Once again the world of BI is very busy with great new features and other details which I have put into this blog post below.

Power BI – Design your own Swag

There is a competition to design your own Swag Shirt for Power BI. As you can see above is my entry, so if you like it, please go and vote for it here: Power BI – Create – Collate – Visualize & Explore

As well as look at the other entries here:

Power BI – Custom Refresh Schedules for Live/DirectQuery

I have to say I have noticed that the Power BI team are currently releasing a lot of features which give a lot more granular control to different things in the Power BI Service. From my point of view this is fantastic as it allows more flexibility in the product, which means it can potentially be released to a wider audience in some instances.

This latest release with regards to the Custom Refresh Schedules for Live/DirectQuery is another great granular feature. This allows the user to now control how often to refresh the cash, which is used for the Dashboards tiles. And can help ensure that it can be optimized.

You can find the blog details here: Announcing Custom Cache Refresh Schedules in the Power BI Service

Power BI – Report Theme Gallery

Due to the release of the preview feature of Report themes into Power BI Desktop, the Power BI Team has now release a Report Theme Gallery.

This is where you can showcase your theme that you created, as well as share it with others who might want to use it.

I personally think this is great, and once again shows how Power BI is a community where we can share our knowledge.

Here are the details: Power BI Community Report Theme Gallery

Power BI – Custom Visuals Community Site

Here is yet another great initiative from the Power BI team, and this is all around the Custom Visuals where they have created a Custom Visuals Community site.

This will be a great resource for people who are looking to develop Custom Visuals as well as assist other people with issues.

You can find all the details here: New custom visuals community site: developers and users unite!

Power BI – Filter a report with a URL Query String

Apparently this has been in the documentation for some time, but was only publically shown now by Adam Saxton (Guy In a Cube).

In the blog post they show how you are able to filter reports in the URL using a Query String.

This functionality used to exist in Power View for SharePoint and I can remember using it in various scenario’s where you wanted the report to automatically filter. This is great to see that you can now do this in Power BI also.

You can see Adam’s video and blog post details here: Filter a report with a URL query string parameter

Power BI – Summit EMEA

If you are in the EMEA region I would suggest if possible attending the Summit EMEA, where you can learn about Power BI, as well as discover other details around Power BI and the various insights it provides.

You can find the details here: Dive into Power BI at Summit EMEA

Power BI – Custom Visuals available in the Office Store

It is interesting to see that the Custom Visuals are going to be moved to the Office store. In a way I can understand this, but it also makes me lead to think that in the future there is the possibility to potentially pay for Custom Visuals?

I am sure we will find out sooner or later.

Here is the blog post details: Custom visuals now available in the Office store

Power BI – Data Insights Summit sessions

You can now get access and see all the sessions that are going to be available at the Data Insights Summit session.

I see that there will also be a pre-con day on 11 June 2017. Loads of great content

Here are the details: The Microsoft Data Insights Summit is back – check out our full session catalog today!