Slicers Behaving Strangely. Returning no Data on Certain Visuals.

[codyplante]

Hello,

I've been experiencing an issue within Power BI desktop and am just unable to figure it out on my own. So any help is greatly appreciated.

Context: 

The data is coming via Direct Query from Amazon Redshift. It's organizational data for capital projects. The tables have strange naming functions, but the relevant data tables all have a field "portal_id" in common (essentially a project id) that we use when establishing relationships between the tables.

We hired an external consultant to build dashboards in which the slicers function appropriately. However, when I replicate the relationships between the tables and build out the same reports in my own Power BI Desktop, the slicers return no data on some visuals, while functioning appropriately on others.

I've explored the existing knowledge base on here and tried some of the "low hanging fruit" solutions. It doesn't appear to be a slicer setting issue.

I did note that the consultants used the import storage method for the tables in model view, whereas I'm using direct query. When I attempted to change the storage mode to import for each table, I receive an error,

"Column 'portal_id' in Table 'portal_dim_custom' contains a duplicate value 'dfc1e3e1-d62c-4322-a5ac-050ebaa84fd8' and this is not allowed for columns on the one side of a many-to-one relationship or for columns that are used as the primary key of a table."

What I'm Asking 

I realize I've thrown a lot of information out here. I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction regarding the following:

1. Are my tables related correctly in model view or am I missing something? What should I be looking for to ensure this is established correctly?
2. Is there a potential issue with the Direct Query storage method
3. Any other considerations I may be leaving out here.

Thanks in advance!

Cody

[HotChilli · Accepted solution]

This is all a bit high-level information for anyone to diagnose it.  Why don't you get the consultant back?

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"However, when I replicate the relationships between the tables and build out the same reports in my own Power BI Desktop, the slicers return no data on some visuals, while functioning appropriately on others." - That's a starting point and you just have to get in there and investigate. relationships,data, filters on the visual, that sort of thing.

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You choose direct query or import mode based on report performance.  In general it should be import mode unless the data is massive.

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The error says there is a duplicate key in the dimension table, so investigate how it got there.  Is it legitimate or is it a failure of data integrity.