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Energy BI 101, Report Authoring Instruments


That is my final weblog put up in 2021. I want you all an exquisite break and a contented new 12 months.

Within the first put up of my Energy BI 101 collection, we learnt that Energy BI is an information platform containing numerous instruments and companies. We additionally defined the at present accessible subscriptions throughout the Energy BI platform. The main focus of the second put up of this collection is on what we should always study to attain our objectives extra effectively. On this put up, we concentrate on the reporting instruments accessible to us in response to our subscription plan. From this put up onwards, we focus on extra particular points of the Energy BI platform.

We learnt thus far that Energy BI is not only a reporting software to construct subtle experiences; it’s certainly a platform supplying a variety of options from knowledge preparation, knowledge modelling and knowledge visualization to contribute to an organisation’s knowledge evaluation journey in some ways resembling sharing datasets, experiences, and dashboards. All of those are attainable provided that we take the proper steps in constructing our Energy BI ecosystem. However, it is rather true that Energy BI provides us the flexibleness to create professional-looking and crowd pleasing visualisations offering simple to grasp insights round a topic. Probably the most famend software inside Energy BI is Energy BI Desktop, however it isn’t the one software accessible to us to create experiences. Moreover, Energy BI Desktop experiences aren’t essentially the perfect reply to all enterprise necessities. Actually, the enterprise necessities outline the Energy BI structure that helps these necessities. Based mostly on the structure, organisations resolve to accumulate a sure subscription plan, and primarily based on the subscription plan, we have now numerous reporting instruments accessible to us. At this level, you would possibly ask, “properly, what structure helps my organisation requires?”. Let’s reply that query in a future weblog put up.

For the aim of this weblog put up, it is sufficient to know what reporting instruments can be found beneath which subscription plans. Let’s get began.

Reporting instruments accessible in Energy BI

As talked about earlier, there are numerous reporting instruments accessible to us. Let’s first see what reporting instruments can be found to us whatever the subscription plans. Then we are going to have a look at the subscription plans supporting these instruments.

Energy BI Service

Energy BI Service is a SaaS (Software program as a Service) providing from Microsoft within the cloud. The customers inside an organisation, relying on their entry rights, could create experiences straight in Energy BI Service. The customers can even securely share and distribute these experiences. Whereas creating or modifying experiences is feasible in Energy BI Service, it’s strongly advisable to keep away from this methodology for a number of causes. The obvious one is that the modifications we make to a report could quickly get overwritten by another person that republishes the identical report from Energy BI Desktop. Examine this weblog put up from SQLChick to see why it’s best to keep away from creating or modifying experiences straight from Energy BI Service. The experiences are downloadable in PBIX format. 

You possibly can entry Energy BI Service right here.

Energy BI Desktop

It’s a desktop utility constructed for knowledge preparation, knowledge modelling and knowledge visualisation. In case you wish to study knowledge modelling with Energy BI, take a look at my e book right here. We will use Energy BI Desktop to connect with greater than 250 totally different knowledge sources, getting ready, remodeling and cleaning that knowledge and at lastly visualising the information. Energy BI Desktop is the predominant and most famous report authoring software accessible within the Energy BI platform. It has many extra functionalities and is extra versatile than Energy BI Service. As an example, organising Role Level Security (RLS) will not be accessible in Energy BI Service. The file format of the experiences created in Energy BI Desktop is PBIX. 

Obtain Energy BI Desktop from right here.

Energy BI Report Builder (Paginated)

Paginated experiences aka pixel-perfect experiences are formatted in a strategy to match completely on a web page. That report web page would possibly later be printed. We’ve precise management over web page formatting to show our knowledge in tables or charts. The experiences aren’t as interactive because the experiences created in Energy BI Desktop.

Paginated experiences are primarily based on RDL expertise which is customary report format in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). The software for growing a paginated report within the Energy BI ecosystem is Energy BI Report Builder. The experiences file kind is RDL. We will at present publish Paginated experiences solely to a Workspace that’s backed with both a Premium Per User (PPU) or a Premium Capability. 

Obtain Energy BI Report Builder from right here.

