Power BI Report Builder is a great tool to generate paginated reports. In a previous article, we mentioned that Power BI was an excellent tool to visualize data, but it is not the best tool to print reports and export the information to different formats like PDF, Word, etc. Also, Power BI is not the best tool for paginated reports.
That is why Microsoft created the Power BI Report Builder. If you are familiar with the Report Builder, the Power BI Report Builder will be familiar to you. Otherwise, this article will introduce you to creating your first report from scratch.
Requirements
- First of all, you will need SQL Server installed.
- Finally, the Adventureworks database installed.
Download and install the Power BI Report Builder
First of all, we will first download the Power BI Report Builder from this URL: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/
Once downloaded, install the software. Once that is done, open the Microsoft Power BI Report Builder.
Create the Data Source
First, we will need to connect to a Source. It can be Teradata, SQL Server, Azure SQL, Oracle or other sources. In this example, we will connect to SQL Server. In order to create a new Report in the Report Data, right-click Data Sources and select Add Data Source.
Next, write a name for the connection and press the Build button.
Here we enter the connection details. Select Microsoft SQL Server and enter the SQL Server name. The period means to use the local server. We are connection with the current Windows Account (Use Windows Authentication), and we will connect to the Adventureworks2019 database mentioned in the requirements.
Datasets in Power BI Report Builder
The dataset contains the data. It will use the data source created previously and it can use a query, a view, or a stored procedure to populate the data.
First, add the name of the dataset and then select the Data Source previously created. In the query, you can write the SQL query directly. You could for example create the query in SSMS and copy paste there or you can press the Query Designer button to generate your query. Try this option.
Check the person table and check some columns, like the BusinessEntityID, PersonType, NameStyle, Title, FirstName, Lastname, and EmailPromotion. You can add filters (where clause) and aggregations (SUM, COUNT, AVG, etc.) here. Then press OK.
Thirdly verify the T-SQL Query generated and press OK.
Finally, in the Report Data pane, you will see the Datasets with the dataset and columns selected previously.
Creating the Power BI Report
First, we will add a page header. In the report, right-click and select Page Header.
Secondly, in the menu go to Insert>Text Box to insert a text box in the header.
Optionally, you can right-click and select Insert>Text box