Microsoft Fabric Updates Blog

Announcing a new modern data connectivity and discovery experience in Dataflows

We are excited to introduce the new data connectivity and discovery experience in Dataflow, Dataflow Gen2, and Datamart. Today, users spend a lot of time finding the right data, the right connection info and credentials. With the new Get Data experience, we make it easy to browse different Fabric artifacts through the OneLake data hub. This improved experience aims to expedite this process and get you closer to the data that you’re looking for in the quickest way possible.

Listening to feedback and the new design experience

Over the years we’ve been receiving feedback from our customers around the current experience to connect to data in Dataflow. Previously, the experience provided a simple way to browse all the connectors available with a simple search functionality.

Feedback from customers indicated the need to speed up the journey in connecting to the data and leveraging any information that was previously entered such as previously created connections and credentials. This is how the new connectivity and discovery experience in Dataflow was born – to address this feedback and provide our customers with new, intuitive and quick ways to access the data that they need.

A new modular and extensible approach

One of the core pillars of this new experience is its modular and extensible approach. On the left side of the dialog, you’ll see a navigation bar with modules to this ‘Get Data’ experience which are contextual to the product that you’re working on. These modules present a new approach to the experience in an extensible fashion and will allow us to deliver and enhance this dialog as a whole and each module on its own in the coming months. The following list represents the modules that are or will be available during the next few weeks:

• • Home

• • OneLake Data hub

• • Templates

• • New

• • Upload

• • Blank table

• • Blank query

Home

This Home module allows you to get a quick view of the multiple experiences available inside of the product that you’re working on. For Dataflow Gen2 inside of Microsoft Fabric, you’ll be able to see the list of most common connectors, the OneLake data hub (coming soon), as well as a way to upload a file.

OneLake data hub

The OneLake data hub makes it easy to find, explore, and use the Fabric data items in your organization that you have access to. It provides information about the items and entry points for working with them Discover Fabric content in the OneLake data hub – Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn.

Templates

For Power BI Dataflow, you have a module specifically designed for templates that already exist in this version of Dataflow. You can pick these templates from within this new module and our goal is extend tis module to enable a way for you to import a Power Query template from within this experience as well as improving the experience to better understand what these templates are able to offer.

New

The new module is effectively the same dialog that you’re familiar with from previous versions of Dataflow where it shows you the Choose data source dialog. It allows you to see a full list of the connectors available for the product integration and a quick way to search for them.

Upload

This new module is an extension to an existing capability available inside of the connect to data source experience to Upload a File. With this experience you are able  to click the browse button to browse a file locally and upload it, or simply drag and drop any file that you’d like to upload to the cloud and connect to using Dataflow.

Blank table

Creating a quick table in the Dataflow experience is one of the most used features for getting data in Power Query and thanks to your feedback we’ve made this a top level module inside the new and modern get data experience to allow you to have a quickstart to create a table in Dataflow.

Blank query

One of the most common entry points that we have in Dataflow is the Blank query entry point or connector. We’ve heard your feedback and we’re making this entry point have his own module in the new experience so you can jump directly into a code-first experience where you can write or paste your own M script to create a new query.

The vision and our goals

This is the first step in bringing data discovery directly in the Get Data experience. In the future, you will be able to re-use connections, browse Azure, browse SharePoint and many more. This new way of connecting to data will come to other experiences that connect to data, like Power BI Desktop, Fabric Pipelines, Excel and many more… Stay tuned!

Try it out today in Microsoft Fabric!

Follow these simple steps to try out the modern data connectivity experience in Dataflow Gen2 for Microsoft Fabric:

1. 1. Navigate to https://fabric.microsoft.com/ (register your account if needed)

1. 1. Navigate to a workspace and create a Dataflow Gen2

1. 1. Create a query by using the “Get Data” Primary button

Be sure to share your feedback with us in our Data Factory Community forum and also try this new experience in other product integrations such as Datamarts and Dataflow in Power BI.

Other resources

• • Join the Fabric community to post your questions, share your feedback, and learn from others.

• • Visit Microsoft Fabric Ideas to submit feedback and suggestions for improvements and vote on your peers’ ideas!

• • Check our Known Issues page for up to date on product fixes!

Have any questions or feedback? Leave a comment below!