Deneb: An Alternative Approach for Custom Visual Development

DANIEL MARSH-PATRICK (Principal Data Analyst, Discover EI) - Deneb: An Alternative Approach for Custom Visual Development

Building custom visuals in Power BI gives you total control over your scenario and results can be very rewarding. However, there's a high learning curve, particularly if you are not familiar with web development tools and technologies. If you're already familiar with R and/or Python, Power BI offers visuals with an interface for you to write code in these languages, and these options can help a lot with producing bespoke designs.

Vega-Lite is a "visualization grammar" developed by the University of Washington Interactive Data Lab. It uses a declarative, JSON-based language that allows authors to build a range of bespoke visual designs with significantly less effort than coding from scratch.

In this session, Daniel will introduce you to the Vega-Lite language via Deneb - a custom visual for Power BI. We will create some example visuals, as well as demonstrate some of the additional integration features with Power BI that aren't currently possible if using R & Python.

Daniel Marsh-Patrick is extremely passionate about the Microsoft BI stack, particularly Power BI, and has been delivering Power BI solutions since 2014. He is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP, a Power BI Community Super User and regularly presents and blogs on a variety of Power BI subjects. Daniel contributes a number of free and open-source custom visuals to the Power BI Marketplace. Daniel is also a Principal Data Analyst with DiscoverEI, transforming environmental data into decisions.