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Model Driven Apps - How to display an automatic Power BI view of data from data grids

There's a new preview feature that allows users to display an auto-generated Power BI report from grids. This report includes charts and tables, and this post describes this new feature in more detail.

With model driven apps, it's now possible for end-users to view an automatically generated report, simply by clicking a button in the menu bar.

This is a great feature because it enables users to very quickly explore data and to view trends, using the built-in filtering and charting capabilities in Power BI. The benefit is that there's no need for app-builders or users to pre-build Power BI reports or to navigate to a separate area in order to view the reports.

Another useful characteristic is that the data in the Power BI is connected to the data that's shown in the model driven grid. Users can filter the data in the model driven app, and the auto-generated report will be filtered by the visible data.

How to enable automatic Power BI reports in an app

To get started, the first step is to enable this feature at an app level. We open the model driven app using the new preview designer.


Next, we navigate to the settings area and turn on the "Enable Power BI quick report visualisation on a table (preview)" setting.


An extra prerequisite is that we must enable the TDS endpoint at the environment level. My previous post here provides more details of this feature.

http://powerappsguide.com/blog/post/dataverse-setup-tds-for-management-studio-powerbi

Finally, we must save and republish the app to apply the changes.

How to view Power BI report visualisations from a grid

From the model driven app, we can now open any grid view and click the "visualize this view" button that appears in the menu bar.



Clicking this button generates the visualisation, which can take several seconds. The output then appears in a panel. The report includes auto-generated charts and tabular views of the data.

We can filter and customise the report further using the controls that are available in the report. Unfortunately, any customisations that we make will not be saved or retained for future sessions. Nonetheless, it still offers a much better way to explore the data.


Conclusion

From model driven apps, there's now a preview feature for end-users to view an automatically generated report, simply by clicking a button in the menu bar of a grid. This is a great addition that makes it easier to explore and to visualise data.
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