Forum Discussion
Bookmarks and Selection Groups not working the same. Did something change?
I am trying to figure out if I am doing something differently or if something changed in how Bookmarks interact with Selection Groups. I have a suite of reports (an App with 8 Reports and each report has 5-12 tabs) that all have the same core design and functionality. There is a button on the top left of the report that, when clicked, brings up a "Filter pane" that sits on top of the report and has all the filters for the group of reports. There are about 12 filters, but the issue is that some people want filters by "ID" and others by "Description" and concatonating them into a single variable makes it too wide to show all the filters on the same page because the width of the slicer is the same as the character length for the slicers, therefore I dont have enough real estate to show it all. My solution was to have a set of buttons inside of the filter pane that would flip the filters between "ID" and "Description" using the same show and hide bookmark functionality. It worked beautilfy until recently.
The way I had it set up was by using tiered grouping in the selection pane and four bookmarks for Every tab. The selection grouping was like so
- Filter Pane Group
- ID Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- Description Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- ID Based Filters Group
For the bookmarks, I used a "Open Pane" and "Close Pane" Bookmarks triggered by buttons to Show and Hide the Filter Pane Group. And then "Use ID" and 'Use Description" bookmarks to show and hide the second level filter groups. When I set it up The Open and Close pane did not affect the visibility of the Slicers and it would remain on the last selection. Use ID was set as the default, but if someone opened the filter pane and changed it to description, closed the pane to look at the report and then re-opened the filter pane it would remain at the "Use Description" state.
However, I just added four new tabs to one of my reports and on all the new tabs the bookmarks will affect the display state of any visuals INSIDE the group as well. Meaning that since the "Open Filters" bookmark was saved on the "Use ID" state, then whenever they open the filter pane, the bookmarks will revert back to the USE ID state. This kind of breaks the report because if a filter was selected the other group only shows the filters that were selected and you cant clear any filters. Moving back to "Use Description" also clears all of the filters because of that same reason (I set it to clear the filters when switching states because the filters that are hidded will affect the values in the displayed filters).
Now, the old reports and tabs still function as normal, but if i update the bookmarks the way they work changes. This makes me think that there was a fundamental change to the way bookmarks interact with selection groups that I either missed or wasn't called out directly as I can find no documentation on a change. However, its such a nuanced problem that I doubt many people have run across it. Does anyone have any insight into this? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting that can bring the functionality back the way I want it to work?
4 Replies
- rajendraongole1
Super User
Hi Bschiwal - This issue might indeed stem from an update or a subtle difference in how bookmarks interact with grouped visuals in the selection pane.
Old reports/tabs may retain legacy behavior until you update their bookmarks. Once updated, they adopt the new behavior, which could explain the discrepancy between old and new tabs.
When setting up bookmarks, ensure you only save visibility states for the groups you want to toggle (e.g., Filter Pane Group) and avoid saving visibility states for nested slicer groups.
Select the bookmark in the Bookmarks pane.
Right-click and uncheck "Data" and "Selected Visuals" (if checked).
Make sure the bookmark is scoped to only affect the Filter Pane Group visibility.
2. Separate Bookmarks for Filter Pane and Filters
Create distinct bookmarks for toggling the filter pane visibility (Open Pane and Close Pane) and for switching between ID- and Description-based filters (Use ID and Use Description).
Ensure Open Pane and Close Pane bookmarks do not store visibility settings for slicers. This will prevent them from reverting to a previous state when toggled.
3. Leverage Bookmark Groups
Use bookmark groups to organize and simplify management. Group related bookmarks (e.g., Open Pane and Close Pane in one group, Use ID and Use Description in another).
Ensure group-level changes only affect the visuals intended for that group.
4. Use Buttons with Dynamic Layering
Instead of bookmarks controlling visibility directly, consider layering visuals dynamically:
Duplicate visuals (e.g., slicers for ID and Description) and place them in the same position.
Assign visibility toggles to buttons to bring the appropriate slicer to the front layer while hiding the other.Detailed explaination FYR Some reference links:
Solved: Re: How to Handle Multiple Bookmark Interactions f... - Microsoft Fabric Community
Using Selected Visuals to Create Disconnected Bookmark Groups in Microsoft Power BI
Hope this helps.
This is not an answer in any way to the problem. First, you cannot use a button to change the layering order of a visual. If it was possible this could be a work around, however, it is not. Your other points and suggestions are all things I explained I am already doing.
I understand that this 'may' be a subtle change that was made to the way bookmarks work and am hoping to either get confirmation that is definitely the case or find a solution to fix the issue.- rajendraongole1
Hi Bschiwal -
Instead of relying on nested groups in the Selection Pane, try breaking them into independent groups. This could help avoid the cascading effect:
Create separate groups for:
Filter Pane
ID Filters
Description Filters
Use bookmarks to toggle these groups independently, avoiding the hierarchy issue.Manually manage the visibility of individual slicers using bookmarks, bypassing the group logic:
Save bookmarks for ID Filters and Description Filters separately.
Ensure that only the slicers' visibility is saved in each bookmark.If layering is a problem, create duplicate slicers for "ID" and "Description," placing them in different groups, and use bookmarks to show/hide each group explicitly.
4. Revert to Older Functionality:
If this is due to a change in the Power BI version:Roll back to an earlier version of Power BI Desktop (if available).
Consider submitting a support ticket to Microsoft to confirm if this is a bug or an intentional change.Let me know if you'd like more specific guidance on implementing any of these steps!
In case anyone is still having this issue, here's a solution (workaround?)
Create your nested hierarchy like normal.
- Filter Pane Group
- ID Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- Description Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- ID Based Filters Group
Now, create another group under "Filter Pane Group" which contains your different Filter Groups.
- Filter Pane Group
- Filter Groups
- ID Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- Description Based Filters Group
- Slicers
- ID Based Filters Group
- Filter Groups
Now, in the selection panel, move Filter Groups OUT of Filter Pane Group.
Open your bookmarks panel, create a bookmark called "Open Pane". Unselect data and current page, change from "All Visuals" to "Selected Visuals".
In the selection panel, unhide "Filter Pane Group" which currently does NOT contain "Filter Groups" and then select it. Right click your bookmark "Open Pane" and choose "Update." (I usually do this final step twice, since sometimes the update doesn't seem to take).
Create a new bookmark called "Close Pane" and repeat steps to update selected visuals only without data or current page. Hide "Filter Pane Group" and then select it. Then right click "Close Pane" bookmark and update.
Move the "Filter Groups" group in the selection pane back INTO "Filter Pane Group." You've now created a toggleable panel which is independant of the state of everything inside "Filter Group".
Now if "Open Pane" is called, it will open the panel without changing which of the filter groups is selected. You can setup your filter group visibility as normal. Anytime you make a change which requires updating your bookmarks, as long as you don't update the "Open Pane" and "Close Pane" bookmarks, you shouldn't need to repeat these steps.
Hope this saves someone the hour or so it took me to realize this was possible. 🙂
- Filter Pane Group
