Custom Visuals :
Custom visuals in Power BI are the visuals which has additional features and options beyond those supported by the standard visuals of Power BI Desktop, delivering unique and powerful capabilities. Custom visuals are available in AppSource and within the integrated custom visuals store for Power BI Desktop, where they categorized in two types in the Office Store : Office store approved and Power BI certified.
Figure : For getting custom visuals , click the underlined field shown in figure which opens up by clicking Ellipsis (those 3 dots)
Figure: Power Bi Visuals dialog box opens up after clicking ‘Get more visuals’ , which contains all custom visuals , there rating also mentioned along with searching and sorting visuals capabilities. After clicking visuals we need click ‘Add’ and visuals are added to visualization pane .
Now we will see most used and important custom visuals used in power bi :
1. Textfilter Visual :
Figure: Here textfilter is used to filter City , it will give city wise ‘Sales Amount’ in table for the mentioned city in ‘Searchbox’ of visual.
- Text Filter is mostly used as a search box filter that can be placed anywhere in your dashboard, can filter all other visuals on a report.
- It consists a Search box and Eraser widget
- Search Box : Query term is mentioned here for filtering other visuals which only search on the specified field .
- Eraser widget : Its used to clear the current search.
- This enables you to quickly find specific content being shown on your dashboard by keyword search.
Fields: - Text Filter requires a categorical field to perform a search on.
- Add your search term to the input field and click a search icon or hit Enter.
2. Chiclet slicer:
Figure: Chiclet slicer use to display ‘Product Name’ and selected data displayed in Pie Chart . This two chart combo is to show how chiclet slicer can be used to filter data .
- The Chiclet Slicer is similar to a Slicer filter available in Power BI but has a lot more flexibility and more customization.
- Chiclet are a slicers made of buttons, that can also be arranged both horizontally and vertically or can be arranged as a matrix for a super compact form.
- Chiclet slicer also supports cross highlighting and even images can be added there .
- Chiclet slicer also offers you a nice feature of using images as slicers.
- It consists of 3 major field that are : Categories , Values and Images.
3. Sunburst Visual :
Figure: Sunburst Visual showing ‘Total Profit’ in hierarchical manner i.e Continent> Country>Region , where each groups shown by unique colours.
It’s similar to a donut chart visual, but Sunburst chart visual has the capability of displaying a nested hierarchy levels through the category and subcategory option.
- Sunburst chart is used to visualize hierarchical data, depicted by concentric circles.
- The circle in the center represents the root node, with the hierarchy moving outward from the center.
- A segment of the inner circle bears a hierarchical relationship to those segments of the outer circle which lie within the angular sweep of the parent segment.
- The Sunburst chart has 2 mandatory fields as the following: 1) Group 2) Values
4. Timeline Slicer :
Figure: Timeline slicer for ‘Order Date’ selected for Quarter range, it shows only data for Quarter , we can also see other ranges of data like for year and month ,
The Timeline slicer is a graphical date range selector used as a filtering component in Power BI. This makes filtering data by date dimension easy as filtering becomes complex and tricky when you have to click through large numbers of date values to select the range you want , so in such situation Timeline slicer is very useful.
- With this simple slider control for dates, all you need to do, is just click and drag to the range that you want.
- You can also switch to a Year, Quarter or Month view to select ranges even at a higher level than dates.
- Timeline visual is a kind of slicer. We can use it to select multiple ranges of data values and see specific period visuals.
- Timeline visuals can accept only “Date” values, and anything other than date values cannot be applied to this slicer.
- Field needed here is ‘Time’ that is Date values which needs to specified.
5. Gantt Chart :
Gantt Chart for Power BI shows activities (tasks or events) displayed along a given timeline. It is one of the most widely used project planning tools.
- On the left side of the chart is the Data Grid, which displays lists all the tasks as part of the project or work breakdown the structure to be completed.
- It helps you visualize your project plan to articulate, communicate, and monitor the progress.
- A Gantt chart used in project management to schedule tasks and manage and report the progress of key tasks.
- A Gantt chart displays tasks in horizontal bars along with timelines and resources assigned to each job.
- The status of tasks (Eg completed, in progress, not yet started) is often shown by the colours of the chart.
- Field Required : Legend , Task , Start and End date, Duration , Milestones.
6. Tornado Visual :
- The Tornado allows you to compare two categories of data vertically similar to a bar chart.
- A bar chart with category values listed vertically. Use for comparing the relative importance of a variable between two distinct groups.
- It shows the effect on the output of varying each input variable at a time, keeping all the other input variables at their initial (nominal) values. Like in above figure we have chart where we have ‘Male’ & ‘Female’ in legend and whose values are shown with respective to the ‘Age Group’ mentioned.
- Fields Needed : Group , Legend & Values.
7. Sankey Chart :
- The Sankey chart is a custom visualization used to illustrate a flow of data from multiple levels and to multiple destinations. The things being connected are called nodes and the connections are called links.
- The Sankey with Labels visualizes the magnitude of data flowing between two entities.
- As in the diagram , we can observe source and destination and thick line connecting them in a flow manner showing magnitude.
- Field needs to mentioned are : Source , Destination , Weight and Source Labels.
8. Zebra BI Charts & Tables :
- Zebra Bi Charts and Tables are multipurpose and multi featured custom visuals developed by Zebrabi.com which are also PBI certified visual.
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- Comparison tables
- Hierarchical tables
- Cross-tables
- Calculation tables Zebra BI Table : Its a matrix visual in power bi combines tables with charts. It is a very versatile visual which provides you with several table options :
- Used in creating Income statements , cost vs. budget, variance analysis, and other business reports that are essential for understanding the performance of business.
- Zebra Bi Charts : Its advance charts having more combined new features.
- By using Zebra BI Charts visual you can choose from 36 different chart types including waterfall, lollipop, variance, column, area, line, dot, hills & valleys, stacked, or even combo chart.
- Useful in showing and calculated variances ,Previous year, Plan, or Forecast, YoY growth rates, and totals.
- With the help of many great features, you will be able to create complex, yet transparent and presentable tables. So we can say that it offers extensive support for applying custom design.
So these were some of the most used and important Custom visuals in Power BI. Custom visuals are very crucial as they more features with capabilities which we can’t get in standard visuals given in desktop.
Thank you for reading.
