Want to learn how to build a real-time Power BI report with Common Data Services? In this short video, I’ll show you how to build a report to pull real-time analytics out of Common Data Services (CDS) using Direct Query.
The ability to build Power BI reports against CDS data has existed for quite some time. One of the newer features allows you to build reports in real-time, so you can look at data without having to re-import your data. There are two ways to get data out of Common Data Services. You can use the Data Import which lets you go back and look at data from an hour or even a day ago. This way is super-fast from an end user perspective as all the data that users are seeing is cached in Power BI, plus you get all the abilities inside of Power BI. The downside is your data is not in real-time.
Another way to see data in Power BI is with Direct Query. Using Direct Query, when users view a report or click on buttons inside of it, it will run numerous queries inside of your CDS environment. This way will give you real-time updates in your report without having to do a data refresh. The con here is performance, as when we click around the report, it’s running multiple queries, thus making this a bit slower. You’ll also get less of the features of Power BI, like building some pre-aggregations or doing some transform logic can’t be done with Direct Query. But still a great way to get a real-time report.
Check out my video below where I demo how to build a real-time report in Power BI with Common Data Services and Direct Query.
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