Data Goblins Blog — DATA GOBLINS

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Having difficulties enabling the audit logs in the admin / compliance portal? Getting an error ‘Sorry! We couldn’t update your organization settings. Please try again.’? Turns out it’s because your tenant might be ‘dehydrated’.

May 17

May 17 Monitoring Power BI using REST APIs from Python

In this post I explain how to call the Power BI REST APIs from Python. You can do this either with a dedicated user or a Service Principal registered from the Azure Portal. I’ll walk through the necessary steps to get this working.

May 10

May 10 Fix Visuals or Replace Measures in Power BI Reports using pbi-tools

Data Visualization

It’s frustrating that in Power BI re-naming measures or moving them to another table will break any visuals using them in reports. Likewise, Power BI does not have a feature to hot-swap measures in visuals, to retain formatting or save time. Here I will show you an easy way to replace multiple measures in a Power BI report, including those used in “broken” visuals. Fix all broken visuals in Power BI reports using this method!

May 9

May 9 Get Power BI Dataset Refresh History using Python

In this post I explain how to get dataset refresh history from Power BI using Python. For this method, you need to be a tenant Admin, and it is limited to only 7 days or 60 refreshes, per dataset. For more history, you need another API or method.

May 8

May 8 Get Publish-to-Web & Org. share links from Power BI API with Python

In this post I explain how to call the Power BI APIs from Python with a Service Principal to get all the publish-to-web and cross-org share links in your tenant, which pose a big governance risk.

May 7

May 7 Get Workspaces from Power BI API with Python

In this post I explain how to call the Power BI APIs from Python with a Service Principal to get all the workspaces managed in your tenant. I share also a github gist for a Python script which retrieves all workspace objects, including users, datasets, reports, etc.

May 6

May 6 Get Deployment Pipelines from Power BI API with Python

In this post I explain how to call the Power BI APIs from Python with a Service Principal to get the deployment pipelines managed in your tenant.

May 5

May 5 Formatting Code for Blogs & Websites

Other Topics

This post is a running collection of tools that I use for formatting and highlighting code in my blog. The code that I share mainly pertains to Power BI, but includes also Python and C#.

May 1

May 1 Running PowerShell from a Python GUI

Other Topics

In this article, we look at how the report source control tool pbi-tools can be run in Python, and how to create a basic GUI in Python to support this.

Apr 19

Apr 19 Extracting Power BI Tenant Settings with Power Automate Desktop

Power BI, Governance/Administration

In this post, we look at a simple way to extract the tenant settings from Power BI using Power Automate Desktop and a UI Automation / RPA flow. Inside, we have a summary of the settings and recommendations for each, as of April 2022.

Apr 12

Apr 12 Adding tables in Power Query using Tabular Editor

Data Modelling, Getting/Transforming Data

A quick tutorial about how to add or modify static data tables (i.e. those created with Enter Data) using Tabular Editor 2 or 3.

Apr 5

Apr 5 Track Changes in Power BI: Part 5 - Using pbi-tools

Data Visualization, Governance/Administration

In this article, we look at some tips to best use pbi-tools and how to automate pbi-tools execution in the background, using Power Automate Desktop flows.

Mar 29

Mar 29 Track Changes in Power BI: Part 4 -Reports

Data Visualization, Governance/Administration

pbi-tools is a command-line tool that enables Source / Version Control of Power BI (thin) reports and datasets. Much like the folder structure generated by Tabular Editor, pbi-tools creates a Report Layout structure based on files in the .pbix. In these articles, we go into the background of this tool & how to use it.

An important note if you are using Sensitivity Labels - files with Sensitivity Labels are currently not supported with pbi-tools. More info on that at the bottom of the article.

Mar 15

Mar 15 Assess an Existing Dataset with Tabular Editor 3 - Part 3: Extend DMVs with C# Scripts & Macros

Scripts for TE2 and TE3 to automate querying of DMVs to document your model.

Mar 8

Mar 8 Assess an Existing Dataset with Tabular Editor 3 - Step 2: Query DMVs

This article we examine what are Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and how to query them from Tabular Editor 3. In the next article, we leverage the DMVs to automate documentation and tasks in our model.

Mar 1

Mar 1 Analyze a Dataset with Tabular Editor 3 - VertiPaq Analyzer

In this article, we look at why using the VertiPaq Analyzer - integrated in Tabular Editor 3 & DAX Studio - should be your first step when analyzing a dataset. Describe your models and find easy optimization steps with this handy tool.

Feb 22

Feb 22 The Goblin Behind the Model

Data Culture & Adoption

In this article, we examine the importance of empathy in growing a data culture — one where others want to participate.

Feb 15

Feb 15 How to Analyze YouTube & YouTube Music History with Power BI (or Excel)

Feb 8 View & Edit Power Query in Tabular Editor