The Power BI Enhanced Report Format (PBIR) is a significant advancement introduced in the June 2024 update of Power BI. This innovative feature is designed to enhance the management and development of Power BI project files (PBIP) by offering a more structured and source-control-friendly file format. PBIR aims to streamline the co-development process, making it easier for teams to collaborate on report creation and maintenance. By improving the organization and accessibility of report files, PBIR significantly boosts development efficiency and ensures a smoother workflow for Power BI users.
Power BI Project Files (PBIP)
Saving a Power BI report as a PBIP file stores report and dataset artifact (semantic model) definitions as separate plain text files organized in a straightforward folder. That is when we save a PBIP file, two separate folders are created, one for the report and the other for the semantic model as below.
See below an example of saving a sales report as “sales.pbip” generates two different folders as Sales.report and Sales.SemanticModel.
Let us dive deep into each folder,
<project name>.Report: This folder contains files representing the Power BI report. The primary file is report.json
<project name>.SemanticModel: This folder is a collection of files and folders representing a Power BI semantic model. It encompasses crucial files such as model.bim
<project name>.PBIP: This file serves as a pointer to a report folder. Opening a PBIP file directs you to the targeted report and model for authoring.
Advantages of Power BI Project Files (PBIP)
- By storing the semantic model and the report as individual text files, it allows us to use Power BI Desktop to author reports and dataset files in the format that can be stored in source control.
- Allow for collaboration, source control integration, version history tracking, comparison of different revisions, and reverting to previous versions.
- Build CI/CD workflows to enforce quality gates before reaching production environments;
- Enable code reviews, automated testing, and automated build to validate the integrity of a deployment.
Power BI enhanced report format (PBIR)
This report format is a new preview feature that allows us to save our Power BI project files in a more organized and source-control-friendly file structure. To enable the feature
File > Options and settings > Options > Preview features and check the box next to “Store reports using enhanced metadata format (PBIR).”
What makes PBIR so special?
PBIR is incredibly useful for developers working on large reports where report objects are reusable across different pages. Developers can easily copy and paste the schema definition between pages or reports, significantly saving development time. Copying and pasting visuals in Power BI Desktop often requires additional effort for alignment and positioning, but with PBIR, this process becomes more efficient.
When you save a PBIP file with the “Store reports using enhanced metadata format (PBIR)” preview feature enabled, it includes a definition folder within the <project name.Report> folder. This folder contains detailed pages and visual properties formatted as JSON files. Each page, visual, and bookmark has a JSON schema that explains each property’s meaning, unlocking new opportunities to enhance report development efficiency. This allows for easier batch edits and reuse of report objects like visuals or bookmarks, especially beneficial for large reports.
See an example below Sales Report saving as Sales.pbip by enabling the preview feature.
Now when opening the Sales.Report folder we can see a definition folder like below
The entire report metadata is stored in a folder named “\definition.” This definition folder contains individual subfolders for each page in the report, and within each page folder, there are separate subfolders for each visual. These can be thoroughly analyzed using any editor tool.
Existing PBIP files can also be easily upgraded to PBIR by selecting “Upgrade” during the save operation. But please note that the upgrade to PBIR is irreversible, so please save a backup of your PBIP files in case you want to go back to PBIR-Legacy (report.json) format.
Editing Power BI Report Pages with Visual Studio Code
Open the “definition” folder using Visual Studio code.
The highlights are the pages folder which contains different visual folders containing visual.json schema where we can see the visual type and its properties. It is easy to duplicate the same visual to another page or report by copying and pasting the schema definition.
See below an example of duplicating the “Column Chart” visual from the first page to the second page. Right-click on the visuals folder(3eb7419e249f407b5d41) then click copy and paste it on the second page’s visuals folder.
To see the changes, we need to restart the PBI desktop (since we are editing in the external tool) and open the Sales report.
We can rename the pages folder and visuals folder to something more descriptive so that we can identify them easily. But note that in the JSON schema, the “name” property cannot be changed, only the folder name can be renamed.
See below an example of renaming the first-page folder as “Home” and the Visuals folder as “top.”
Similarly, bookmarks can also be copied from one page to another page, which was not possible earlier. This really saves a lot of time to set the same bookmark for other pages as well.
Advantages of PBIR
- Batch Edits
There are scenarios where we wanted to apply certain behaviors, like removing visual interactions or hiding visual-level filters across all pages and visuals. It is time-consuming if we try doing it on the PBI desktop. With PBIR, we can now make batch edits by identifying the change and applying it across all files, either manually or using a script.
2. Default Report configuration
In scenarios where we need a default configuration for our report, such as the default page and filter selection, with the PBIR format, we can achieve that goal by having a simple script that always applies such configuration. Apply this script before each deployment or as part of our deployment mechanism.
3. Source control and co-development with PBIR
PBIR facilitates co-development by offering a structured and source-control-friendly file format. This new format allows developers to Work Simultaneously, Easily Merge Changes, Track Modifications, and Reuse Report Components
Considerations
At launch, the PBIR format comes with some important service limitations that do not affect Power BI Desktop. During the preview, the only way to publish a report with the PBIR format is through Fabric Git Integration. Additionally:
- Reports cannot be exported to PPTX or PDF.
- Reports cannot be included in subscriptions.
- Mobile layouts are not applied.
- The PBIR format cannot be utilized in Power BI Embedded.
- PBIR files cannot be uploaded to workspaces as PBIX files.
Please note that all service limitations will be addressed in the coming months.
Summary
PBIR (Power BI Enhanced Report Format) revolutionizes Power BI report development with its structured, source-control-friendly format. It enhances collaboration, improves version management with detailed JSON-based metadata, and promises future updates to overcome current service limitations. PBIR is set to streamline Power BI report workflows, offering developers greater efficiency and transparency in their project management.
For More Details, Diggibyte Technologies Pvt Ltd has all the experts you need. Contact us Today to embed intelligence into your organization.
Author: Team Power BI