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maceyak's avatar
maceyak
Regular Visitor
8 years ago
Solved

Modifying the Layout file that is embedded in a pbix file

I know how to disassemble a pbix file by changing the extension to .zip and then oening it.  If I then change the extension back to .pbix I can then open it in Power BI.  However, I would like to modify the Layout file that is exposed when you disassemble the pbix.  But when I do that and change the extension of the .zip to .pbix, I get a corrupted file message when I try to open in Power BI.  This happens no matter how small and inocuous the change is.  

 

Is there any way to do this without getting the corrupted file message?

Need Help
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    5 years ago

    I was struggling with this issue recently, and my solution is the following:

     

    - Change the extension from ".pbix" to ".zip"

    - Do not unzip the ".zip" file during this process

    - Extract the "Layout" file from the "Report" folder in the ".zip" file

    - Open the "Layout" file with Notepad++. (VERY IMPORTANT)

    - Make your modifications in the Layout file

    - Substitute the old "Layout" file with the new one

    - Delete "SecurityBindings" file in the ".zip" file

    - In the [Contents_type].xml delete the following text: 

    "<Override PartName="/SecurityBindings" ContentType="" />"

    - Change the extension from ".zip to ".pbix"

    - The file will open without breaks

     

    Hope it helps!

33 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    5 years ago

    I was struggling with this issue recently, and my solution is the following:

     

    - Change the extension from ".pbix" to ".zip"

    - Do not unzip the ".zip" file during this process

    - Extract the "Layout" file from the "Report" folder in the ".zip" file

    - Open the "Layout" file with Notepad++. (VERY IMPORTANT)

    - Make your modifications in the Layout file

    - Substitute the old "Layout" file with the new one

    - Delete "SecurityBindings" file in the ".zip" file

    - In the [Contents_type].xml delete the following text: 

    "<Override PartName="/SecurityBindings" ContentType="" />"

    - Change the extension from ".zip to ".pbix"

    - The file will open without breaks

     

    Hope it helps!

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      5 years ago

      Yes, This worked. Because of this so much time is saved. Don't know how to thank you.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      5 years ago

      This worked!  Thanks so much!  It saved me hours of having to rebuild the file

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      4 years ago

      GREAT! Saved my week   \o/

      Thanks Anonymous 

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    7 years ago

    When I remove "<Override PartName="/SecurityBindings" ContentType="" />" in the [Content_Types].xml root file, I can edit the PBIX file and open it without problem.

    • CBourlet's avatar
      CBourlet
      Frequent Visitor
      7 years ago

      Hey,
      I tried your solution, it's working great !
      many thanks !

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        7 years ago

        Hi 

         

        When I try to just remove the "<Override PartName="/SecurityBindings" ContentType="" />" in the [Content_Types].xml root file and try to re construct the pbix by zipping the file, still I am unable to open the file. Please advise.

  • instinct46's avatar
    instinct46
    New Member
    6 years ago

    I found that when I was saving, the WriteAllTextAsync was prepending 2 extra bytes.. using FlexHex I could see that the original did not have that.

     

     

    To fix this I just saved with WriteAllTextAsync with Encoding.Unicode. Re-opened as bytes and saved skipping the first 2 bytes in question.

     

    var serializedFile = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_layoutModel);
await System.IO.File.WriteAllTextAsync(Filepath, serializedFile, Encoding.Unicode);

var asBytes = await System.IO.File.ReadAllBytesAsync(Filepath);
await System.IO.File.WriteAllBytesAsync(Filepath, asBytes.Skip(2).ToArray());

     

    Just as an FYI, as others have mentioned I also needed to edit [Content_Type].xml and remove the Override tag with the PartName == "/SecurityBindings". After that powerbi loaded it fine (ignoring the validation checks it did).

     

    • instinct46's avatar
      instinct46
      New Member
      6 years ago

      After a little research I found that it's a marker for byte order of unicode (I'd gussed it was this, but didn't know for sure until now). Anyway, I've update the code pushed here yesterday. (Couldn't find an edit link for my previous post)

       

       

      public async Task Save()
{
    var layoutFile = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_layoutModel);
    await System.IO.File.WriteAllTextAsync(Filepath, layoutFile, Encoding.Unicode);

    IEnumerable<byte> layoutAsBytes = await System.IO.File.ReadAllBytesAsync(Filepath);
    layoutAsBytes = StripUnicodeByteOrder(layoutAsBytes);
    await System.IO.File.WriteAllBytesAsync(Filepath, layoutAsBytes.ToArray());
}

public static IEnumerable<Byte> StripUnicodeByteOrder(IEnumerable<byte> bytes)
{
    if (bytes.ElementAt(0) == 0xFF && bytes.ElementAt(1) == 0xFE)
        bytes = bytes.Skip(2);

    return bytes;
}

       

       

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        6 years ago

        Hi instinct46 , 

         

        Could you explain where and how one should exactly run this code? In my case, I don't want to change the lay-out file but I want to change the datamodelschema to programmatically add measures. 

         

        Thanks in advance.

    • maceyak's avatar
      maceyak
      Regular Visitor
      8 years ago

      Thanks, Lydia.  But I am not asking about changing the visual layout of a page.  I am asking about changing a particular file named "Layout" that is exposed when you deconsturuct a PBIX file.  This file contains the formatting information for the page and the text that the designer has entered into it.  To get to this file, you do the following to a PBIX file:

       

      1. Changed the extension from ".pbix' to ".zip".

      2.  Open the zip file.  You will see several folders.  Go into the Report folder, and you will see the Layout file.

       

      --Joey

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        8 years ago

        maceyak,

        What property do you change in the Layout file? There is no official articles stating that what we can do or can't do in the Layout file.

        Regards,
        Lydia

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    8 years ago

    Hi, have you found a solution for this yet?

  • vinayap's avatar
    vinayap
    New Member
    7 years ago

    Did you find solution for this issue? I too am facing the same issue while making changes to a visual through layout file.

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      7 years ago

      I have the same issue. I can open and modify the Layout file, but this corrupts the pbix file. My issue is that I used to use an arcgis esri map, but am not able to delete this custom visual via PBI Desktop (it doesn't show up in the delete visuals list). I was trying to change 

      \"singleVisual\":{\"visualType\":\"esriVisual\",\"objects\":{}

      to

      \"singleVisual\":{\"visualType\":\"map\",\"objects\":{}

      If anybody has any idea how to delete the esri visual/component, I would be grateful.

      EDIT:  I have also disabled the "use esri maps" from the options, but still the esri map icon is visible in the visuals list. Is this normal? I don't want app viewers to get the  esri map notification when they open the app for the first time. 

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    7 years ago

    I second this issue. Has anybody already opened an "idea" for this topic. Changing these parameters programmatically would be a huge enterprise BI update! Or it is quite a bummer that we can see all these parameters but not able to change it.

     

    Anonymous in this case opening Power BI Desktop is definitely not a satisfying answer.

    But which changes can we do so far, and everyone else which changes have you done in the zip? 

    E.g. changing the registeredresources is possible.

  • Ian_B's avatar
    Ian_B
    Regular Visitor
    7 years ago

    I can change the Layout file by doing the following:

     

    Change .pbix to .zip

    Extract file

    Amend and save extracted Layout file

    Copy amended Layout file into original zipped folder *

    Rename .zip to .pbix

     

    *This is required. Re-zipping the extracted file will cause corruption

  • CBourlet's avatar
    CBourlet
    Frequent Visitor
    7 years ago

    Same issue here, but even without rezipping the file, it causes corruption :(,
    hope it will be possible to deal with the Layout directly one day.