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Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

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Avi Singh on 21 Nov 2018 10:33:47

Perspectives are an incredibly useful feature for complex models for end-users. For a complex model, there can be 50+ Tables with 100s of Columns and Measures (sometimes 1000+). This can be overwhelming for a new user who would connect to the Data Model to create their own reports (either using Power BI or Excel).

Adding the ability to create Perspectives in Power BI Desktop (similar to Power Pivot, SSAS) would be a big help.

Perspectives allow end-users to connect to a "slice" of the Model, making it easier to understand and work with. Thus aiding with the widespread adoption and rollout of Power BI.

Power On! / Avi

Comments (13)
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Denis PEYRAS on 08 Apr 2024 16:56:57

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

Hi,Tabular Editor can add "Perspectives" on an existing Semantic Model.When using Power BI Desktop, the idea is to add a combo box in the Data panel. The combo box will contains all defined perspectives.Thus, user can understand the dimensional matrix and avoid tu use measures or dimensions in bad context.Regards,Denis

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David Mellinger on 10 Feb 2022 14:37:13

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

This is THE feature from Analysis Services which is missing to make Enterprise models/datasets more usable in Power BI. It really is the only feature which I can talk with end users or others about which I could recommend Analysis Services over Power BI for enterprise models. Get perspectives fully implemented in Power BI!!

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on 22 Jun 2021 22:53:44

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

and then be able to share those datasets.

Using perspectives with PowerBI would be a great way to hide sensitive data and make large data models more manageable.

PowerPivot for Excel is pretty much SSAS anyway right? Would it be possible to use the Analysis Services Connector to connect directly to an Excel PowerPivot Data Model instead? Maybe PowerPivot data models could be exported into a Services Connector readable format?

I'm not a BI Developer, just spitballing here.

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on 22 Jun 2021 22:53:34

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

The new modeling view in Power BI Desktop supports multiple layouts and many features (multi-select) that make designing large models easier. Perspectives should be added to the new modeling view with a 'Manage Perspectives' icon next to the Manage Relationships and Manage Roles icons on the Modeling tab.

In an initial release, the Manage Perspectives dialog should provide the same features as what's available to Analysis Services projects in Visual Studio. For instance, there should be a table with each column representing a distinct perspective and the modeler can quickly choose which tables and individual measures and columns are included or not in a given perspective. Additionally, also like Analysis Services, the modeler should be able to view/evaluate and toggle between the different perspectives to view the user experience.

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Uladzislau Chechko on 02 Mar 2021 11:22:19

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

Great idea! Waiting for this

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Jeffery Glenn on 09 Nov 2020 21:43:02

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

Thanks for all the great improvements, we are finally switching over.

I agree with the need for this, this will save us from having to have a version of each of our reports so we should be able to dramatically reduce our report count if we can get this.

We are a shop that uses PBI embedded is is possible to pass the perspective into an embedded report since we know which perspective our user would want to start with?

Thanks again.

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Avi Singh on 20 Aug 2020 23:11:01

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

This was always available in Power Pivot as far as I can remember. It seems we took a step back with Power BI, since this feature was dropped :-(

Would certainly be very useful.

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Marc Lelijveld on 13 Aug 2020 19:39:36

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

I totally agree that it would be very welcome to view, manage and maintain perspectives in the model view of Power BI Desktop. Especially since perspectives are now also used for visual personalization purposes.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-august-2020-feature-summary/#_Perspectives

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George on 06 Jul 2020 00:11:30

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

We develop reports based on a certified dataset which is used for the whole company. We have especially one report regarding management review meetings which should contain metrics from all departments. But we cannot include HR data to this dataset, due to confidentiality. So we cannot add those to the management report and having different sets is not working. Dashboard could solve it but lets face it... creating a dashboard is very limited comparing to a report looking like a dashboard, with bookmarks and actions.

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Nick on 05 Jul 2020 23:50:51

RE: Allow Power BI Desktop to Create Perspectives (Similar to Power Pivot, SSAS)

We are very impressed by Power BI and want to replace our old SSAS multidimensional cubes with a Power BI model. However, many of our users will still want/need to connect to the Power BI model with Excel for ad-hoc reporting. Perspectives are a requirement for this so that users are not overwhelmed by the entire enterprise model and so they can have a similar experience to what they already have in SSAS.

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