Can we do Modeling, Calculated Fields and Measures in Power BI Embedded?

[Anonymous]

In our organization (ISV), we are using Power BI embedded. 

The overall functionality is working fine.  We use the "Get Data - Power BI Datasets" to create the reports.  In the Datasets option, the options for creating Caluclated fields and Measures are disabled.

My question is: can't we use the Caluclated fields and Measures in the Power BI embedded? 

Thoughts?

@powerbiembedded @Test_EmbeddedBI 

[otravers]

@Anonymous This is not a factor of using Power BI embedded, this is a limitation of using a Live Connection:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets#limitations-and-considerations

You can only create report-level measures with a live connection to the service, you can't add to the dataset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yezgr3QN9hw

[Anonymous]

Thenk you so much @otravers .  This is very helpful.

I have read through the artcile.  Some more questions...

1. Can we do only Measures and no Calculated fields?  Calculated fields are also very helpful to include in Slicers and Pivot Rows/Columns (not as values).
2. Can we do data modeling like converting Varchar to Number Or String to date type?
3. Can we do advanced modellling like adding Reference table etc..

Please let me know your thoughts.  Thank you again!

[otravers · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous With Live Connection you cannot create calculated columns (I assume that's what you mean by "calculated fields"), hence why the option is greyed out in PBI Desktop. You are correct that measures can't be used as slicers/filters. To answer your other questions, you pretty much cannot do ETL or modeling from a live connection, as the expectation is that you have done all of that work in the source dataset, just like you would with a live connection to SSAS.

I hope this helps. If you still feel stuck, I'd be happy to review your data architecture (from your software down to PBI) and help you figure out a better setup. Though, to be clear, that would have to be an offline paid consultation as we'd dive into the specifics of your setup and that's beyond what I can do for free on a public forum, not to speak of confidentiality issues on your end.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @otravers.  This is very helpful. 🙂