Forum Discussion
Custom Report Theme JSON Property settings in Tables/Matrix
- 8 years ago
Hey Everyone,
Microsoft has gotten back with me and said
"Our product team have fixed this issue and code check-in has been done.
Product team confirmed that this fix will be available in the service in about 3 weeks and this fix will be available in December version of Power BI Desktop."
Looks like most or all of the properties that don't work now will work in the December release! ....To Be Continued...
10/25 update:
I got another response back-
" My product team confirmed that the JSON file that you have developed is correct. They have fixed bugs in Power BI Desktop which rendered properly based on the JSON file."
looks like we can take my original example as correct as far as the properties of the "grid" card are concerned. Here's to changing more properties by JSON theme files in December!

11/1 Update:
OK so the Microsoft team told me specifically that the only issues that will be fixed are the ones that are brought to their team via support tickets. So if you see something that doesn't work SEND IT IN! They said in order to keep track of what needs fixing they will only fix issues brought to their attention. I already sent in all the ones that don't work for my use case but that will not cover all the other JSON properties not working. Someone needs to do a giant test of all the properties and then send in a huge ticket :smileylol:
12/12 Update:
The December release is out and as far as I can tell, there has been no changes as far as the JSON features working. I reached out to the MS team to troubleshoot. hopefully its user error and I just need to change my JSON. :smileymad:
Jan 2018 Update:
Apparently the JSON features I requested to be fixed WERE fixed but they weren't working the way they originally told me they would! This works for me and fulfills my requirements for my original post:
{ "name":"Jan 2018 Theme", "dataColors":[ "#0069aa", "#4f8dc2", "#9ab7da", "#cedaec", "#00c762", "#fbe7a6", "#ff544a", "#f89a1c", "#545451" ], "background":"#FFFFFF", "foreground":"#545451", "tableAccent":"#4f8dc2", "visualStyles":{ "*":{ "*":{ "*":[ { "fontFamily":"Segoe UI" } ] } }, "*":{ "*":{ "grid":[ { "outlineColor":{"solid":{"color":"#4f8dc2"}}, "gridVertical":true, "gridVerticalColor":{"solid":{"color":"#4f8dc2"}}, "gridHorizontal":true, "gridHorizontalColor":{"solid":{"color":"#4f8dc2"}} } ], "columnHeaders":[ { "fontColor":{"solid":{"color":"#ffffff"}}, "backColor":{"solid":{"color":"#0069aa"}}, "fontFamily":"Segoe UI" } ], "values":[ { "backColorSecondary":{"solid":{"color":"#cedaec"}} } ] } } } }
I was wrong--it was just your json. get rid of the double line break before "grid" and it works.
I was wrong again.
Fixing the json allowed the theme to be imported without error, but it doesn't do anything other than change the color palette.
The link I referenced earlier seems to have effect on the column chart but not the bar chart; I'm able to affect the slicer but can't get the grid properties you referenced to work.
Some of the announcement page almost makes it sound like it's still being developed, but it's hard for me to imagine that much documentation before it went live...
- MWinter2258 years agoAdvocate IV
Thanks for your reply. I agree, I wish the documentation was a bit more thorough. Hoping to find an answer to this here!
- KellyDittmar8 years agoAdvocate IV
I just arrived hopeful for brilliance related to this topic... but alas, I'm with you.
The only thing that seems to work is the color setup. None of the other formatting in the visualStyles area has any impact on my reports.
The thing I thought to check was the version of Power BI desktop I'm using - which is sept, so this should work... but that's burned me before!
Kelly
- MWinter2258 years agoAdvocate IV
In my testing, I've been able to change general properties like responsive visuals, font families, text sizes, and text colors only when it applies to all items in a report. I've also been able to do some more card-level property changes like legend position, data lables and such. This tool helped me a lot to figure out the inner workings of a JSON theme file(https://powerbi.tips/tools/report-theme-generator-v3/), but it seems like no matter how many different ways I test it, I can't get any of the other properties to work. Right now I'm just focusing on the Matrix (pivotTable) because thats what my requirements are, so things like changing the column header background color/text color, alternating row background color, outline color, and vertical/horizontal grid switched on with a specific color would be great! I'll post if I figure it out, but it seems like it doesn't work yet.
any thoughts norahfox? I saw you had some insight on another json color setting related question.