specification
    • Create new parameter directly in context
  • Option to generate Step Names in English
  • Descriptions for Query Steps
  • New Data Transformations:
    • Extract Week Day and Month Name from a DateTime column
    • Merging dates and Times into a DateTime column
    • Extract Time.Start/End of Hour/Minute/Second

You can check out all improvements by watching this video summary or on the lengthy release Blog post. Links to the specific features can be found here.

SourceMicrosoft
Markus Kasanmascheff
Markus Kasanmascheff
Markus is the founder of WinBuzzer and has been playing with Windows and technology for more than 25 years. He is holding a Master´s degree in International Economics and previously worked as Lead Windows Expert for Softonic.com.