This is a community project that is not supported by Microsoft.
Please also note that while PBI Inspector can read Power BI Desktop files with the ".pbix" extension as well as files in the PBIP format, the former is not supported by Microsoft.
Thanks to Michael Kovalsky and Rui Romano for their feedback on this project. Thanks also to Luke Young for creating the PBI Inspector logo.
Please report issues here.
- Intro
- Base rules
- Run from the Graphical user interface
- Run from the Command line
- Interpreting results
- Running reports on reports
- Azure DevOps integration
- Fabric workspace integration
- Custom rules examples
- Custom rules guide
- Contributing ideas and discussions
- Known issues
- Report an issue
So we've DevOps, MLOps and DataOps... but why not VisOps? How can we ensure that business intelligence charts and other visuals within report pages are published in a consistent, performance optimised and accessible state? For example, are local report settings set in a consistent manner for a consistent user experience? Are visuals deviating from the specified theme by, say, using custom colours? Are visuals kept lean so they render quickly? Are charts axes titles displayed? etc.
With Microsoft Power BI, visuals are placed on a canvas and formatted as desired, images may be included and theme files referenced. Testing the consistency of the visuals output has thus far typically been a manual process. Recently, a new Power BI file format (.pbip) was introduced to enable pro developer application lifecycle management and source control. In particular, the report's layout definition and any associated theme are in json format and therefore readable by both machines and humans. However upon new releases of Power BI, the json structure may introduce changes without warning to include new features for example. Therefore an automated visual layout testing tool should be resilient to such changes while providing a powerful rule logic creation framework. PBI Inspector provides the ability to define fully configurable testing rules (themselves written in json) powered by Greg Dennis's Json Logic .NET implementation, see https://json-everything.net/json-logic.
The rules files used in the session can be found at Reid-rules.json.
While PBI Inspector supports custom rules, it also includes the following base rules defined at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/main/Rules/Base-rules.json, some rules allow for user parameters:
- Remove custom visuals which are not used in the report (no user parameters)
- Reduce the number of visible visuals on the page (set parameter
paramMaxVisualsPerPageto the maximum number of allowed visible visuals on the page) - Reduce the number of objects within visuals (override hardcoded
4parameter value the the maximum number of allowed objects per visuals) - Reduce usage of TopN filtering visuals by page (set
paramMaxTopNFilteringPerPage) - Reduce usage of Advanced filtering visuals by page (set
paramMaxAdvancedFilteringVisualsPerPage) - Reduce number of pages per report (set
paramMaxNumberOfPagesPerReport) - Avoid setting ‘Show items with no data’ on columns (no user parameters)
- Tooltip and Drillthrough pages should be hidden (no user parameters)
- Ensure charts use theme colours (no user parameters)
- Ensure pages do not scroll vertically (no user parameters)
- Ensure alternativeText has been defined for all visuals (disabled by default, no user parameters)
To modify parameters, save a local copy of the Base-rules.json file at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/main/Rules/Base-rules.json and point PBI Inspector to the new file.
To disable a rule, edit the rule's json to specify "disabled": true. At runtime PBI Inspector will ignore any disabled rule.
Currently these changes need to be made directly in the rules file json, however the plan is to provide a more intuitive user interface in upcoming releases of PBI Inspector.
Binaries:
- The self-contained (.NET 6.0 runtime included) Windows Forms application is available at: https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/releases/tag/v1.9.4-WinForm.
Running PBIXInspectorWinForm.exe presents the user with the following interface:
- Browse to your local PBI Desktop File, either the PBIP "report.json" file or the PBIX file i.e. "*.pbix". Alternatively to try out the tool, select "Use sample".
- Either use the base rules file included in the application or select your own.
- Use the "Browse" button to select an output directory to which the results will be written. Alternatively, select the "Use temp files" check box to write the resuls to a temporary folder that will be deleted upon exiting the application.
- Select output formats, either JSON or HTML or both. To simply view the test results in a formatted page select the HTML output.
- Select "Verbose" to output both test passes and fails, if left unselected then only failed test results will be reported.
- Select "Run". The test run log messages are displayed at the bottom of the window. If "Use temp files" is selected (or the Output directory field is left blank) along with the HTML output check box, then the browser will open to display the HTML results.
- Any test run information, warnings or errors are displayed in the console output textbox.
Binaries: The command line interface application is available at: https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/releases/latest (.NET 6.0 dependency not included).
