Create Record Links From Power BI to Unified Interface and Dynamics 365

A great dashboard in Dynamics 365, or Model-Driven App will not only show you the relevant data and insights, it will also make it easy to get to the relevant records so you can take action. Drill-downs and clicking on records to navigate to them has been the standard user experience in the built-in dashboards …

Use Icons from Power Apps Unified Interface in Power BI

As Power BI is used increasingly within Dynamics 365 or Model-Driven apps, attention to detail in the user experience is increasingly important. Users should be able to seamlessly navigate between the two technologies, and the visual cues should match between them for a coherent user experience. Visual cues for example, can be the icons used …

DirectQuery CDS from Power BI

Last year I wrote a lengthy blog post comparing the three main methods of getting Dynamics 365, or Common Data Service data into Power BI for analysis. Now, at the most recent Microsoft Business Applications Summit, a new method was announced that I was finally able to try out. The method is using the new …

Comparing the three main ways to get Dynamics 365 data into Power BI

There are a few different ways to get your Dynamics 365 data into Power BI. Now that the Common Data Service connector has come out of preview and is generally available, I figured it would be a good time to have a look at the different methods and how they stack up. The different direct …

Power Query (M) Builder for the XrmToolBox (April 2019 update and fixes)

It has been a little while since the last update, but Mohamed Rasheed and I just added some bug fixes and improvements to the Power Query (M) Builder for the XrmToolBox. If you are new to the Power Query (M) Builder and how it can accelerate Power BI report development from Dynamics 365, check out …

Embed Power BI Visuals in Dynamics 365 – with Secure Embed

Power BI recently started supported embedding Power BI visuals securely out-of-the-box. That means we can now show Power BI reports inside Dynamics 365, without having to deal with authentication. And with minimal use of code, we can filter the visual to the record that it is being displayed on. Like this. I have previously written …

Quickly get Dynamics 365 data in to Power BI for Q&A

The Q&A feature in Power BI is great as it let's users ask natural questions about your data and it will generate visuals and lists to answer those questions. Of course, there's an assumption that Power BI has a data model that uses the same terminology as the user asking, and that the required data …

Use Color Codes from Option Sets in both Dynamics 365 charts and Power BI

Option Sets in Dynamics 365 has a setting for each value to specify a color code. This color code is used in the new Unified Interface in the entity specific dashboards. This is a welcome addition as it makes it more easy to persist colors to a specific value and have it be consistent throughout …

Power Query Builder update for XrmToolBox. Create links to Dynamics 365, and handle tables with no records retrieved

We have added some updates to the Power Query (M) Builder for the XrmToolBox. Video is at the bottom of this post. There are 3 main new features: Automatically generate links back to the Dynamics 365 record Generate an empty table when no records are retrieved Use all-attributes in the FetchXML Automatically generate link to …

Power Query Builder updated – now supports FetchXML to get your Dynamics 365 Views into Power BI

The latest version of the Power Query (M) Builder for the XrmToolBox has been updated and it now supports FetchXML. Used for creating data models for Dynamics 365 in Power BI, the Power Query (M) Builder accelerates the development of the Power Query (M) code, that retrieves the records, change column names and their data …