.NET User Group meeting - Feb 2017

My presentation today at the .NET User Group on "Power BI Embedded and Business Applications" went really well. Quite a good interest on Power BI with the .NET community. That's great to see.

Watch the Power BI Custom Visual session from the MS Ignite NZ 2016 as discussed in today's session

Check the Presentations page to download the slides.

Application screenshots which I couldn't show at the session.



Screenshot with the filter option shown as part of the application

Set up a sample SQL Database on Azure

1. Log in to the Azure Portal.

2. Select SQL Databases from the side menu

3. Click on Add to create a new SQL Database

4. Type the Database name, select a resource group (can be either new or existing) and Select source as Sample (AdventureWorksLT) to create a sample database with tables or go with Blank Database option if you want to create your own tables

5. Configure the Server and then click Create button.

6. Once the sample SQL Database is successfully deployed, you can see the details in the below screen.

7. Note, to change the pricing tier to basic if you are using for learning purposes.

8. Connect to the Azure Database server using SQL Server Management Studio.

9. You will be prompted to sign into your Azure account as shown below.

10. Once signed in successfully, a firewall wall rule will be created to allow your PC to communicate to the Azure database.

11. You can now successfully connect to the Azure Server and browse the AdventureWorksLT sample database.

Technorati Tags: Azure,SQL Databases

Technical Preview of Power BI Reports in SQL Server Reporting Services

Just had a chance to play with the Technical Preview of Power BI Reports in SQL Server Reporting Services. You can set up the VM yourself or download the updated Virtual Machine from Azure Marketplace.
I set up my own Virtual Machine and what you need is an instance of SQL Server 2016 or SQL Server vNext CTP v1.1. Also install Analysis Services Tabular or Multi-dimensional mode and sample database for the same.
Note: The preview version supports only Power BI Dashboards connected to Analysis Services on-premises otherwise you will get the following error.

Download  the January 2017 Technical Preview
It comprises of 3 files

• PBIDesktopRS.msi
• PBIDesktopRS_x64.msi
• SQLServerReportingServices.msi

Install the SQL Server Report Services and use the SSRS Preview Configuration Manager to create the Report Server Database.

Note: You will be seeing Create Database button in the screenshot similar to the above instead of Change Database. The above screenshot was taken once the Database was created.
Install the Power BI Desktop for Reporting Services 64-bit version and create a Power BI Report connected to your Analysis Services Database. Upload your new Power BI Report created using the Preview version of Power BI Desktop to the SSRS Portal and try navigating to the report.


As you can see from the above screenshot, Power BI report opens within the SSRS Portal Browser window.
I am really looking forward for the public release of this functionality.

Technorati Tags: Power BI,SSRS2016

Azure Pricing Calculator

Pretty cool to use this tool now to calculate the pricing for the Azure features I am using or planning to use. It will allow me not getting into a situation where I end up using my credits without checking the cost for the features.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/

Technorati Tags: Azure,Calculator

The IEDriverServer.exe file does not exist in the current directory or in a directory on the PATH environment variable.

Normally you get this error when you are trying to use Selenium with C#. Download the IEDriverServer.exe file either in the Debug>bin or Release>bin depending on your compilation or add the path where the IEDriverServer.exe is located in your PC to the PATH environment variable. You can download the IEDriverServer.exe from http://www.seleniumhq.org/download/. Download the 32-bit version.

Technorati Tags: Selenium,C#