URL Links in Power BI

Lets learn a bit about working with URL Links in Power BI

Another quick post to help you all on your Power BI journey.

There are many different routes when looking at URL links in Power BI.  In my experience I’ve had to use them in the following ways:

• Use a link to view pictures
• Use a link to a website

1. URL link to view pictures

This method shows pictures from the internet, when that picture is changed on the specific site it will also be updated on the report.  In my example I am using DataBear pictures from our website.  Of course when using pictures from internet make sure that you have copy right.

First you need the link of the picture.  Go to the picture and right click, and choose to open the image in a new tab.

Copy the URL address.  This is what you will have in your table.

Next your have to change the column data category to Image URL.

And there you have URL images in a table, or which ever other visual you choose (only works on limited visuals).

This method work similarly if your pictures are stored on a network drive.

2. Next use a link to a website.

This is a very simple method.  We all know power BI Reports are used for many types of report and data visualizations, even games have been known to be built using DAX (just for fun), as well as presentations in some instances.  It can be very helpful to have a link to an external source to guide your user to more information.

In my example I would like to give the user a link to the DataBear Blog page.  I would use a picture of the DataBear Logo and insert it as an image and simply apply an action to it, as web URL and copy and paste the URL address.  Here is a quick link to that page as well.

As always one of my favorite go to youtubers are Guy in a Cube, see here for their tips on URL in Power BI.