Energy BI Desktop Optimised for Report Server (RS)

Power BI Report Server (PBIRS) is an on-premises server able to rendering Energy BI report recordsdata (PBIX). If we have now a PBIRS up and working inside our organisation and we require to publish Energy BI experiences to PBIRS, then we might want to create our experiences in a particular version of Energy BI Desktop which is optimised for PBIRS. This version is totally different from Energy BI Desktop, which we often use to create and publish our experiences to Energy BI Service. As an example, Energy BI Desktop RS doesn’t embrace the preview options we used to see in Energy BI Desktop till these options are launched. Constructing experiences in Energy BI Desktop RS ensures that the experiences are absolutely purposeful after being deployed to our PBIRS. We will set up Energy BI Desktop and Energy BI Desktop RS side-by-side on the identical machine. 

Obtain Energy BI Desktop RS from right here.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a tremendous spreadsheet software program with many analytical capabilities. Indubitably, Excel is one probably the most extensively used software program each accountant has of their toolbox. It’s strong, versatile and really highly effective in knowledge visualisation and knowledge evaluation. With Microsoft Excel, we will connect with many alternative knowledge sources (similar to Energy BI Desktop). We will use Energy Question for Excel to load knowledge into workbooks, remodel and mix that knowledge and cargo it into an information mannequin accessible in Energy Pivot. We will additionally construct an information mannequin in Energy Pivot. Microsoft Excel offers a sturdy reporting expertise. We will publish the Excel recordsdata to Energy BI Service in two methods:

  • Publishing Excel as an Excel workbook
  • Publishing Excel knowledge mannequin as a dataset

If we choose to publish the Excel experiences as a workbook, then we are going to get a full Excel expertise inside Energy BI Service simply line how the Excel On-line works. In distinction, if we publish the information mannequin from Excel as a dataset then the datasets created in Excel, similar to another datasets in Energy BI Service, can be found to authorised folks.

The Excel datasets, like different revealed datasets in Energy BI Service, can be used to create experiences in Energy BI Service or Energy BI Desktop. 

Attempt Excel without cost from right here.

Report Builder

Report Builder is often known as SQL Server Report Builder. It’s a stand-alone report authoring software put in on our PC. We will create paginated experiences within the Report Builder and deploy the experiences to a Energy BI Report Server occasion. Report Builder is similar to Energy BI Report Builder. The distinction between the 2 is that with Report Builder you possibly can deploy the experiences to an on-premises Energy BI Report Server however with Energy BI Report Builder you possibly can at present publish the experiences to a Premium Workspace in Energy BI Service.

Obtain Report Builder from right here.

Cell Report Writer (aka DataZen)

Microsoft SQL Server Cell Report Writer is a report authoring software for SQL Server 2016 Reporting Providers (SSRS) and above. Cell Report Writer’s authentic title is DataZen which was initially launched in 2013 and bought by Microsoft in 2014. Microsoft built-in DataZen into SQL Server Reporting Providers 2016. Chances are you’ll ask “how Cell Report Writer is expounded to Energy BI?“. The reply is that we will create Reporting Providers cellular experiences utilizing the Cell Report Writer and deploy these experiences right into a Energy BI Report Server. The experiences constructed with Cell Report Writer are optimized for consumption in cellular gadgets.

Obtain Cell Report Writer from right here.

Now that we all know all our reporting choices within the Energy BI ecosystem, let’s learn how these reporting instruments are supported on totally different subscription plans.

Energy BI Subscriptions and their Supported Reporting Instruments

One of the crucial essential choices each organisation ought to make is to give you an structure that helps the organisation’s analytical necessities. Relying on the structure, you could require one of many following subscription plans or a mix of them.

Here’s a very transient clarification of at present accessible subscriptions and their accessible reporting instruments.

Energy BI Free

Because the title resembles, that is the free providing from Microsoft. We don’t require to subscribe or pay something to create our experiences in Energy BI Desktop and publish them to the Energy BI Service.

Out there reporting instruments:

  • Energy BI Desktop
  • Energy BI Service (creating report functionality)

Energy BI Professional

Energy BI Professional is the primary subscription tier providing from Microsoft. The next reporting instruments can be found beneath the Energy BI Professional:

  • Energy BI Desktop
  • Energy BI Service (creating report functionality)
  • Microsoft Excel
    • Analyse in Excel
    • Connecting to Energy BI Datasets and creating experiences in Excel

Chances are you’ll marvel how the Analyse in Excel and Connecting to Energy BI Datasets are totally different. Right here is the reply, relying on our permissions, we have now the previous two choices to connect with and create experiences in Excel on prime of present Energy BI experiences and datasets on the Energy BI Service.

