Power BI Custom Visuals - Network Navigator

 In this module you will learn how to use the Network Navigator Power BI Custom Visual.  The Network Navigator is most useful when you are trying to find links between different attributes in a dataset. It does this by visualizing each attribute as a node and the strength of activity between those nodes can be represented in multiple ways.

Module 45 – Network Navigator

Downloads

• Power BI Custom Visual – Network Navigator
• Dataset – Blog Visits Network.xlsx
• Completed Example – Module 45 – Network Navigator.pbix

Key Takeaways

• Let’s you easily see the relationship between nodes.
• You may use the text search area to enlarge nodes that match your search criteria.

This Network Navigator shows the relationship between pages on my personal website and the links between pages visited.

• Under the Format paintbrush there are several customizations available for the Network Navigator.
• Using the Search section you can adjust how the filter on this visual works. It’s a pretty simple change but here you can change whether or not your search values must be case sensitive or not.

• In the Layout section you will find the majority of settings for manipulating this visual. Let’s highlight a few of these more interesting options:
  • Turning off Animate (On is the default) gives the visual less of an interactive feel to the visual.
  • Adjusting the Max nodes allows you to determine how many maximum nodes are able to be visualized on the visual.
  • Changing the Gravity property will pull the nodes close together when a higher number is provided.
  • The Charge property is somewhat similar in the final result. Negative numbers separate nodes while positive numbers bring them closer together.
  • Turning on the Labels property will provide a data label on each node.
  • While there are a few more properties listed, many of them are here for scenarios without a dataset that can automate the visual interaction.

In addition to these properties, there is a set of settings that appears on every visual to adjust the background color, add a border around the visual and lock the aspect ratio.

Find Out More

You will always be able to find this video module and advanced viewing of future modules on the Pragmatic Works On-Demand Training platform or view my previous blog posts.