New Enterprise DNA Initiatives

Using Data Model Metadata in Tooltips

Power BI
#1

The Relationships view in Power BI desktop allows for documenting attributes in your model.

What I am trying to do is to include the descriptions I created in my data model as a footnote to tooltips to help my dashboard consumers understand what the measure definition is.

I have read a blog post from 2017 detailing how to manually create a metadata table for the same purpose, but this is essentially creating a second copy of the documentation.

Has anyone done this? If not, do you know where I can find the documentation about accessing data model metadata from within Power BI reports?

Thanks in advance!
Sean

1 Like
#2

Hi @SeanP, we aim to consistently improve the topics being posted on the forum to help you in getting a strong solution faster. While waiting for a response, here are some tips so you can get the most out of the forum and other Enterprise DNA resources.

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#3

@SeanP,

Welcome to the forum – great to have you here!

Below is an article on extracting the metadata to a JSON file, which you can then further manipulate to pull in the measure values in a form that can be used in tooltips.

There are also more automated ways to do this via DAX Studio or my preferred approach, using Monkey Tools, which in two clicks can produce the following report in Excel, for easy import into Power BI and use in tooltips.

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I hope this is helpful.

– Brian

#4

@BrianJ, thanks so much for the reply. I’ll dig into the information you’ve shared. I see that the Monkey Tools information comes in two presentation/training videos which will take me a bit of time to work through, but I like the two clicks part within Monkey Tools :wink:

I’m surprised that there’s no way to access this metadata directly from within DAX. I might actually go and make this a suggestion in the Power BI Ideas resource (if it’s not already there).

Thanks again,
Sean

#5

@sean,

Check out the following page, which has a nice comparison table showing the features of the free version, trial version and full version of Monkey Tools. It looks like even the free version allows you to create a summary report from the Model Sleuth module, which is how I created the above measures table.

https://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?341-Monkey-Tools##mt-trial

It would be great to be able to access the metadata directly, but until then this may be a free and easy fix for you.

– Brian

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#6

I remember working with Vertipaq Analyzer. It is a powerful excel plug-in from that can help you extract information and measures / calculated column formulas from your model.

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#7

Hi @SeanP, did the response provided by the users and experts helped you solve your query? If not, how far did you get and what kind of help you need further? If yes, kindly mark the thread as solved. Thanks!