All command line parameters are as follows:
-pbip filepath: Deprecated. Please use -pbipreport argument instead.
-pbipreport folderpath: Required (or specify -pbix). The path to the PBIP's "*.Report" folder.
-pbix filepath: Required (or specify -pbipreport). The filepath of the PBIX Power BI Desktop file to be inspected.
-rules filepath: Required. The filepath to the rules file. Save a local copy of the base rules file at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/main/Rules/Base-rules.json and modify as required.
-verbose true|false: Optional, false by default. If false then only rule violations will be shown otherwise all results will be listed.
-output directorypath: Optional. If -formats is set to either JSON, HTML or PNG, writes results to the specified directory, any existing files will be overwritten. If not supplied then a temporary directory will be created in the user's temporary files folder.
-formats CONSOLE,JSON,HTML,PNG,ADO: Optional. Comma-separated list of output formats.
- CONSOLE (default) writes results to the console output. If "-formats" is not specified then "CONSOLE" will be used by default.
- JSON writes results to a Json file.
- HTML writes results to a formatted Html page. If no output directory is specified and the HTML format is specified, then a browser page will be opened to display the HTML results. When specifying "HTML" format, report page wireframe images will be created so there is no need to also include the "PNG" format.
- PNG draws report pages wireframes clearly showing any failing visuals.
- ADO outputs Azure DevOps compatible task commands for use in a deployment pipeline. Task commands issued are "task.logissue" and "task.complete", see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/scripts/logging-commands?view=azure-devops&tabs=bash#task-commands. PBI Inspector rules definition can be given a "logType" attribute of either "warning" or "error" which will be passed to the Azure DevOps task command as follows:
##vso[task.logissue type=warning|error]. When specifying "ADO" all other output format types will be ignored.
Commmand line examples:
- Run "Base-rules.json" rule definitions against PBI report file at "Sales.Report and return results in Json and HTML formats:
PBIXInspectorCLI.exe -pbipreport "C:\Files\Sales.Report" -rules ".\Files\Base-rules.json" -output "C:\Files\TestRun" -formats "JSON,HTML"
- Run "Base-rules.json" rule definitions against PBI report file at "Sales.Report and return results to the console only:
PBIXInspectorCLI.exe -pbipreport "C:\Files\Sales.Report" -rules ".\Files\Base-rules.json" -output "C:\Files\TestRun" -formats "Console"
- Run "Base-rules.json" rule definitions against PBI report file at "Sales.Report and return results as Azure DevOps compatible log and tasks commands (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/scripts/logging-commands?view=azure-devops&tabs=bash#task-commands):
PBIXInspectorCLI.exe -pbipreport "C:\Files\Sales.Report" -rules ".\Files\Base-rules.json" -formats "ADO"
If a verbose output was requested, then results for both test passes and failures will be reported. The JSON output is intended to be consumed by a subsequent process, for example a Power BI report may be created that uses the JSON file as a data source and visualises the PBI Inspector test results. The HTML page is a more readable format for humans which also includes report page wireframe images when tests are at the report page level. These images are intended to help the user identify visuals that have failed the test such as the example image below. The PBI Inspector logo is also displayed at the centre of each failing visuals as an additional identification aid when the wireframe is busy.
Visuals with a dotted border are visuals hidden by default as the following example:
As an added benefit, PBI Inspector can be used to run reports on reports. For example, a rules file may be created that returns an array of JSON records, for example listing properties of visuals on each report page. For an example of such a rules file, see: Example-ReportPageFieldMap.json which for each report page returns an array of visual name, type, x and y coordinates, width, height and visibility.
To run a report on a single report, the PBI Inspector application may be used as follows (take note of the output directory path you specified and only select the JSON output format):
Power BI Desktop may then be used to create a report that uses the JSON file(s) parent folder as a data source. The following example report is included in the project's repository at https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/blob/main/DocsExamples/ReportExample/.
To update this report with your own visuals data, open the report in Power BI Desktop and update the "JsonReportFolder" parameter with the path of the output directory path used in the PBI Inspector application above:
For a tutorial on how to run PBI Inspector as part of an Azure DevOps pipeline job (alongside Tabular Editor's BPA rules), see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-build-pipelines. The tutorial references Rui Romano's repository at https://github.com/RuiRomano/powerbi-devmode-pipelines and this YAML file in particular: https://github.com/RuiRomano/powerbi-devmode-pipelines/blob/main/azure-pipelines-build.yml.
