Excel Tip #30: Excel Services Visual Limitations – Displaying Images

As I mentioned in my original post, Exploring Excel 2013 as Microsoft’s BI Client, I will be posting tips regularly about using Excel 2013 and later.  Much of the content will be a result of my daily interactions with business users and other BI devs.  In order to not forget what I learn or discover, I write it down … here.  I hope you too will discover something new you can use.  Enjoy!

Introducing Brian Wright – Guest Blogger

Today, I am happy to announce that Brian will be joining DataOnWheels as a guest blogger. I have worked with Brian over the past couple of years and his Excel visualization skills are great. I look forward to his contributions to the Excel Tips series and other BI related topics. Thanks Brian.

Hello Data on Wheels Readers! Let’s start this blog post by letting you know a few things about myself. First, I am not a professional writer, blogger, or ever social guru, but I am passionate about what I do. I love data visualization. Watching boring data come to life in a visual report or dashboard is my “thing”. Secondly, when things don’t work the way I think they should, I become obsessed in finding out a way around it.

Images Are Not Displayed in Excel Services

That is what leads us to this blog post today. In the limited environment I work within, Excel Services is used quite often in our BI suite of tools. When I realized that the ever so important images I was adding in my Excel workbooks would not show on Excel Services, my obsession kicked in.

Here is the trick or hack. (Using the word hack makes me look much cooler in my kid’s eyes). Wherever you want your picture within your workbook, simply add a chart. Yes, you read correct, simply add a chart.

Using Charts to Display Images

The trick here is not to link the chart to any type of data at all. Just leave it blank. Right Click on the blank chart and navigate to “Format Chart Area”. Navigate to the fill area and select “Pattern or Texture Fill”.

Next, click on the File Button and select your image. Your image will now show as a background image in your chart. Save and then voila!

Once Excel Services displays your workbook, you will be pleasantly surprised to see your image right where you want it!

Minnesota BI User Group – Powering Up HDInsight with Power BI (December 2015)

On Wednesday, December 16, I presented on this topic at the Minnesota BI User Group.  This session is based on five blog posts that I created in August 2015.

You can find the presentation here: Powering Up HDInsight with Power BI (pdf).

The details can be found in the blog posts noted below:

Setting Up and HDInsight Cluster (No Scripts Required)

Exploring the Microsoft Azure HDInsight Query Console (No Scripting Required)

Uploading Files to an HDInsight Cluster (No Scripting Required)

Using Power BI with HDInsight Part 1: Power Query and Files

Using Power BI with HDInsight Part 2: Power BI Desktop and Hive

My goals for this series

1. Document using Power BI with HDInsight

2. Prove that you can set up a HDInsight Cluster with no scripts

Other References from the Session

Azure: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

Cloud Berry: http://www.cloudberrylab.com/free-microsoft-azure-explorer.aspx

 

Thanks for attending my session.

Five Years, A Quiet Quarter, A Look Ahead to 2016

Five Years of Blogging

From

to

My blogging story started on December 7, 2010. I have now had a blog for over 5 years. I want to thank all of you who have read my blog and interacted with me through it. You have seen me change the theme once and do a number of series. Here are some highlights from the past five years:

Top 5 Posts All Time

1. Adding Top 10 Charts to Power View Which Honor Filters
2. Simple batch script to generate XMLA and deploy SSAS DB
3. T-SQL Window Functions – Part 1- The OVER() Clause
4. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #14- Sparklines and Pivot Tables
5. O, There’s the Data- Using OData in SSIS

Top Series All Time

The Excel BI Tips series has changed it name a couple of times. However, this tip series still rings true even today even as Microsoft invests in other tools. Look for some more Power BI content this year, but this series will continue to have updates. Also, look to see some Excel 2016 topics added to the list as that release becomes available. Here are the top ten tips from the series:

1. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #14- Sparklines and Pivot Tables
2. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #15- Locking Slicer Position
3. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #10- The Data Bar
4. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #4- Adding a Slicer
5. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #5- Cleaning Up Slicers
6. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #9- Adding Calculated Members
7. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #8- Adding Calculated Measures
8. Exploring Excel 2013 for BI Tip #13- Connecting Slicers in Pivot Tables Sourced from a Power Pivot Model
9. Excel BI Tip #18- Using CUBE Functions to Break Out of Pivot Tables
10. Excel Tip #21- Hiding Scrollbars in Excel Services Web Part

Tributes

A tribute is an expression of gratitude or praise. A couple of years ago, I started a series about individuals who have impacted my career. I do this as a tribute to my father-in-law, Ed Jankowski who passed away in December 2009. Check out my original post about him and his impact on me being in software development today.

• 2011: How I Got Started in Software Development-A Tribute to Ed
• 2012: Cultural Anthropology and Business Intelligence–A Tribute to Dr. Thomas C. Correll
• 2013: Work Ethic and Family – A Tribute to My Parents
• 2014: She Taught Me to Code–A Tribute to Sheila, My Wife

Some Stats

I want to thank everyone again for taking time to check out my blog. Here are some stats that I thought were cool and decided to brag about here:

• 2011 daily average: 9 – 2015 daily average: 162
• 156 posts
• 135,000 views
• Best ever views in a day: 584

Thanks again for checking out my “help” library. As I noted in one of my posts, I blog to not forget and to pass along what I have learned. The key for me is that I do it when I can about topics that interest me.

