In April 2016 a bunch of unbelievable options added to Energy BI Desktop. A few of these options like Question Parameters, Energy BI Templates and new drill motion to see information shortly grasped my consideration. I wrote about Question Parameters earlier than. You may learn to use Question Parameters in Energy BI Desktop right here or some extra difficult use instances like Question Parameters and SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Knowledge Masking (DDM) right here.

One other cool function is including Synonyms to the mannequin. Energy BI Synonyms can considerably enhance the Q&A and question expertise. With synonyms we will now add another types of names for our tables, columns and measures in Energy BI Desktop mannequin which makes utilizing Q&A even simpler for our clients to seek out what they’re on the lookout for. The purchasers don’t know all desk,  column or measure names. Defining frequent separate record of names for tables, columns or measures makes Q&A way more helpful.

As an example, we will add the next synonyms:

Be aware: The next tables and columns are  from AdventureWorksDW.

It’s straightforward to setup synonyms in Energy BI Desktop. Change to relationship view then click on “Synonyms” from “Modeling” tab from the ribbon. Then merely enter the synonyms.

After we publish a Energy BI Desktop mannequin to Energy BI Service, the synonyms will play an important position in Q&A in order that when the client sorts “ord qty” the Q&A engine will recognise it as “OrderQuantity” and shows the outcomes. It’s actually cool isn’t it?

However, let’s suppose a little bit bit out of the field. What if we add some translations as synonyms? Hmm. I feel it could be actually nice {that a} Spanish buyer can kind Spanish column names in Q&A somewhat than English. I added some translations to FactInternetSales columns and DimDate columns.

Due to Google translate for French and Spanish translations. Sorry French and Spanish guys if the interpretation appears humorous.

Now I publish the mannequin to Energy BI Service. To take action, simply click on on “Publish” from “House” tab from the ribbon.

We will use Q&A in Energy BI dashboards, so we have to log into Energy BI service

• Click on “Create dashboard” ()
• Enter dashboard’s identify

To hyperlink a dataset to a dashboard we have to pin a visible from a report that’s created on of of a dataset. We will additionally pin the entire report back to the dashboard. So a dashboard could be linked to many various datasets.

• Click on the report we printed from Energy BI Desktop
• Click on “Pin Dwell Web page” ()
• Choose the dashboard we created earlier from the prevailing dashboards dropdown record then “Pin reside”

• Click on the ellipsis button proper to the dashboard we created earlier
• Click on “Settings”

• Ensure that “Present the Q&A search field on this dashboard” is ticked. If it isn’t already ticked, tick the field
• then “Apply”.

• Open the dashboard we created earlier
• There needs to be a Q&A field on high of the dashboard
• Begin typing within the Q&A field (I typed Gross sales Quantity for Calendar Yr in French)
• Pin the visible to the dashboard

As you see it labored completely. I typed one other question in Persian and right here is the end result:

Right here is one other question combining totally different languages:

It’s trivial that we nonetheless have to kind some key phrases in English if need to, for example, change the chart sorts. Take a look at the under question:

We will use synonyms to make Q&A extra helpful for the top customers. So including translated columns based mostly on the top consumer’s language can be an important thought. Nevertheless, we have to make it clear to the top customers that they nonetheless want to make use of the key phrases in English to get essentially the most out of Q&A. Some languages are proper to left so you’ll want to change the keyboard structure a number of instances to jot down a Q&A question. This could be fairly complicated for the customers. So relying in your case it’s possible you’ll or could not add column translations as synonyms.