No longer able to view measure code in report connected to Live Dataset

Power BI
1

Hi all ,

We are seeing a serious issue and I would like to know if other EDNA members are also experiencing it…

We have many standalone reports which have been built on a Power BI Live Dataset (Golden Dataset).

These standalone reports contain measures which are unique to the report and so have been added in the PBIX of the report, so we have a mix of measures belonging to the Live Dataset and custom measures in the standalone report / pbix.

Yesterday we have found that we are now unable to view the DAX code of the measures added to the standalone PBIX?

We can see the measure listed, but Desktop is not opening up the window to show me the DAX? This was always the case with measures belonging to the Live Dataset, but not for custom ones added to the PBIX.

The following test fails for me:

  • Create new PBIX
  • Connect to a Live Power BI Dataset
  • Create a test measure, eg: ‘TEST’ = SUM(SALES_)
  • At this point I can see my DAX code.
  • Close the PBIX
  • Re-open the PBIX
  • Click on TEST measure and I can no longer see the DAX code.

I have opened a ticket with MS support and also raised on the MS forums

However I am concerned and suprised that many more users are not also reporting this.

Is anyone from the DNA forum seeing this? Would you be able to run the above test?

This can’t be desired behaviour - the recommended way to develop Power BI reports is to have a central (Golden) data model and to then create reports of that Live Dataset.

We can’t be expected to create every custom measure required for a specific report need in the main data model.

This is a really big issue for us!

Thanks

Mark

2

I can confirm that this is the current behavior, and I don’t like it.
The measures still work - both in the service and in desktop, I was able to create new visuals with the existing report-level measures.
However, the only way to SEE the measures, is to change the storage type of the report - which WILL create a small dataset connected to it

by clicking the “Make changes to this model” link at the bottom of your report - you can make this change
image

However, it will change the storage mode of your model to Direct Query:
image

This is a problem that happened once before, and was latter rolled back to the previous behavior. I don’t know that it will, but I recommend trying to wait a month or two before making any drastic changes to models if you don’t have to.

as you can see from my screenshot here, “Purchased X but not Y” is the original version of the report, which is connected to my “Next Day” dataset (and that dataset is in a different workspace for reasons :slight_smile: ), I just uploaded the DirectQuery version of the report (created after clicking the link to be able to edit measures) - and it loaded a new dataset as well:

image

Now, the interesting thing about this development is that I was able to connect to the new “Test” dataset and use the new measures along with the main measures from the main dataset to create visuals. So if this IS the behavior going forward, I would probably consider having a hybrid for different report types (ex: Main, Main + Accounting, Main + Shipping, etc)
image

that way the Main dataset (with sales data most likely in my use case) could be used in other sub-datasets.

and finally - to bring this fully closed, size of the files:
Test X but not Y = 466 KB
Purchased X but not Y = 267 KB
NextDay Dataset = 115,482 KB

So yes, the new Direct Query version is larger than the original report, but MUCH smaller than the report that built the golden dataset it is connected to.

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@Mark
Ah ha, found a post on the PowerBi community forum about this issue - apparently it is a bug, and it will be fixed:

However, a work-around mentioned in the discussion did work to be able to edit my connected report, while in the connected report, create a new measure - it can be simple, like “TEST = 1”

after adding that measure, your existing report-level measures will suddenly be visible and you can edit them. The test measure can be deleted, and your other report-level measures remain visible.

3 Likes
4

Hi Heather,

Many thanks for taking the time to look into my concern and for finding the other post on the forums - fingers crossed it will be fixed soon!

I also found another post on the MS forum which contains a workaround which allows the measure to magically re-appear!:

Create a new measure that will pop up the dax measure bar, click “X” and then you will be able to see your older measures.

Thanks again,

Mark

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