The Best Articles and Tutorials About Cloud Analytics, BI and Management
Paul Hansen is an experienced Analytics Engineer and Senior BI Developer, skilled in data architecture, ETL processes, and data visualization. He has a strong background in SQL, Python, and cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. Paul has led teams to create integrated data solutions, leveraging tools such as dbt, SSIS, and Power BI. His recent roles have ranged from Senior BI Developer to BI Team Lead, demonstrating his ability to manage complex projects and deliver insightful business intelligence solutions. Paul values a collaborative work environment that fosters innovation and professional growth.
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Calculated columns are now available in preview for Direct Lake on OneLake semantic models. This has been one of the most requested capabilities since Direct Lake launched and closes a long-standing gap with Import and DirectQuery storage modes.You can define calculated columns directly in your semantic model using DAX in web modeling and Power BI […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Direct-Lake-Calculated-Columns-Preview/ba-p/5357159. The author is VivienneVereenUpgrading Power BI Dataflows Gen1 is now easier with the Dataflows Upgrade Wizard. Now in preview for eligible workspaces assigned to Fabric capacity, the wizard provides a guided experience to upgrade Power BI Dataflows Gen1 items to Fabric Dataflows Gen2 (CI/CD). The wizard preserves key properties of the existing dataflow and assesses each item before […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Upgrade-Power-BI-Dataflows-Gen1-to-Fabric-Dataflows-Gen2-with/ba-p/5360422. The author is eranbenayunThere’s so much going on in the Fabric community that it can be hard to keep up with it all. Semantic Link Labs is a great example: in the six months or so since I last had a proper look at it my colleague Michael Kovalsky has done a whole load of cool things and […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/08/23/tools-with-interactive-uis-in-fabric-notebooks-with-semantic-link-labs/. The author is Chris WebbIf your organization uses Power BI, you own something most companies chasing AI are desperately trying to build. You just may not know it by name.Let me explain.The invisible thing behind every reportEvery Power BI report you have ever opened sits on top of a semantic model. Every single one. No exceptions. The report is […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/The-AI-Semantic-Layer-You-Probably-Already-Have/ba-p/5360197. The author is bogdancWelcome to the August 2026 Power BI Feature Summary! This month includes updates across reporting, modeling, data connectivity, mobile, embedded analytics, and developer experiences, with a mix of generally available enhancements and new preview capabilities. Let’s take a look at what’s new. Table of Contents This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-August-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5348434. The author is murray-kpRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-August-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5348434. The author is murray-kpPower BI Projects (PBIP) make reports and semantic models file-based, enabling source control, automation, and other developer workflows. You can edit those files directly in a code editor or through external tools. Until now, changes made outside of Power BI Desktop wouldn’t appear until you restarted the application. With this update, Power BI Desktop detects […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Edit-your-Power-BI-projects-anywhere-and-reload-them-instantly/ba-p/5359136. The author is saralamOne of the most common questions I hear from customers as they move to an allocation-based billing model is:”What levers do I actually have if I want to control how many resources my workloads consume?”Many customers are looking for a way to prevent specific workloads from scaling aggressively and consuming more resources than they’re comfortable […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Using-Custom-SQL-Pools-to-balance-performance-and-cost-in-Fabric/ba-p/5359735. The author is joannapeaIn last week’s post I mentioned that while Power BI reports (unlike Excel PivotTables) do not support the Detail Rows Expression feature, it is possible to partially work around this limitation by using the paginated report visual. In this post I’ll show you how I was able to do this and what is and isn’t […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/08/16/displaying-the-output-of-detail-rows-expressions-in-power-bi-reports-using-the-paginated-report-visual/. The author is Chris WebbTMDL View on the Web is a feature in Power BI that enables developers to view and edit semantic models as code directly in the browser using TMDL. It expands the Power BI web modelling experience by introducing a rich code editor for working with TMDL scripts—giving pro developers full transparency into the semantic model […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/TMDL-View-on-the-web-Edit-semantic-models-as-code-in-your/ba-p/5332653. The author is saralamIf you have a DirectQuery fact table in Power BI you can use user-defined aggregations to improve query performance; querying a smaller, summarised copy of your data in an Import mode aggregation table is always going to be faster than querying a large fact table containing all your detail data that is in DirectQuery mode. […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/08/09/using-detail-rows-expressions-to-drill-to-a-different-fact-table-in-power-bi/. The author is Chris WebbBring your Power BI reports to life with dynamic conditional formatting for lines and legends that stays consistent and updates automatically as your data changes. