In Chapter 1, I mentioned that Power BI Service succeeds Power BI for Office 365.
However, thanks to its deep SharePoint integration, Power BI for Office 365 is capable of rendering Excel pivot reports that are embedded in Excel workbooks. To offer the same
feature, Power BI supports rendering Excel reports but the file needs to be located in OneDrive for Business. Power BI requires OneDrive for Business because rendering Excel reports is accomplished via Excel Online. Excel Online is a component of SharePoint Online which is available with Office 365 business plans that include OneDrive for Business.
NOTE OneDrive for Business is a place where business users can store, sync, and share work files. While the personal edition of OneDrive is free, OneDrive for Business requires an Office 365 plan.
Understanding Excel reports
When use Get Data and choose an Excel file stored in OneDrive for Business, Power BI will ask you if you want to import the data or if you want to connect to the Excel file and render its reports online. You practiced importing from Excel in Chapter 2. If you choose the second option, Power BI will just connect to the file and will show an Excel icon to the left of the report name in the navigation pane (see Figure 3.24).
When you click on the report, Power BI renders online the pivot reports and Power View reports that are included in the Excel file. Moreover, Power BI preserves the report interactive features. For example, you can change report filters and slicers. Online Excel reports have their own limitations which are detailed in the “Bring Excel files in Power BI” article by Microsoft at https://support.powerbi.com/knowledgebase/articles/640168- bring-whole-excel-files-into-power-bi. For example, currently Power BI doesn’t support reports connected to Analysis Services although reports connected to Power Pivot data models work just fine.
Figure 3.24 Power BI supports rendering Excel reports online if the Excel file is stored in OneDrive for Business.
At this point, you might be confused about which option to use when working with Excel files. Table 3.2 should help you make the right choice.
Table 3.2 This table compares the two Power BI options to work with Excel files.
Criteria Import Excel files Connect to Excel files
Data in Excel sheets Power BI parses the Excel file and imports data as a dataset.
Power BI doesn’t parse and import the data. Instead, Power BI connects to the Excel file hosted on OneDrive.
Data model Power BI imports the data model and creates a dataset. Power BI doesn’t import the data model.
Pivot reports Power BI doesn’t import pivot reports. Power BI renders pivot reports via Excel Online.
Power View reports Power BI imports Power View reports and adds them
to the Reports section in the left navigation bar. Power BI renders Power View reports via Excel Online.
Change reports You can change the imported Power View reports but the original reports in the Excel file remain intact.
You can’t change reports. You must open the file in Excel, make report changes, and upload the file to OneDrive.
Data refresh Scheduled dataset refresh (automatic refresh if saved to OneDrive or OneDrive for Business).
Dashboard tiles from Excel reports are refreshed automatically every few minutes.
Viewing Excel reports
In this exercise, you’ll connect an Excel file saved to OneDrive for Business and you’ll view its containing reports online. As a prerequisite, your organization must have an
Office 365 subscription and you must have access to OneDrive for Business. The Reseller Sales.xlsx file in the \Source\ch03 folder includes a Power Pivot data model with several tables. The first two sheets have Excel pivot table and chart reports, while the third sheet has a Power View report. While all reports connect to an embedded Power Pivot data model, they don’t have to. For example, your pivot reports can connect to Excel tables.
1.Copy and save the Reseller Sales.xlsx to your organization’s OneDrive for Business.
2.In Power BI, click Get Data. Then click the Get button in the Files tile.
3.In the next page, click the One Drive for Business tile. In the One Drive for Business page, navigate to the OneDrive for Business folder where you saved the Reseller Sales.xlsx file, and then click Connect.
Figure 3.25 When you connect to an Excel file stored on OneDrive for Business, Power BI asks you how you want to work with the file.
4.Power BI prompts you how to work with the file (see Figure 3.25). Click the Connect button. Power BI adds a report named Reseller Sales to the Reports section in the navigation bar. This report represents the entire Excel file.
5.Click the Reseller Sales report and then click View in the context menu that pops up.
Notice that Power BI renders the pivot reports and the Power View report online via
Excel Online.
6.(Optional) Try some interactive features, such as changing the report filters and slicers, and notice that they work as they work with SharePoint Server or SharePoint Online.
TIP You can pin a range from an Excel report to a Power BI dashboard. To do so, select the range on the report and then click the Pin button in the upper-right corner of the report (see again Figure 3.24). The Pin to Dashboard window allows you to preview the selected section and prompts you if you want to pin it to a new or an existing dashboard. For more information about this feature, read the “Pin a range from Excel to your dashboard!” blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powerbi/archive/2015/11/24/pin-a-range-from-excel-to-your-dashboard.aspx.