Here is the weekly roundup, and as always the Power BI team has been very busy over their summer releasing some incredible features.

Power BI – Report Server Update Aug 2018

I am not going to go through all of the updates to the Power BI Report Server, due to almost all of the functionality already being released in Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service.

What I will say is that there is a lot of new features that have been released. And as at the time of the release it almost has parity with the August release of Power BI Desktop. This is once again an incredible effort by the Power BI team to get this all out.

Below are all the updates with links to the specific sections, and if you do use Power BI Report Server, I would suggest reading through the blog post.

REPORTING

• Report Theming
  
• Buttons to trigger actions
  
• Combo chart line styles
  
• Improved default sort for visuals
  
• Numeric slicer
  
• Advanced slicer syncing
  
• Log axis improvements
  
• Data label options for funnel chart
  
• Set line stroke width to zero
  
• High contrast support for reports
  
• Donut radius control
  
• Pie and donut detail labels position control
  
• Format data labels separately for each measure in a combo chart
  
• New visual header with more flexibility and formatting
  
• Wallpaper formatting
  
• Tooltips for table & matrix
  
• Turn tooltips off for visuals
  
• Slicer accessibility
  
• Formatting pane improvements
  
• Stepped line support for line and combo charts
  
• Sorting experience improvement
  
• Print reports through Export to PDF (in Power BI Desktop)
  
• Create bookmark groups
  
• Slicer restatement
  
• Report page tooltips

  ANALYTICS

• New DAX function: COMBINEVALUES()
  
• Measure drillthrough
  
• Conditional formatting by a different field
  
• Conditional formatting by values

  MODELING

• Filtering and sorting in data view
  
• Improved locale formatting
  
• Data categories for measures
  
• Statistical DAX functions
  

  You can find the blog post details here: Power BI Report Server Update – August 2018

  Power BI – Ask a Question (Q&A) Generally Available

  

  Ask a Question or Q&A is now Generally available in Power BI Desktop where the Business Analyst could use Q&A to create visuals. Or the other scenario is to create a button and have a set of existing questions for the end users to consume and possibly start to create their own Q&A questions.

  The blog post has additional details: Ask A Question GA’s in Power BI Desktop

  Power BI – URL Filter Improvements

  

  Having the capability to have more advanced URL Filtering is something that I know a lot of people including myself have been waiting for.

  Now you can complete the following with the URL Filtering:

  • You can use columns with spaces, you have to specify the O-Data compliant space which is “_x0020_”
  • Can specify Date ranges with greater than “gt” and less then “lt”
  • You can now use multiple columns from different tables
  • The use of “in” as part of the URL Filtering.
  • You can leverage a DAX Measure and configure it as a URL which will then enable you to click on the measure based on what you have selected in your report.

  The blog post has additional details: Power BI Report URL filter improvements

  Power BI – Python Episode 1

  

  In this blog post Mohammad from the Power BI Team, shows you how to use 5 Python packages with Power BI.

  If you currently use Python or you are interested in Python, this is a fantastic blog post in which you can get started.

  Blog post details: Python Episode 1 – A New hope

  Power BI – Multi-Geo Support for Embedded

  

  There is now Multi-Geo Support on the Power BI Embedded A SKU

  This is great for people who currently use the A SKUs for their Power BI Embedded Applications where they have customers from around the world. The data can now be hosted either closer to where they live or in their country.

  You can find all the details here: Multi-geo support (preview) for Power BI Embedded in Azure