Include another custom visual/ Visual composition

[simon2k6]

I am investigating how I may create a custom visual which composes others together in a structured way. For example: I have a report where I repeat a particular visual pattern "n-times" and it makes sense to componetise that pattern into a special "row" visual.

Sometimes these rows are filterable sets of rows (effectively some kind of augmented table), so it would then make these to make a custom table-like visual which has n of these rows.

Ideally, I am not recreating existing visuals and instead can include/reference them as third-party components. I am trying to use the custom visual framework to automate the composition of other, existing visuals (with some standard paddings etc)

How may I achieve this? If I cannot, is there something on the PowerBI roadmap which may be helpful?

[dm-p]

Hi @simon2k6, and welcome aboard 🙂

I'm having a little trouble visualising the idea you're pitching, but I'm definitely keen to see if I can provide you with some assistance, if I can.

If you're trying to combine multiple types of visual into a single visual container, this might get tricky as a custom visual can only have one single query for the dataView, and you would typically structure this for the purpose of the visual you are trying to build.

Are you looking for something like small multiples? If so, there are a number of custom visuals that offer these capabilities in AppSource. MS have recently announced this for core visuals on their roadmap also, so they are likely to turn up in the near future.

If this isn't what you're after, are you able to perhaps provide a mockup or more detailed use case of what you are trying to achieve, possibly with some sample data?

The recommended reading for getting a question answered quickly is still particularly relevant for custom visual design, as you may need to make some concessions based on how Power BI passes data into visuals, or do a lot of post-processing in your ViewModel once you have the data. There's also only a small handful of people in the community that have custom visual development expertise so if we can get to the crux of the challenge, it's more likely that we can get you moving faster with your idea.

Thanks,

Daniel