The report screen, rebuilt
The report designer and viewer have been rebuilt around one idea: a report is a
set of blocks on a grid, and everything you do is either to a block or to
the page.
Filters, at last
Two kinds. Report filters apply to every block on the page; block
filters belong to one chart. Both are saved with the report, and both apply
when a reader opens it — in view mode the report filters are live, so a reader
can slice the report without editing it.
Thirteen operators, from is and contains through between and is one of
to is empty. On a SQL datasource the filter is pushed into the WHERE
clause, so the database does the work. On REST, file and Power BI datasources
it is applied row by row before aggregation — which is what makes tables and
KPI cards filter, not only charts.
Values apply when you commit them, not as you type. Filtering on every
keystroke re-queried every block and could leave the report showing a
half-typed value's empty result.
You can see the row limit
Every query a report issues carries a limit, and nothing used to show it — a
table quietly displayed its first 500 rows. The limit is now on the Block tab,
from 100 up to All records, and All records names the real ceiling rather
than promising more than the server will return.
Publish, and the public link works
A report starts as a Draft, and a Draft is private. Publish from the report
toolbar makes it readable by anyone holding the public link, and Unpublish
closes it again. Someone opening a report link without being signed in is now
taken to sign in and returned to the report, instead of meeting a bare error.
Design decisions that stay decisions
Four themes, plus a custom one where you pick an accent and the shades are
derived for you. Design for caps the canvas to Print, Laptop, HD or 4K, so
a report is composed for the screen it will be read on. Pages can be added,
renamed and deleted.
An assistant that builds
Ask for a chart and it is added. Ask something looser and it proposes one or
more, each with a chart-type picker, so you pick the shape and it fills in the
fields. It reads the datasource's real tables and columns, and every answer
reports what it cost in tokens against your organisation's budget.
Still honest about the gaps
PowerPoint export is not wired to the new screen yet — the classic viewer still
has it. PDF goes through the browser's print dialog. Filter values are typed
rather than picked from a list of what exists.