In the past, I have been hearing a lot of stories about SQLBits. And, this year, I finally was able to experience it myself. Thanks to my current employer, I was allowed to attend SQLBits. I attended 2 training days and 3 conference days, which basically is the full conference. I can tell, it is definitely worth it. SQLBits is an amazing event, you can meet so many like minded people who all share the…
In this blog post, I will guide you through all the required steps to get a Data Model Relationship Matrix in Power BI. If you don’t know what I mean, I would like to have a straightforward overview where I can see which attribute groups and measure groups I can combine from my Tabular Model in (SQL Server) Analysis Server. By the end of this blog post, we will have created the following overview: You…
After we successfully introduced a database development strategy in my previous blog post series, Getting Started With Database Projects & Azure DevOps, we can look at how to introduce a database deployment automation strategy using Database Projects and Azure DevOps Pipelines. As a starter, we will first be implementing a build automation process and in future blog posts, we will go through the different ways of deployment to different environments. On top of that, we…
Almost 5 years ago I made the switch from “traditional” database development using SQL Server Management Studio to a more flexible way of development by using Database Projects and Source Control. In the first few years, I worked with BitBucket as my code management system and for 2 years I’m using Azure DevOps. In my spare time, I’m using GitHub as well. During this transition, I came across a couple of bumps, because I wasn’t…
Since Microsoft announced that Power BI Paginated Reports was becoming a Power BI Pro feature, I started exploring the available functionality for Power BI Paginated Reports. As a first step, I tried to “migrate” an example report from SQL Server Reporting Services to Power BI. In a previous blog post, I described the steps required to migrate successfully. You can find that blog post using the following link: Converting SSRS Reports to Power BI Paginated…
Problem statement It’s no big surprise that I’m a big fan of database/dwh development with Database Projects and Azure DevOps. Ever since I started using it, I try to keep my local branches as clean as possible. Since I swapped laptop last year, I started to use a third party tool to manage branches. In the beginning of 2023 I switched over back to Visual Studio to manage branches since for some reason the tool…
When I started to explore and use Database Projects, I ran into a specific situation quite fast where I was required to use SQLCMD variables. In this blog post, I will describe what they are, how you can use SQLCMD variables in Database Projects and where this might become very useful for you. Quick Overview Use Case Description What are SQLCMD variables? Practical Example Use Case Description A couple of years ago, I was working…
I’m happy to share that I will be delivering my session about “Improving Team Collaboration using Database Projects & Azure DevOps” at the dataMinds User Group. During this session, I will first be explaining what went wrong in the past for me, during the main part of the session, I will be showing how to get started, what the challenges will be and how I would overcome these challenges. When? Wednesday, January 25th, 2023 Where?…
In one of the previous blog posts, I described how to merge branches manually (Database Projects – Merging changes). When merging manually, there is no way to revise the development that someone did. If you want to start with peer reviewing during the development process, you can easily do so by using Pull Requests. Quick Overview What is a pull request? How to create a Pull Request? How to review a Pull Request? How to…
The moment that Microsoft announced that Power BI Paginated reporting was becoming a Pro feature (link), I finally realized that I would be able to move from 2 different reporting platforms (Power BI Portal & SQL Server Reporting Services) back to 1 (Power BI Portal). Quick Overview SQL Server Reporting Services Report Power BI Report Builder Publish to the Power BI Portal Configure the Power BI Portal SQL Server Reporting Services Report In this blog…
