Use these tips to build real-time dashboards in Power BI powered by streaming data sources.
Create a Streaming Dataset: Power BI has three datasets for real-time data visualization: push datasets, streaming datasets, and PubNub streaming datasets. This depends on the IoT/financial feeds that set up the dataset type according to your case. For instance:
- for streaming datasets: when the data history is minimally needed
- for push datasets: when analytics require historical data
Using Azure Stream Analytics, you can make that connection directly to streaming datasets or push through REST API from Power BI. Ensure the data source is reliable and structured properly to reduce latencies. It could also include IoT scenarios with Azure IoT Hub, which can act as an online broker feeding real-time data.
Designing that real-time visualization: The essence of real-time dashboards is constantly updated visuals. Card visuals, line charts, and some custom visuals for live rendering are the best for this kind. For critical metrics, create alerts that will send real-time event messages to the user.
The Performance needs to be Optimized:
No overbearing the dashboard with excess visualizations
Keep incoming stream sizes and their frequencies small
Use direct query mode where it is appropriate for live connections
Test with realistic data to find the bottlenecks in Performance.
Embed and Share Dashboards: One important thing to note when embedding shared dashboards is the need to embed them into Power BI apps or unsupported portals for a vast reach. Ensure that end users have the necessary permissions and refresh capabilities to keep databases up to the minute.
To learn how to use it, refer to Microsoft's official documentation here.
