Miscellaneous - Some external tools don’t connect to a model at all, but instead extend Power BI Desktop to make helpful tips and make helpful content more readily accessible. Tools to document a Power BI dataset also fall into this category. For example, tools that launch Python, Excel, and Power BI Report Builder and connect the client application to the model in Power BI Desktop for testing and analysis without having to first publish the Power BI Desktop (pbix) file to the Power BI service. Semantic modeling - Open-source tools such as DAX Studio, ALM Toolkit, Tabular Editor, and Metadata Translator extend Power BI Desktop functionality for specific data modeling scenarios such as DAX query and expression optimization, application lifecycle management (ALM), and metadata translation.ĭata analysis - Tools for connecting to a model in read-only to query data and perform other analysis tasks.

The tool then automatically connects, providing a seamless connection experience.Įxternal tools generally fall into one of the following categories: When launched from the External Tools ribbon, Power BI Desktop passes the name and port number of its internal data model engine instance to the tool, and the current model name. The External Tools ribbon provides easy access to external tools that have been installed locally and registered with Power BI Desktop. A vital part of that community are contributors that create free tools that use Power BI and Analysis Services APIs to extend and integrate with Power BI Desktop's data modeling and reporting features. Power BI has a vibrant community of BI professionals and developers.

Open source bi tools