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-conditional-formatting-for-lines-and-legends/ba-p/5331078. The author is DataZoeRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-conditional-formatting-for-lines-and-legends/ba-p/5331078. The author is DataZoeThis week there was another big Copilot-related announcement for Power BI – but on the Excel blog. You can now analyse data from Power BI semantic models using Copilot in Excel. Full details on how to enable this are in the docs here, but what does it look like? Using the same semantic model from […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/08/02/analysing-power-bi-data-using-copilot-in-excel/. The author is Chris WebbOne of the most rewarding parts of working with DAX is discovering that two measures can return exactly the same result while taking very different paths through the engine. To the report user, there is no difference. The number is correct, the visual renders, and the report appears to work. […]Read More » This post […]
This post first appeared at https://exceleratorbi.com.au/the-hidden-cost-of-vertipaq-scans/. The author is Jason CockingtonThis was a big week for Power BI Copilot with the announcement of a new direction for the feature. If you haven’t done so already, read the two announcement blog posts here and here and check out this demo video. There are some pros and cons to this change (yes, you’re going to need an […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/07/26/power-bi-m365-copilot-and-the-importance-of-dax-udfs/. The author is Chris WebbPower BI’s modern visual defaults and new Customize theme experience enable report authors to centrally manage colors, typography, visual styling, page settings, and filter pane formatting across an entire report, creating consistent, professional reports faster while preserving visual-specific customizations. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-modern-visual-defaults-and-formatting-your-entire/ba-p/5303513. The author is DataZoeRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-modern-visual-defaults-and-formatting-your-entire/ba-p/5303513. The author is DataZoeWelcome to the July 2026 Power BI update!This month, we’re introducing new capabilities across reporting, modeling, mobile, and embedded analytics. Highlights include expanded modern visual defaults, conditional formatting improvements for line charts and legends, new org app capabilities and APIs, Model Options in the Power BI Service, and TMDL View on the web.Let’s take a […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Power-BI-July-2026-Feature-Summary/ba-p/5303533. The author is murray-kpThe future of Power BI and Copilot starts by meeting users where they already work. We’re bringing trusted Power BI answers into Microsoft 365 Copilot first, so people can ask questions of governed business data in the flow of work — then carrying that richer, more conversational experience back into the Power BI service itself. […]
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Bringing-Power-BI-Insights-to-Every-Copilot-User/ba-p/5309360. The author is svredevoogdThis week, in the announcement about support for Fabric Pipelines in Workspace Monitoring, I noticed that it came with an Operations Agent that actively monitors and analyses Pipeline activity. And that got me thinking, since Workspace Monitoring also contains Power BI activity data, why not create an Operations Agent to actively monitor Power BI too? […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/07/19/using-fabric-operations-agents-and-workspace-monitoring-with-power-bi/. The author is Chris WebbPower BI’s new date picker slicer helps report authors set dynamic default date ranges while giving viewers flexible, easy ways to explore dates, ranges, and rolling periods as data refreshes. This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-Power-BI-reporting-with-the-new-date-picker/ba-p/5295674. The author is DataZoeRead More
This post first appeared at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Power-BI-Updates-Blog/Deep-dive-into-Power-BI-reporting-with-the-new-date-picker/ba-p/5295674. The author is DataZoeThis is a blog post I’ve been meaning to write for a long time. Since Fabric launched there has been a lot of focus on Direct Lake mode in Power BI and a lot of people used it because it was the cool new thing. Arguably, we at Microsoft have been guilty of telling people […]
This post first appeared at https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2026/07/12/the-benefits-of-using-direct-lake-mode-in-power-bi/. The author is Chris Webb