Analyse in Excel

This feature is accessible from the Energy BI Service on prime of the prevailing experiences or datasets on the Energy BI Service itself. After we login to the service, if we have now permission, we will…

  1. Click on on the Extra Choices button on a report or a dataset
  2. Click on Analyse in Excel
Analyze in Excel capability in Power BI Service
Analyse in Excel functionality in Energy BI Service
  1. If you have already got the newest model of Excel libraries put in in your machine then click on Obtain in any other case click on the I’ve already put in these updates hyperlink. A I’ve the Excel libraries put in on my machine, I click on the hyperlink
Installation of the latest version of Excel libraries required for Analyze in Excel capability in Power BI Service
Downloading Excel file linked to the underlying dataset

The above course of downloads an Excel file linked to the underlying dataset. You possibly can open the Excel file and begin creating your experiences.

Connecting to Energy BI Datasets and creating experiences in Excel

On this state of affairs, we join from Excel to the datasets accessible to us on the Energy BI Service. The next steps clarify how to take action:

  1. Open Excel and login to your M365 account
Logging in to M365 account from Excel to connect to Power BI Datasets
Logging in to M365 account from Excel
  1. Click on the Information tab
  2. Click on the Get Information button
  3. Click on From Energy BI Dataset
  4. You require to go your Energy BI credentials, then you possibly can choose the specified dataset to connect with
Connecting to a Power BI dataset from Excel
Connecting to a Energy BI dataset from Excel

Be aware

We require to M365 account to have the ability to use connect with a Energy BI dataset.

Energy BI Premium Per Person (PPU)

The PPU subscription permits organisations to get the premium options by subscribing to a PPU for every consumer. Learn extra about PPU and its options right here. The next reporting instruments can be found to us when we have now a PPU subscription:

  • Energy BI Desktop
  • Energy BI Service (creating experiences functionality)
  • Microsoft Excel
    • Analyse in Excel
    • Connecting to Energy BI datasets and experiences from Excel
  • Energy BI Report Builder (Paginated experiences)
  • Thirdpatry reporting instruments resembling Tableau by way of XMLA endpoints

Energy BI Premium Capability

Energy BI Premium is an enterprise-grade BI providing within the Energy BI ecosystem. It is a capacity-based subscription which means we get devoted sources and affords better scale and efficiency for Energy BI. The Energy BI Premium capability allows extra customers throughout the organisation to get probably the most out of all accessible Energy BI contents with higher efficiency. Learn extra about Energy BI Premium capability right here. The next reporting instruments can be found to us when we have now a Premium capability:

  • Energy BI Desktop
  • Energy BI Service (creating experiences functionality)
  • Microsoft Excel
    • Analyse in Excel
    • Connecting to Energy BI datasets and experiences from Excel
  • Energy BI Report Builder (Paginated experiences)
  • Thirdpatry reporting instruments resembling Tableau by way of XMLA endpoints
  • Energy BI Desktop Optimised for Report Server (RS)
  • Report Builder
  • Cell Report Writer (aka DataZen)

Energy BI Embedded

Energy BI Embedded is one other service providing from Microsoft primarily for software program improvement firms who wish to embed Energy BI reporting performance into their purposes. Chances are you’ll use Energy BI Embedded in your organisation both you’re a software program vendor (ISV) otherwise you’re constructing in home purposes that embrace Energy BI reporting performance otherwise you’d like to check some Energy BI Premium Capability functionalities. Sure! That’s proper. Energy BI Embedded capability works similar to Energy BI Premium capability and a variety of Premium functionalities can be found in Embedded capability as properly like the power to make use of XMLA endpoints over each Embedded and Premium capacities. You possibly can check an Embedded capability without cost. Learn this put up to learn howBe taught extra about Energy BI Embedded right here. The next reporting instruments can be found to us when we have now an Embedded capability:

  • Energy BI Desktop
  • Energy BI Service (creating experiences functionality)
  • Microsoft Excel
    • Analyse in Excel
    • Connecting to Energy BI datasets and experiences from Excel
  • Energy BI Report Builder (Paginated experiences)
  • Thirdpatry reporting instruments resembling Tableau by way of XMLA endpoints
  • Energy BI Desktop Optimised for Report Server (RS) (Solely accessible in A4 SKU and above)

Right here you go. Now you’ve got a greater understanding of the reporting instruments accessible on the Energy BI ecosystem and when you should utilize them. When you’ve got any feedback, please share it with us within the feedback part beneath.

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