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dlwallace's avatar
dlwallace
Frequent Visitor
6 years ago
Solved

Documentation

Anyone have a standard way to provide documentation / data dictionary with the reports in PBI?

 

I'm looking at DAX Studio.  That helps, but curious how everyone else presents the definitions of the report measures, etc. to the consumers.

 

Thanks,

Dan

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  • v-lid-msft's avatar
    v-lid-msft
    6 years ago

    Hi dlwallace ,

     

    We can edit the description in Model View of Power BI Desktop, then it wil show in Field Panel when edit the report.

     

     

    But we did not find an effective way to show the description of measure in visual like tooltips, perhaps you can submit the requirement to ideas and add your comments there to make this feature coming sooner:https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas 

     

    Best regards,

    Community Support Team _ Dong Li
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

5 Replies

  • parry2k's avatar
    parry2k
    Super User
    6 years ago

    dlwallace there is nothing out of box yet but you can surely add Description of each filed on "relationship" tab and hover over the field will show the description.

     

    Here is an example

     

     

     

    • dlwallace's avatar
      dlwallace
      Frequent Visitor
      6 years ago

      parry2k , Thanks.  I saw the Description field in the DAX Studio query and I wondered where it could be entered.

       

      When I enter that, it shows me the description in PBI Desktop, but in the actual report that description does not show, correct?  Any way to get that visible similar to the tooltip?

       

      Thanks!

       

      • v-lid-msft's avatar
        v-lid-msft
        Community Support
        6 years ago

        Hi dlwallace ,

         

        We can edit the description in Model View of Power BI Desktop, then it wil show in Field Panel when edit the report.

         

         

        But we did not find an effective way to show the description of measure in visual like tooltips, perhaps you can submit the requirement to ideas and add your comments there to make this feature coming sooner:https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas 

         

        Best regards,

        Community Support Team _ Dong Li
        If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

  • v-lid-msft's avatar
    v-lid-msft
    Community Support
    6 years ago

    Hi dlwallace ,

     

    How about the result after you follow the suggestions mentioned in my original post?Could you please provide more details about it If it doesn't meet your requirement?

     

    Best regards,

    Community Support Team _ Dong Li
    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

    • dlwallace's avatar
      dlwallace
      Frequent Visitor
      6 years ago

      I entered the descriptions as suggested.  Then I used DAX Studio to export all the measures to a file, ran a quick import to load those to the SQL DB, included that table in the PBIX model and created a report showing the results.  

       

      A bit complicated at first to set up, but quickly became routine for the other PBIX's.  Result is a report showing measure names, descriptions and also the actual DAX code.

       

      Would be great if there was a way built into PBI for users to see that description and maybe even the DAX code for measures.  Trying to encourage self-service reporting.  Showing them the DAX I've created can speed up their learning curve.

       

      Thanks,

      Dan

       

      -- DAX Studio Query:
      SELECT 'Claims' as PBIX, Measure_Name, [Description], Expression from $SYSTEM.MDSCHEMA_MEASURES WHERE measure_is_visible

       

      -- M Query:
      -- = Sql.Database("SERVER NAME", "DB NAME", [Query="SELECT * FROM dbo.Measures WHERE PBIX = 'Claims'"])