Getting Started with Power BI Paginated Reports

Power BI Paginated Reports are the successor to SQL Server Reporting Services reports (although SSRS is still part of the SQL Server BI Stack). Using the same RDL (report definition language) as SSRS, Power BI Paginated Reports enable report developers to create "pixel-perfect" reports with complete control over item placement, pagination, row and column grouping and subtotals, etc. In this demo-centric session, we'll use Power BI Report Builder on the desktop to design reports using datasets from local sources as well as Azure databases. We'll look at parameterization and custom expressions and publish our report to the Power BI service. If time permits, we'll take a look at building paginated reports in the online service, a capability Microsoft released last year.

Intro to Data Profiling in Power BI

Mark Twain is often cited as the source of the quote: "There are 3 kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics". Twain claimed to be referencing the former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who may or may not have said it. In the data world, statistics are a valued source of truth, but data analysts need to be able to discover and verify database statistics before relying on them for guidance. Power BI offers several tools for acquiring and viewing statistics about data sources - you just have to know where to look.

In this session, we'll take a look at how, when, and where to use the data profiling features of Power BI. This is an introductory session; attendees should be familiar with the basics of Power BI (particularly the Get Data feature), but no knowledge of advanced mathematical statistics is needed.

Migrating complex Excel datasets to PowerBI

Most PowerBI tutorials use simple, unrealistic Excel spreadsheets or csv files as data sources for Power Query. The speed and accuracy importing these samples is impressive. In the real world, however, Excel spreadsheets can be messy, with repetitive columns and rows, multiple worksheet connections, and mixed data types (to say the least). In this session, I'll demonstrate how I connected to an unworkable (as in 2+ minutes to recalculate) spreadsheet and created a data set which could be analyzed in PowerBI (and updated as necessary from newer versions of the spreadsheet). Although much of the original process was generated through the Power Query UI, we'll take a look at the M code to see what's going on under the hood. If time permits, we can also take on attendee's spreadsheets as a group and see what we can do to make their day.

Pilot to Copilot(s): Getting Started with Copilot in Power Platform (Apps, Flows, Pages

At Build 2024, Copilots for every Microsoft application platform were front and center. The Power Platform features copilots to help users (pilots?) get up and running with Low Code applications for the desktop and mobile devices.

This session will focus on introducing the Copilots in PowerApps, PowerAutomate, and PowerPages, using a series of demos based on simplified scenarios. We'll work on improving our Copliot "prompts" to encourage Copilot to do more of the work (so we can do less).

This will be a demo heavy session, using simplified scenarios. I'll briefly touch on setting up the Power Platform environment, but users will need to address their own setup to get started (Azure subscription, Microsoft 365, etc.).

Command Line Options for Microsoft Azure

This presentation offers a perspective on the variety of ways users can implement Infrastructure-as-Code using command line processors for Microsoft Azure.

Most new users of Microsoft's Azure public cloud platform begin with the Azure portal experience, which exposes the breadth of services offered on Azure along with multi-step dialogs for configuring and creating new service instances. In addition, the portal provides service-specific interfaces for modifying existing services; these interfaces can vary subtly or radically from each other depending on the service. Also, these interfaces can change from time-to-time which can lead to configuration mistakes and time-consuming updates to user training.

The good news is that Microsoft exposes the service-configuration surface as a collection of REST APIs and offers API "wrappers" for popular programming languages, enabling developers to build applications which manage Azure infrastructure. For non-developers, the alternative to the Azure Portal UI is a command-line processor. Just to complicate matters, Microsoft supports 2 command-line processors (Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell). Command-line processors run in a command shell - Azure supports several command shells:
• Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe)
• Windows PowerShell/PowerShell (pwsh.exe)
• Bash (native to UNIX/Linux systems)
• Azure CloudShell (hosted in a container running Ubuntu Linux)
Running a command shell requires a software program which supports the selected shell. These include:
• Terminal (OS X for Mac)
• Windows Terminal
• Visual Studio Code

There is no "best" choice considering Operating System, Command Shell, and Command-line processor choices. This presentation will explore how the combinations of these options align with user capabilities and preferences to help individual users select which combination(s) will work best for them in any given environment.

Microsoft PowerApps: The New Access?

Enterprise database administrators have struggled for years to comprehend and manage workgroup database applications developed in Microsoft Access. Often created by "citizen developers" with limited knowledge of database design, privacy and security issues, and software development best practices, Access databases nevertheless became mission-critical resources due to prioritization of strained centralized IT resources.

More recently, Microsoft has expanded its "Power Platform" to encompass multiple tools, including Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Pages. Power Apps offers a no-code/low-code platform for