PowerShell and PowerPivot – two powers in one, on their way to PowerView in SharePoint

Rayis ImayevDawn InfoTek Inc.Twitter: @RayisImayev; Email: rimayev@gmail.com

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FFLE

SILV

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PLATINUM

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PowerPivot / PowerViewData modeling

Visualization

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History of PowerPivot2010 Add-on in Excel 2010

support in SharePoint 2010

2013 Built-in feature in Excel 2013Enriched support in SharePoint 2013

2016 More improvements in Excel 2016To be available in SharePoint 2016 later

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History of PowerView2010 Addition to SharePoint 2010

2013 Built-in feature in Excel 2013Enriched support in SharePoint 2013

2016 Turned off by default in Excel 2016To be available in SharePoint 2016 later

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Excel PowerPivot & SharePoint PowerView

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PowerPivot 2010 vs. PowerPivot 2013 PowerPivot

model formats format are different

You can upgrade your model from 2010 to 2013

Mixed environment is not advised

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PowerView reporting model in SharePoint 2013

A. Excel PowerPivot in SharePoint (.xlsx file)B. BISM connection to (A) PowerPivot model (.rsds file)C. SharePoint PowerView report based on (B) connection (.rdlx file)

(A) Excel PowerPivot model (B) BISM data connection (C) SharePoint PowerView report

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Why I don’t like PowerView in Excel ?

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I like this model because:

1. Replace PowerPivot model with a SSAS Tabular database

2. Update current BISM connection3. And existent PowerView will continue working

(A) Excel PowerPivot model (B) BISM data connection (C) SharePoint PowerView report(A) Tabular SSAS database

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Base line for this session:

1. PowerPivot model from Excel 20132. PowerView pulls data though a BISM connection3. And all these elements reside in SharePoint 2013

(A) Excel PowerPivot model (B) BISM data connection (C) SharePoint PowerView report

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Getting to close to a problem to solve:

PowerPivot model is createdIt needs to be uploaded to UAT & PROD SharePoint environment

Excel PowerPivot model

UAT

PROD

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Getting even more scarier!

Army of PowerPivot modelsA “few” more environments to deploy

Excel PowerPivot models

UAT

PROD

DIT

SIT

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I needed help to deploy PowerPivot models

Ask someoneOr

Write a code

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Write a code from Excel: Workbook.RefreshAll

Almost no settings to change

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Write a code for PowerPivot in SharePoint:

Changes are not saved back to Excel PowerPivot file in SharePoint.

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Short life of PowerPivot data SharePoint:

Excel PowerPivot model in SharePoint

Transformation

in SharePoint

Use / Interaction

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Let’s explore a PowerPivot Excel file:

PowerPivotModel(.xlsx).zip..\xl\model\item.data file

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We can restore item.data to a SSAS Tabular server

1) Item.data file is an backup file of SSAS tabular database and we can restore this item.data (item.abf) file to a tabular SSAS server database.

2) Then we can change settings of the newly restored database (along with its connection strings).

3) And save it back to our Excel file.And

PowerShell can do this

all!

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PowerShell deployment script steps

1. Scan through a folder for Excel files2. Rename .xlsx file to .zip file3. Unzip .zip file to a model folder4. Take item.data file and rename it to item.abf file5. Connect to a SSAS Tabular server6. Run XMLA command to restore item.abf archive file to a

tabular database on server7. Run XMLA command to update required database

connection strings8. Run XMLA command to backup tabular database back to

item.abf9. Rename item.abf file to item.data file 10. Copy modified item.data file to the model folder11. Archive model folder to .zip file12. Rename .zip file to .xlsx file

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Let’s look at the code:

http://datanrg.blogspot.ca/2015/06/updating-powerpivot-model-and-powerview.html

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Some extra time…

Thank you!Toronto Enterprise Collaboration User GroupChange Management, Governance, SharePoint, Office 365, Yammer, PowerBI, etchttp://www.meetup.com/TSPBUG/Toronto SharePoint Business Users Grouphttp://www.meetup.com/TorontoSPUG/

Saturday July 9, 2016

See you next year!