Report Template for Planner

[David_G-R]

He Everyone,

I have successfully borrowed the template for reporting on Project for the Web (P4W) ( Project Power BI Templates ) and adapted it for my use.  I have also followed a tutorial to get Planner tasks into a json file for use in the same Power BI report.

But now with the retirement of P4W, I am seeing the planner tasks appear in the P4W tables and I no longer fully understand where the data is coming from.  For example, my planner tasks now have an acssociated effort (in hours) when basic planner tasks do not have the fields for effort.

I could continue and assume everything is ok.......

But really I wondered if anyone was aware of a new template to handle planner tasks and how it differentiates between basic and premium plans.

Or, some guidance on how to adapt the exisitng templates to work with planner.

Thanks in advance,

David.

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Self-taught amateur with previous database experience (Access / VBA) and basic DAX knowledge.

[David_G-R]

Ok, I think this is my last related Question.

URLs are created in PBI using a formula, but it is based on the Project links, which obviously no longer work.  The Project URL is created using:

"project.microsoft.com/?org= "& Text.Middle(#"Dataverse URL",8)&"#/tasktimeline?projectId="&[msdyn_projectid]

The Board URL is created using:

"project.microsoft.com/?org= "& Text.Middle(#"Dataverse URL",8)&"#/taskboard?projectId="&[msdyn_projectid]

I can build the URLs for planner using the same method but I am struggling to identify the variable elements of the links.

Premium:

planner.cloud.microsoft/webui/premiumplan/LONGID1/org/LONGID2/view/grid?tid=LONGID3

Basic:

planner.cloud.microsoft/webui/plan/LONGID4/view/grid?tid=LONGID3

I know that LONGID1 is the Project ID, and that LONGID3 must be the organisation or environment (because it is the same for all my plans), but I have no idea what LONGID2 or LONGID4 are, or where to find.

Your help is much appreciated.

[bkistner]

Did you ever figure out the Planner links? Trying to find a way to update the links in the P4W PBI template to go to the new Planner link, but have been unsuccessful so far. 

[David_G-R]

Yes I did, I amended the custom column to the following:

= Table.AddColumn(#"Previous step name", "Project URL", each "https://planner.cloud.microsoft/webui/premiumplan/"& [msdyn_projectid] &"/org/LONGID2/view/grid?tid=LONGID3")

Where LONGID2 is the Organisational number, I'm not sure what LONGID3 is but it is constistantly the same in my plans, you can extract both of these IDs from the URL for any of your premium plans. the plan ID which is variable, is captured by the [msdyn_projectid] field.

I hope that helps you.

[David_G-R]

I can see the url is different - planner.cloud.microsoft/webui/plan/ or planner.cloud.microsoft/webui/premiumplan/.  But is there a field in one of the tables in the background that has a premium or basic flag?  Or a specific field that is consistenly different between the 2, I am trying to find a way to identify one or the other in filters. 

[v-sshirivolu · Accepted solution]

Hi @David_G-R ,

Planner does not offer a direct indicator for premium or basic plans. However, you can differentiate between them by examining the schema: premium plans include fields such as Effort or are represented as projectTask in Graph/Dataverse, whereas basic plans do not have these features.
In Power BI, you can add a calculated column :
PlanType = IF(ISBLANK([Effort]), "Basic", "Premium")

[David_G-R]

Thank you for your quick reply. 

I thought that might be the case.  The main issue I have is there are many tables that made up the P4W app, so it will take a while to understand which fields are included in the basic plans.  I'm just confused why there is a value in a basic task for effort, how is it calculated?  There are several assiginees but the same effort across everyone......and what calendar is in use?

A little bit more research required.

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @David_G-R ,

The Effort field you’re seeing is not generated by Planner itself, as Planner does not have an effort field. Instead, when Planner tasks are processed through Dataverse/Graph, they are mapped to the legacy Project for the Web schema, which always includes an Effort field.

For basic Planner plans, this Effort value serves only as a placeholder - it is duplicated for all assignees and does not represent actual workload.

The system assumes the default Project calendar (Mon–Fri, 8h/day), even though Planner does not utilize calendars.

[rohit1991]

Hi @David_G-R 

There isn’t an official out-of-the-box Power BI template for Planner since P4W was retired. Planner tasks now surface directly through Dataverse or the Microsoft Graph API, which is why fields like effort and other premium fields may behave differently depending on the plan type. To build a reliable report, you can connect to Planner data using Graph API or Dataverse, reshape the data in Power Query, and then map the fields you need into your model.

Some extra tips:

• Use Dataverse if your tenant already syncs Planner data there-it’s simpler to connect.

• With Graph API, you can query tasks, assignments, and buckets, then load the JSON response into Power BI.

• Normalize fields across plan types with calculated columns or measures so your visuals stay consistent.

• Keep your report flexible by designing it around the common Planner fields (task name, status, dates, owner) and adding premium fields as optional.

• For a quick start, you can also export Planner data to Excel via Graph and connect that file into Power BI.

This way you can continue using your report template, but with full control over Planner data and less risk of missing fields.

[David_G-R]

*Update*

I have just learned that you can convert a Basic plan to Premium.  You can also convert it back again.  But when you convert it back it leaves a Premium copy behind.  What appears to be happening is someone converted a large basic plan and lots of hours were generated by the system for tasks.  Basic plans are not appearing in my premium project lists after all.  I have deleted the premium copy and all is back to how it was.