Power BI Insights & Updates: DirectQuery on a REST API; Training; New visuals

Power BI pros share tips on building a DirectQuery dataset on a REST API and training, and Microsoft offers two new updates for the product.

Building a Power BI DirectQuery dataset on a REST API

Chris Webb explored a question that he gets often.  Many users want to know how to use a Power BI DirectQuery atop a REST API. While this seems achievable, almost everyone who tries it fails and he set out to explain why.

Power BI users interact with the offering through the Import and DirectQuery modes. The Import mode caches data in Power BI's internal database, answering DAX queries from there, whereas DirectQuery stows no data in the program, querying the data source instead. He showed how to apply slicers to a basic database and the SQL output.