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"}} } ] } } } }
So glad I commented here! The note that you need the * area was key for me... I started with the json from the sept release notes and then tried to modify it - the first thing it did was remove my filtering ability (instead of filters I had images of the filter-icon)... so I took out the whole * area.
Now that I came back and learned that was required - I figured out how the responsiveness was set and turned that off - now I have my filtering back. And the fonts appear to be changing as well - I'm thrilled!!
Mike_Carlo - Mike - thanks for joining into this conversation. I had found this website (https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-desktop-report-themes/#report-theme-json-file-format) earlier today & got confused. Perhaps you can help? I want to make sure I'm reading it correctly... Are these assumptions correct?
1) JSON file element definitions - this area is what lists out the different "types" of visualizations that would appear on the Power BI 'canvas'.
2) "CardNames" - this is the name that you'll see in the formatting area of Power BI for each visualization
3) The "Properties within each card" - these are the options that you can set within each "card" (where card = formatting area as opposed to the object type card.)
The thing that I think would help the most is if you were to have a screenshot of the json next to a screenshot of the power bi screen with arrows that show how each area of the json corresponds to an area of the application.
Thank you!
Kelly
In answer to your three bullet points question:
1) JSON file element definitions - this area is what lists out the different "types" of visualizations that would appear on the Power BI 'canvas'.
Yes - this is currently how I understand this seciton of data.
2) "CardNames" - this is the name that you'll see in the formatting area of Power BI for each visualization
Yes - This is the section where you see the JSON name:PBI Desktop names called out.
cardTitle:Card Title means, the JSON property is cardTitle, and Card Title is what is shown in the desktop.
Side note: also what is seen in this list is the different sections for each visual. For example the visual will be areaChart, but the properties for the x-Axis are found in the categoryAxis: X-Axis. Thus, there is a mix of propertie names & section names found in this list.
See sample JSON:
{
"name": "My Theme",
"visualStyles": {
"barChart": {
"*": {
"categoryAxis": [
{
"position": "Left",
"fontFamily": "Georgia"
}
],
"labels": [
{
"labelPrecision": 5
}
]
}
}
}
}
3) The "Properties within each card" - these are the options that you can set within each "card" (where card = formatting area as opposed to the object type card.)
correct, but, these are not all inclusive, there are more properties that are not listed, I found a couple via trial and error, hence the Report Theme Tool. Sorry, I was hoping to have all the properties programmed in for each visual, but there are so many, I have simply run out of time to fully develop the tool.. Still working on all properties for all visuals for the JSON creation.
- ctappan8 years agoAdvocate III
Hi all, this chat has been helpful.
I worked on a theme generator tool last night that is a work in process but may have usefulness to some of you even before it's proven (download from https://hopeinternational.box.com/s/l31nrq14yewzpovpib23nz8igo323p5o).
It's Excel-based (not as cool as the online generator in the works from Mike), but I think is a good start. I can't confirm the visual, card, and property names and settings, but they were pulled from the documentation on the release notes sites referenced before. I also can't confirm whether or not setting properties in the file will actually change those properties in Power BI per yesterday's testing. But it takes input and turns it into JSON you can copy, paste, and import. I think it's reasonably intuitive and there are some cell comments for a bit more guidance.
Let me know if anyone tries it out and how it works/what could be improved.
Thanks,
Chris
- MWinter2258 years agoAdvocate IV
Mike_Carlo Any insight into my original question? I still can't mark this post as solved quite yet. Thank you for your posts so far.