A Quiet Quarter

The last statement holds true here. I have had a very quiet end of the year. I had blogs which followed up sessions, a practice that I intend to continue, and one BI Tip. November and December were quiet as my job and family took precedence as Pragmatic Works closed out the year strong and we had holiday activities at home including getting my two kids in college home. Well, the dust has settled so I am getting a few more posts published now. Look for the Minnesota SQL Server User Group and Minnesota BI User Group follow up posts this week.

Looking ahead to 2016

After a busy year last year, I am looking forward to having some new opportunities to write about Azure, SQL Server 2016, and other technologies I have not even seen yet. Are you excited for what is coming? Let’s have a great year working with data and analytics.

Excel Tip #29: Forcing Slicers to Filter Each Other when Using CUBE Functions

As I mentioned in my original post, Exploring Excel 2013 as Microsoft’s BI Client, I will be posting tips regularly about using Excel 2013 and later.  Much of the content will be a result of my daily interactions with business users and other BI devs.  In order to not forget what I learn or discover, I write it down … here.  I hope you too will discover something new you can use.  Enjoy!

Scenario

You have went to all the trouble to build out a good set of slicers which allow you to “drill” down to details based on selections. In my example, I have created a revenue distribution table using cube formulas such as:

=CUBEVALUE(“ThisWorkbookDataModel”,$B6, Slicer_Date, Slicer_RestaurantName, Slicer_Seat_Number, Slicer_TableNumber)

Each cell with data references all the slicers. When working with pivot tables or pivot charts, the slicers will hide values that have no matching reference. However, since we are using cube formulas the slicers have no ability to cross reference. For example, when I select a date and a table, I expect to see my seat list reduce in size, but it does not. All of my slicers are set up to hide options when data is available. There are two examples below. In the first, you can see that the seats are not filtered. However, this may be expected. In the second example, we filter a seat which should cause the tables to hide values and it does not work as expected either.

As you can see in the second example, we are able to select a seat that is either not related to the selected table or has no data on that date. Neither of these scenarios is user friendly and does not direct our users to see where the data matches.

Solving the Problem with a “Hidden” Pivot Table

To solve this issue, we are going to use a hidden pivot table. In most cases we would add this to a separate worksheet and then hide the sheet from the users. For sake of our example, I am going to put the pivot table in plain sight for the examples.

Step 1: Add a Pivot Table with the Same Connection as the Slicers

In order for this to work, you need to add a pivot table using the same connection you used with the slicers. The value you use in the pivot table, should only be “empty” or have no matches when that is the expected result. You want to make sure that you do not unintentionally filter out slicers when data exists. In my example, I will use the Total Ticket Amount as the value. That will cover my scenario. In most cases, I recommend looking for a count type value that will always have data if there is a potential match of any kind.

Step 2: Connect the Slicers to the Pivot Table

Using the Apply Filters button on the Pivot Table ribbon, you need to select all the slicers you want to interact with each other.

Once these changes are applied, you will see how my data changed.

Now, let’s test this for real. We will keep the date and table, but now we will see that the other slicers are now filtered to match the data that is available.

As you can see, the solution is fairly simple, but not intuitive. You will be able to create more creative dashboards with this technique. Keep in mind this issue is primarily a problem when using cube formulas in your Excel dashboard.

Until next time…

Powering Up HDInsight with Power BI–

On Tuesday, September 15, I presented on this topic for Pragmatic Works. You can find that session here. This session is based on five blog posts that I created in August 2015.

Powering Up HDInsight with Power BI (pdf)https://dataonwheels.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/powering-up-hdinsight-with-power-bi.pdffoundin the

Setting Up and HDInsight Cluster (No Scripts Required)

Exploring the Microsoft Azure HDInsight Query Console (No Scripting Required)

Uploading Files to an HDInsight Cluster (No Scripting Required)

Using Power BI with HDInsight Part 1: Power Query and Files

Using Power BI with HDInsight Part 2: Power BI Desktop and Hive

My goals for this series

1. Document using Power BI with HDInsight

2. Prove that you can set up a HDInsight Cluster with no scripts

Other References from the Session

Azure: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/

Cloud Berry: http://www.cloudberrylab.com/free-microsoft-azure-explorer.aspx

Wrap Up from the Session

A few questions were asked during the session and I wanted to handle some of them here.

Why did you not use Azure Resource Manager to deploy storage?

I did this as simple as possible and did not need to use the Resource Manager for my demos. However, if you need to rebuild the cluster quickly, the Azure Resource Manager would be a good option. Find out more here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/hdinsight-provision-clusters/. This site will also walk through scripts and other options for setting up HDInsight clusters.

Why didn’t the table structure show up in the Power Query demo?

The Power Query demo worked with the data from a file approach. This approach is more “raw”. The files did not have column headers, so no headers were created in the table. However, when working with the Power BI Desktop demo, I used Hive. The table was defined in Hive and were easily seen. This is another case for using Hive or something similar to define the schema for ease of use.

What are the differences between Hadoop, Hortonworks, and HDInsight?

Starting from the top, Hadoop is the Adobe open source specification. All of the products listed above are based on Hadoop.

Hortonworks and Cloudera are examples of Hadoop distributions. These companies have worked with the various versions of open source technologies around Hadoop and created a supported distribution as a result.

Finally, HDInsight is Microsoft’s cloud-based Hadoop implementation. They continue to add functionality including Spark, R, Giraph, and Solr. You can expect Microsoft to continue to grow the capabilities of HDInsight as part of their cloud-based analytics solutions.

Thanks for attending my session.