IN-CONTEXT Auto-Documentation for Power BI with MODEL.VIEW

[@bi-ome]

Please watch the section on the current bug with the October release before using this new feature! It's linked in the chapters for convenience. Once it's fixed I'll update this comment. 🙂 Also, I got a note from Cristian Prifti on LinkedIn that there's a bug with using measures.info for the dynamic formatting of a calculation group (if you're not sure what this is, then you likely won't bump into it!). Thanks for the heads up Cristian!

[@AK-ij9il]

Hi Christine,is it possible to call 3 lakh rows through API Calls?

[@bi-ome]

@@AK-ij9il​​⁠​​⁠Not sure which API you’re referring to - usually APIs are rate limited, so you can make a lot but have to stay under a certain number per minute or similar. You can just add a pause to whatever you’re using to query it though to limit the call speed. Power Automate itself has limits on the for-each loop, not sure what tool you’re using

[@walterstevens8676]

I saw a video on this recently and it really exposed my limited Power BI thinking: as soon as I saw it I thought "Wow, you could use this to document the data model for the entire business!". But until I started chatting to other developers I hadnt realised that whereas I was getting data and building reports per requirement, best practice is to build up all the data into a model and report off that. In which case, the functionality you're demonstrating can be used to document a comprehensive model.

[@ArunMathew99]

Thanks Christine. I was not able to select the Measure Decription column as field value to show the tooltip, instead i used selected value measure. Great Content 🙂

[@alono2323]

Thanks, Christine. That was very helpful! I have just one quick question: What is the benefit of creating the additional calculated column (4:00) instead of connecting the 'Name' column from the INFO.VIEW.MEASURE() to the 'Name' column in the field parameter? It seems to me an unnecessary step.

[@bi-ome]

You can rename the field parameter items to whatever you want - I do this a lot to make them more friendly in the slicer, then make the actual measure name more verbose. This way it always matches :)

[@peterjohannessen9928]

I got the Something went wrong error when trying to create the calculated Measures table and I noticed that when you run it in DAX query Veiw and there is one or more [State]='Invalid' I get the "Something wnet wrong" error. Once I fixed or removed the invalid Measure i could create the calculated table.

[@bi-ome]

Oh interesting! If you message Zoe Douglas on LinkedIn, she will send in a bug report for it (she’s the PM for this feature). Thanks for the heads up!

[@mirrrvelll5164]

Ah great one, I just saw that you got a different video with API, and as you said, this is low code stuff =) Is there any approach to see which data sources have been used within each table/query? I managed to use some custom connectors with API, but is there any like "smooth" method to it? thx

[@bi-ome]

Thanks! There’s a bunch more info() expressions that can pull more model info, but the ones in the video are the only ones you can display in a calc table right now. The API is a good place to get it, especially if you have that working already, but have you tried Measure Killer as a tool? It has a free version and works realllllly well to show you what you’re using and not using.

[@cristianprifti]

While this method is simpler, nothing gets unlisted 😂 The previous method will still be valid in my opinion (until live connection is supported) for creating centralized documentation across multiple models. 😁

[@bi-ome]

At the very least it's useful until they fix the bug.🤣 If you like the multiple model concept, DEFINITELY check out the Power BI Admin API - it has everything in the tenant and its awesome. It's just a PITA to get it out. With my luck, about the time I manage to get a video done on that one they'll make it a one-button click in the service somewhere..

[@cristianprifti]

@@bi-ome I do like the admin APIs, but I tend to like the low code approaches since not all clients react positively to the admin APIs ideas 🤭