Thanks to the ability to programmatically export Report definitions from Microsoft Fabric workspaces via the REST API (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/fabric/articles/item-management/definitions/report-definition), PBI Inspector rules can also be run against reports published to Fabric workspaces. For a useful "Export-FabricItems" Fabric PowerShell cmdlet and example, consider cloning or downloading the project at https://github.com/RuiRomano/fabricps-pbip and running the "Test-ExportForBPA.ps1" PowerShell script. This script exports the specified Fabric workspaces' contents to PBIP files and then run both Tabular Editor BPA rules and PBI Inspector rules against each PBIP file and output the console output to files. A subsequent documentation update will show how to run a report on PBI Inspector test results that are returned as JSON files.
Please note that this section is not a guide to creating custom rules, just a very high-level overview and some examples. I'm currently writing a guide to rule creation in the project's wiki, see Anatomy of a rules file.
A PBI Inspector test is written in json and is in three parts:
- The JSONLogic rule
- Some data mapping logic
- The expected result
As an added benefit, a rule can be written in such a way as to return a result more useful than just true or false. For example, an array of visual IDs or names failing the test can be returned and plotted on a wireframe diagram for ease of identification, for an illustration of this, see the second rule example below.
Besides the base rules defined at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/main/Rules/Base-rules.json, see other rules examples below (make sure to also view the full Example rules.json rule file definition):
- Check that visuals are wider than they are tall
- Check that certain types of charts have both axes titles displayed
- Avoid publishing report pages with default names e.g. "Page 1", "Page 2" etc.
- Check that slow data source settings are all disabled
- Check other local report settings
- Check that the ratio of visuals across the report using custom colours does not exceed 10%
- Check report theme properties
- Check that visible visuals do not overlap or have a defined margin between them
- Check that no report-level measures are defined
{
"name": "Charts wider than tall",
"description": "Want to check that your charts are wider than tall?",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"forEachPath": "$.sections[*]",
"forEachPathName": "$.name",
"forEachPathDisplayName": "$.displayName",
"path": "$.visualContainers[*].config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": false,
"test": [
{
"map": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "visualsConfigArray"
},
{
"<=": [
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.width"
},
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.height"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"var": "name"
}
]
},
{
"visualsConfigArray": "."
},
[]
]
}
Example wireframe output highlighting two visuals that failed the test because they are taller than they are wide:
{
"name": "Show visual axes title",
"description": "Check that certain charts have both axes title showing.",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"forEachPath": "$.sections[*]",
"forEachPathName": "$.name",
"forEachPathDisplayName": "$.displayName",
"path": "$.visualContainers[*].config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": false,
"test": [
{
"map": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "visualsConfigArray"
},
{
"and": [
{
"in": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.visualType"
},
[
"lineChart",
"barChart",
"columnChart",
"clusteredBarChart",
"stackedBarChart"
]
]
},
{
"or": [
{
"==": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.objects.categoryAxis.0.properties.showAxisTitle.expr.Literal.Value"
},
"false"
]
},
{
"==": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.objects.valueAxis.0.properties.showAxisTitle.expr.Literal.Value"
},
"false"
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"var": "name"
}
]
},
{
"visualsConfigArray": "."
},
[]
]
}
{
"name": "Give visible pages meaningful names",
"description": "Returns an array of visible page names with a default 'Page x' display name.",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"path": "$.sections[*]",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": false,
"test": [
{
"map": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "pageArray"
},
{
"and": [
{
"strcontains": [
{
"var": "displayName"
},
"^Page [1-9]+$"
]
},
{
"!=": [
{
"drillvar": "config>visibility"
},
1
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"var": "displayName"
}
]
},
{
"pageArray": "."
