Power BI Desktop Samples

The item-schemas directory contains authoritative JSON schema files used for validating Power BI item metadata. These schemas are categorized into three main groups:

• Report schemas: Located in ./report/, these validate Report metadata files.
• Dataset schemas: Located in ./dataset/, these validate Dataset metadata files.
• Common schemas: Located in ./common/, these validate metadata files that are common to all Power BI items (such as .pbip files, item.config.json, and item.metadata.json).

This repository provides authoritative JSON schema files used to validate the structure and content of common Power BI item metadata files. Use these schemas to ensure that configuration, metadata, and project files conform to the expected format for Power BI Desktop samples and related tooling.

The available schemas cover:

• item.config.json: Configuration settings for items.
• item.metadata.json: Metadata definitions for items.
• .pbip: Power BI Project file structure.

This repository contains two main collections of Power BI files for learning and exploration:

• Monthly Blog Samples: Located in the Monthly Desktop Blog Samples folder, these are the .pbix files used in monthly Power BI blog posts and video updates.
• Report Samples: Located in the Sample Reports folder, these contain various report templates designed to help you explore different Power BI capabilities.

A Power BI report item (represented as <report name>.Report) consists of several key metadata and configuration files. Use the following file structure as a reference for valid report item metadata:

• .pbi/localSettings.json: Contains local settings for the report.
• definition.pbir: The primary definition file for the report.
• item.config.json: Configuration metadata for the item.
• item.metadata.json: Metadata describing the item properties.

The custom report theme JSON currently has the following unsupported features:

• Dynamic Content References: You cannot reference dynamic content that reports support, with the exception of ThemeDataColor expressions (e.g., expr: { SparklineData: { ... } } is not supported).
• Model-Specific Items: You cannot reference items that depend on specific model data or fields, such as conditional formatting based on data values.

The repository provides JSON schemas located in the Report Theme JSON Schema folder. These schemas define the valid properties available for customizing Power BI report themes.

You can use these schemas in two ways:

1. External Development: Use them as a reference in your own application development tools to validate theme files.
2. Direct Validation: Reference the schema directly within your custom theme JSON files using the "$schema" key to enable real-time validation in editors that support JSON schema.

For detailed information, refer to the README.md file within the Report Theme JSON Schema folder.

The definition.pbir file is a required file that stores the ReportDefinition. It contains metadata about the overall file structure, core settings, and a reference to the dataset used by the report. The schema for this object does not accept additional properties.

Required Properties

• version: The version of the report artifact file format. Currently, the only valid value is "1.0".
• datasetReference: A reference to the bound dataset, defined using either byPath or byConnection.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) building applications that interact with Power BI themes can use these Draft-7 compliant schemas to:

• Programmatically generate custom theme JSON files.
• Identify and document all available formatting options for clients.
• Validate theme files before they are passed to Power BI Desktop.

Note: Power BI Desktop uses the Ajv library for its internal validation. If your application uses a different validator, error messages may differ from those seen in Power BI Desktop.