Creating paginated reports
1. Creating paginated reports
Up to this point, all of our demos have been in the Power BI Desktop interface. Now, we are going to move to the Power BI Report Builder app and use it to build a paginated report. In the Report Data menu, we have pre-populated it with a data source and dataset. If I right-click on Data Sources, I can add a new data source. From the “Select connection type” menu, you can see the options available. These options lean heavily toward Microsoft Azure products, but you can also connect to Oracle, Teradata, and other ODBC-based data sources, and even enter data manually for smaller datasets. Because I already have a data source, I’ll select “Cancel” and move on. Right-clicking on the Datasets folder lets us add a dataset, which comes from a data source. In this menu, we’ll be able to write a query against the data source. Again, I’ll cancel this and use the pre-created dataset. You can also include parameters, allowing an end user to interact with your report. Now let’s take a look at the canvas. You can see rulers at the top and left, giving an idea of how wide your report will be. Let’s click the title box and enter a title, “Sample Report.” Selecting the Insert ribbon menu gives us an idea of what we can show on the page. We can add tables, matrices, and a variety of data visualizations and report items. Let’s start out with a table. Select the Table menu and choose Insert Table. Unlike Power BI Desktop, we now have to click on the screen where we want the table to be. After we add it, we can see header and data regions. Let’s drag Region and Date onto the table and then select Run from the Views menu to view the results. Select Design to return. But let’s say we want a matrix instead. Let’s click on the table, and then select the square in the top-left corner. This lets me move the visual with my mouse or delete by striking the Delete key. I can insert a matrix using the same process. A matrix is different from a table in that a matrix includes rows, columns, and data. Let’s drag Region into the Columns, Year into the Rows, and CPI into the Data. Next up, let’s perform some formatting. Looking at the Properties menu, we can see a variety of properties. These are context-sensitive, meaning that they’ll be different based on what you have selected. Let’s choose the Year column. In the Font menu, I’ll expand the font options, where we can change font type and size, as well as other features. Let’s select font color and set an expression, where if Year is earlier than 2020, we’ll set the color to red and otherwise set it to black. =IIF(Me.Value < 2020, “Red”, “Black”) Select OK and Run to see it in action, including the conditional formatting. Let’s select Design and add a chart. The chart menu includes a wide variety of visuals. From the Scatter menu, let’s select the Scatter visual. Now we need to fill in the data elements. Select the visual and you’ll see the chart data menu. Let’s make CPI the value and Region the series. Also, delete the category group. Our scatter plot needs two measures, so for X Value, we’ll use CPI as well. Then we’ll set the aggregation to Max. We can use the markers at the bottom and right sides of the report to extend our page length, making sure to grab the dotted line which separates the page body from the footer. Then, we will give the scatter plot plenty of space. Finally, let’s view the report again and see how it looks. There’s a lot more we can do with paginated reports, but this will be enough to get you started. Now let’s get into the last set of exercises and have you take control.2. Let's practice!
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