Explain Power BI desktop data sources

 To produce understandable reports and update them in real-time, modern business needs a powerful information processing service. Power BI is a sufficiently powerful and yet free BI platform. Microsoft is investing heavily in the growth of this software, which is also followed by updates that extend its capabilities. These variants of the program can be used. The Power BI Desktop is intended to build a data model and reports; there is a different version of the Power BI Desktop for Microsoft Windows 10 users.

Power BI Service is an online counterparty specializing in tracking and analyzing ready-made files, so there are very limited possibilities for designing and working with data. As a rule, as a function Object() { [native code] }, the desktop version is used, after which the created file is released to the Power BI Service. power bi learn online

Datasets and Sources in Power BI desktop

Initially, yet entirely separate definitions that often merge (they partly overlap): "data source" and "data collection" need to be separated. The data source is just the final path to the knowledge you want to work with. The route to the hard disc file, the URL to Facebook, or the cloud location of the database-all of this is the way, and all of this is the data source.

Power BI automatically generates a data set every time you link to data (static or dynamic) or import it. Which, as a rule, is then used to produce reports and visualizations.

Often, connecting to certain data sources requires advanced query and Excel modeling functions or an installed Power BI Desktop program. I would like to draw your attention to the general characteristics that these types have or, more specifically, what characteristics your sources can function in Power BI before you go directly to the study of data types that can be loaded into Power BI. And the key thing you need to know about it:

Format for Data in Power Bi Desktop

Of course, Power BI must support the data format. Typically there are no issues with this; however, certain data types are already ready to work with Power BI, and some may have to be "prepared." So, for instance, there are no compatibility problems when generating datasets from sources such as Google Analytics or Twilio. Similarly, data from cloud databases such as SQL Azure is simply downloaded. They're fully operational.

In certain cases, however, direct data importation is not feasible. In particular, when attempting to link to data stored on your company's servers (closed access data) or when attempting to load a simple TXT file. 

Extract this information;

Use all of your Excel or Power BI Desktop favorites to import initial data;

Save the data obtained as a file;

In Power BI, import the file.

From where can I download data?

For different services and databases, Power BI has several built-in connectors, with the help of which you can load the required data set from different sources into a program in a matter of minutes, link them together and generate unified reports and charts. All accessible connectors are classified into four categories at the time of this writing:

You can import data from the best-known databases and services into Power BI using different file formats, as you can see. You have great opportunities for cleaning and data transformation after downloading information from available sources in Power BI because the framework has a fairly strong ETL functionality. It is possible to edit loadable tables and construct measured columns and measures based on their columns. So, that you can turn arrays of information into data sets with the structure required to create a visualization.

Datasets and their updates, reports, and dashboards, tiles, and visualizations consisting of all these blocks. Some of them are included in others if it is feasible (and how) to generate a report at the same time based on several data sets. All of this and much more that we layout on the shelves. So, the details and how they should be prepared.

Updates to Data in Power BI Desktop

Do you still want to have the latest data? You want to, and this opportunity can be given by Power BI. Power BI connects to the appropriate data using the link information (which, as we have already said, is included in the data set along with the data source indication).

How much is the information changed and what needs to be done to do so? The frequency of the update depends on the type of data being checked, however, for example, Power BI checks the source about once per hour for certain cloud data stores (such as OneDrive service files). It is worth noting, however, that the shipments themselves are updated about once a day with the same OneDrive. And you can, of course, configure the update time at will or manually update the report on a newly updated file at any time.

The response to the "what is required for updates" question also depends on the type of data. For this, nothing is needed sometimes, and sometimes you will have to use the personal gateway of the Power BI Gateway. It is such a reliable data transfer bridge that the Excel spreadsheet data located on a local disc would need to be modified, for example. Or for updates to be configured. In the data update post, we are also going to tell you more about the gateway. Or contact the experts if you can't wait.

Forms of Data

So, we come to the most important of the forms of knowledge that Power BI is friends with. We combined them into folders, content sets, and databases into classes. If you are upset by the limited number of data types to which you can connect directly via Power BI, we once again draw your attention to the fact that you get about fifty new features using Power BI Desktop. It just takes a little more additional action. And, maybe, help from a professional. You can connect and not be restricted to Power BI alone to cover the full amount of data. Data loading with Power Bi Desktop is divided into File, Database, Azure, and other categories.

• Some files (for example, Excel tables or PBI files) are uploaded to Power BI without any problems; some files (regular .txt or .xml tables) need to be converted first. The File category in the Download Power BI Desktop menu provides the following link data options: Excel, CSV, XML, Text, JSON, and Folder.

• Both local databases and those in the cloud will connect to Power BI. At the same time, cloud storage connections are dynamic, i.e., Power BI requests the data set every time you, for example, construct a visualization in a study. You need a corporate Power BI gateway to connect to local databases. You need to contact your local administrator or, again, contact your contractor for assistance to set it up. Connectivity to the following databases is currently supported by Power BI Desktop: SQL Server, Access, SQL Server Research Services, Oracle, IBM DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase, Teradata, and SAP HANA.

With custom solutions, Easier, Quicker, Stronger

As you can see, beautiful and useful analytics using Power Bi can be pulled from a variety of data sources with the correct amount of information. To get started, you need to. "You can't even download it, as, sorry for the analogy, a" Simple bake cake mix. Restrictions on the use of packages also occur. It is important to use the Power BI Pro version for organizations’ services.

If you use Project Online, then all is easy for you, ready to use. You can connect to almost any data source that supports the OData protocol (and the absolute majority thereof) if you wish. Plus, you can build any local databases that are a data source, not in the cloud.

Features on the Power BI Desktop

We'll briefly address the data connectivity provided by Power BI Desktop at the end of the article.

"Other" Power BI Desktop files.

A decent number of potential connections are included in the 'Other' category: Web Application, SharePoint List, OData Web Feed, Hadoop File (HDFS), Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Dynamics CRM Online, Facebook, Google Analytics, SalesForce Objects, SalesForce Reports, ODBC and beta versions of the following links: R Script, AppFigures, GitHub, MailChimp, Marketo, QuickBooks Online, Smartsheee Files, ODBC and beta versions of the following connections: It is impossible that a beginner would not find the necessary stuff here to learn Power BI. By the way, the software itself searches for details on the page while connecting to the 'Internet,' and shows it in the Navigator region in preview mode. Choose what you're looking for, edit, download, work.

"Azure" Power BI desktop

Good connectivity and integration with Azure services are supported by Power BI Desktop, so this data link option is also highlighted in a separate menu section. Link options include Microsoft Azure SQL database, Microsoft Azure SQL data store, Microsoft Azure Marketplace, Microsoft Azure HDInsight, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, Microsoft Azure Tabular Storage, etc. Three additional beta software versions are also listed.

• Azure HD Insight Spark, 

• Microsoft Azure Document DB and

• Microsoft Azure Data Lake Storage.

Conclusion

I hope you reach to a conclusion about data sources in Power BI desktop. You can learn more about data sources and other topics of Power BI through Power BI online training.