},
[]
]
}
For a consistent user experience over import mode or a fast direct query source, check that slow data source settings are all disabled:
{
"name": "Sample - ReportSlowDatasourceSettings",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"description": "Check that report slow data source settings are all disabled.",
"path": "$.config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": true,
"test": [
{
"!": [
{
"or": [
{
"var": "isCrossHighlightingDisabled"
},
{
"var": "isSlicerSelectionsButtonEnabled"
},
{
"var": "isFilterSelectionsButtonEnabled"
},
{
"var": "isFieldWellButtonEnabled"
},
{
"var": "isApplyAllButtonEnabled"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"isCrossHighlightingDisabled": "/slowDataSourceSettings/isCrossHighlightingDisabled",
"isSlicerSelectionsButtonEnabled": "/slowDataSourceSettings/isSlicerSelectionsButtonEnabled",
"isFilterSelectionsButtonEnabled": "/slowDataSourceSettings/isFilterSelectionsButtonEnabled",
"isFieldWellButtonEnabled": "/slowDataSourceSettings/isFieldWellButtonEnabled",
"isApplyAllButtonEnabled": "/slowDataSourceSettings/isApplyAllButtonEnabled"
},
true
]
}
Check other local report settings such as the default active page index and many others as shown in the example below:
{
"name": "Local report settings",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"description": "Check local report settings other than slow data source settings.
This rule creates a json record of current local setting values and compares to a json record of expected values. If this rules fails, I recommend comparing both output json records formatted in Visual Studio code to easily identify the failed setting values.",
"path": "$.config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": false,
"test": [
{
"torecord": [
"activePageIndex",
{
"var": "activePageIndex"
},
"defaultDrillFilterOtherVisuals",
{
"var": "defaultDrillFilterOtherVisuals"
},
"isPersistentUserStateDisabled",
{
"var": "isPersistentUserStateDisabled"
},
"hideVisualContainerHeader",
{
"var": "hideVisualContainerHeader"
},
"useStylableVisualContainerHeader",
{
"var": "useStylableVisualContainerHeader"
},
"exportDataMode",
{
"var": "exportDataMode"
},
"useNewFilterPaneExperience",
{
"var": "useNewFilterPaneExperience"
},
"optOutNewFilterPaneExperience",
{
"var": "optOutNewFilterPaneExperience"
},
"defaultFilterActionIsDataFilter",
{
"var": "defaultFilterActionIsDataFilter"
},
"useCrossReportDrillthrough",
{
"var": "useCrossReportDrillthrough"
},
"allowChangeFilterTypes",
{
"var": "allowChangeFilterTypes"
},
"allowInlineExploration",
{
"var": "allowInlineExploration"
},
"disableFilterPaneSearch",
{
"var": "disableFilterPaneSearch"
},
"enableDeveloperMode",
{
"if": [
{
"!!": [ { "var": "enableDeveloperMode" } ]
},
{
"var": "enableDeveloperMode"
},
false
]
},
"useEnhancedTooltips",
{
"var": "useEnhancedTooltips"
},
"useDefaultAggregateDisplayName",
{
"var": "useDefaultAggregateDisplayName"
}
]
},
{
"activePageIndex": "/activeSectionIndex",
"defaultDrillFilterOtherVisuals": "/defaultDrillFilterOtherVisuals",
"isPersistentUserStateDisabled": "/settings/isPersistentUserStateDisabled",
"hideVisualContainerHeader": "/settings/hideVisualContainerHeader",
"useStylableVisualContainerHeader": "/settings/useStylableVisualContainerHeader",
"exportDataMode": "/settings/exportDataMode",
"useNewFilterPaneExperience": "/settings/useNewFilterPaneExperience",
"optOutNewFilterPaneExperience": "/settings/optOutNewFilterPaneExperience",
"defaultFilterActionIsDataFilter": "/settings/defaultFilterActionIsDataFilter",
"useCrossReportDrillthrough": "/settings/useCrossReportDrillthrough",
"allowChangeFilterTypes": "/settings/allowChangeFilterTypes",
"allowInlineExploration": "/settings/allowInlineExploration",
"disableFilterPaneSearch": "/settings/disableFilterPaneSearch",
"enableDeveloperMode": "/settings/enableDeveloperMode",
"useEnhancedTooltips": "/settings/useEnhancedTooltips",
"useDefaultAggregateDisplayName": "/settings/useDefaultAggregateDisplayName"
},
{
"activePageIndex": 0,
"defaultDrillFilterOtherVisuals": true,
"isPersistentUserStateDisabled": true,
"hideVisualContainerHeader": false,
"useStylableVisualContainerHeader": true,
"exportDataMode": 1,
"useNewFilterPaneExperience": true,
"optOutNewFilterPaneExperience": false,
"defaultFilterActionIsDataFilter": true,
"useCrossReportDrillthrough": false,
"allowChangeFilterTypes": true,
"allowInlineExploration": false,
"disableFilterPaneSearch": false,
"enableDeveloperMode": false,
"useEnhancedTooltips": true,
"useDefaultAggregateDisplayName": true
}
]
}
Check that the ratio of visuals across the report using custom colours does not exceed 10% while excluding textbox visuals from the analysis:
