GeoFlow Released for Public Preview

In this morning’s keynote address at the PASS business Analytics Conference, Amir Netz demonstrated using GeoFlow, a geographic data visualization add-in for Excel 2013, with a set of data showing the success of pop starts and their countries of origin.  It was a very interesting display of 3D geographical data.  Amir gets so excited when he does these demonstrations and his passion for these new BI tools is infectious.

The public beta for GeoFlow is released publically today and you can download the installer from here.  I blogged about GeoFlow in a short video presentation titled SQL Server Community World Tour with GeoFlow.  I need to update my very brief set of data but it does show some of the capabilities of an earlier private preview version of the tool.

From the official Microsoft Connect page for GeoFlow, this is what you can expect to see in this release:

The GeoFlow Preview for Excel contains the following new features:

• A single install for 32-bit and 64-bit versions

• Geo-disambiguation dialog showing what values were not geocoded

• Support for Tables which have Relationships

• Add Data button in the Excel Ribbon, part of the Map split button which allows you to add data from your sheet to the Data Model after selecting it

• Refresh Data button in the GeoFlow ribbon

• 2D charts and brushing

• Touch navigation and gestures

• Navigation controls

• New tour model with no need to save or refresh your scene

• Transitions and Effects

• Improved performance

• Many improvements in the UI – ribbon, time controls, navigation controls

You can read more details in the Getting Started document.

GeoFlow can be installed here.

(Apr 14 13 Update) – GeoFlow requires Microsoft Office 2013 Pro Plus.  Make sure you have that edition of Excel installed and then download and install the add-in.  After that,  open a document in Excel, go to File > Options and Add-Ins, select to manage COM Add-ins and hit the Go button.  Check the GeoFlow for Microsoft Excel item and click OK.  That should do it!

You’ll find the GeoFlow option on the Insert ribbon, GeoFlow group and the Map drop-down button.

If you can’t get to the content on the Microsoft Connect site, try this link.  You must log into the Connect site using a Microsoft account like you would to use HotMail.

Report Expression Sample Reports

These are the sample reports from the Penton eLearning session today on SSRS Report Expressions:

http://sqlserverbiblog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=1058

This view is necessary to add to the AdventureWorksDWxxxx database:

http://sqlserverbiblog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=1061

Mastering Reporting Services Expressions, March 26

As part of SQL Server Pro eLearning series, I’ll be presenting three 75 minute sessions on March 26th on using Expressions to enhance report capabilities.  The sessions are online with live chat from 11:00 to 4:30 Eastern Time.

Register today to get in on the early-bird discount. 

Visual Studio 2012/SSDT Addition for BI Project Version Compatibility & Themes

We can now use Visual Studio 2012 to create and edit SQL Server BI projects!  Woo Hoo.

In the past, if you wanted to develop and maintain BI projects in the same development environment as other Visual Studio projects, you had to install multiple versions of Visual Studio.  This may no longer be necessary if you install the new Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012 (SSDT BI). 

SQL Server Community World Tour with GeoFlow

When I started playing with GeoFlow, I just had to find a way to do something interesting with it.  This is a short world tour with visits to a few SQL Server community members and leaders around the globe talking about their SQL Server communities.  GeoFlow is a new BI tool currently in development at Microsoft.  It’s an add-in for Excel 2013 using the SQL Server Analysis Services tabular in-memory aggregation that plots and visualizes data points on the globe using imagery from Bing Maps.  After visualizing data on a map, you can create a 3D tour with full zoom and navigation in 3D geographical space.

Thanks to my friends and associates who have contributed to this effort thus far.  This is the first draft so please check back and I’ll add more stops on the tour along with more sophisticated data points.  The dataset in my current GeoFlow workbook is very light and with more contributions, I’ll can add creative ways to visualize the global SQL Server world community.  Enjoy!

SQL Server World Tour

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GeoFlow is still in development and not yet generally available.  It’s too soon to foresee when it will be complete enough for a public preview and then for release but I’ll let you know what I know when I know it.

Please Vote on Microsoft Connect Items

I’ve posted two feedback items on the Microsoft Connect today, suggesting feature enhancements to Power View and Reporting Services.  If you think these capabilities would be important, I encourage you to follow the links below to the Microsoft Connect site and vote on these items.

Data Visualization Choices SQL Saturday Presentation

Today in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the SQL Saturday #198; I presented a session titled “Data Visualization Choices”.  As promised, my slide deck is available for download here. 

This is the first draft of the session I’m preparing for the PASS Business Analytics Conference coming up on April 11-12 in Chicago.  I’ll have another update for that conference.