{
"name": "Percentage of charts across the report using custom colours is not greater than 10%",
"description": "Check that charts avoid custom colours and use theme colours instead.",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"path": "$.sections[*].visualContainers[*].config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": true,
"test": [
{
"<=": [
{
"/": [
{
"count": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "visualConfigArray"
},
{
"and": [
{
"!": [
{
"in": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.visualType"
},
[
"textbox"
]
]
}
]
},
{
"strcontains": [
{
"tostring": [
{
"var": ""
}
]
},
"#([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})"
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"count": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "visualConfigArray"
},
{
"!": [
{
"in": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.visualType"
},
[
"textbox"
]
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{ "var": "paramMaxAllowedRatio" }
]
},
{
"visualConfigArray": ".",
"paramMaxAllowedRatio": 0.1
},
true
]
}
{
"name": "Report theme title font properties",
"description": "Checks theme's title foreground, fontface and fontsize",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"path": "$",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": true,
"test": [
{
"and": [
{
"==": [
{ "var": "foreground" },
"#252423"
]
},
{
"==": [
{ "var": "fontface" },
"DIN"
]
},
{
">=": [
{ "var": "fontsize" },
10
]
},
{
"<=": [
{ "var": "fontsize" },
12
]
}
]
},
{
"foreground": "/foreground",
"fontface": "/textClasses/title/fontFace",
"fontsize": "/textClasses/title/fontSize"
},
true
]
}
{
"name": "Check for visuals overlap with a 5px margin",
"description": "Returns names of visuals that overlap while inflating visuals rectangle area by 5px left, right, top and bottom. Currently this does not check for overlap with the sides of report page itself. This rule does not currently work with visual groups.",
"disabled": false,
"logType": "warning",
"forEachPath": "$.sections[*]",
"forEachPathName": "$.name",
"forEachPathDisplayName": "$.displayName",
"path": "$.visualContainers[*].config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": false,
"test": [
{
"rectoverlap": [
{
"map": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "v"
},
{
"and": [
{ "!!": [ { "var": "name" } ] },
{
"!": [
{
"in": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.visualType"
},
[
"card",
"slicer",
"actionButton"
]
]
}
]
},
{
">=": [
{ "var": "layouts.0.position.x" },
0
]
},
{
">=": [
{ "var": "layouts.0.position.y" },
0
]
},
{
">=": [
{ "var": "layouts.0.position.width" },
0
]
},
{
">=": [
{ "var": "layouts.0.position.height" },
0
]
},
{
"!=": [
{
"var": "singleVisual.display.mode"
},
"hidden"
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"torecord": [
"name",
{
"var": "name"
},
"x",
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.x"
},
"y",
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.y"
},
"width",
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.width"
},
"height",
{
"var": "layouts.0.position.height"
}
]
}
]
},
5
]
},
{
"v": "."
},
[]
]
}
Returns the modelExtensions array item in the report's config json node with the extension name set to "extension" and an entities array with at least one measure defined.
{
"name": "Check for locally defined measures",
"description": "Returns an array of report-level measure definitions",
"path": "$.config",
"pathErrorWhenNoMatch": true,
"test": [
{
"filter": [
{
"var": "modelExt"
},
{
"and": [
{
"==": [
{
"var": "name"
},
"extension"
]
},
{
"some": [
{
"var": "entities"
},
{
">": [
{
"count": [
{
"var": "measures"
}
]
},
0
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"modelExt": "/modelExtensions"
},
[]
]
}
I've started writing this guide to rule creation in the project's wiki: Anatomy of a rules file. I'll be adding more content to this guide over time so do check back in.
Please contribute to ideas (for example ideas for new rules) and discussions at https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/discussions.
- Currently page wireframes are only created in a 16:9 aspect ratio so custom report page sizes including tooltip pages may not render as expected as shown in the following tooltip page example. See tooltip page example below:
- Currently page wireframes do not faithfully represents the report page layout when visual groups are present.
All issues should be logged at https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/issues.
Please report issues at https://github.com/NatVanG/PBI-Inspector/issues.