Share your thoughts on Power BI Project files (PBIP) and Fabric Git Integration

[RuiRomanoMS]

Hit Reply to tell us about your experience with Power BI Project files (PBIP) and Fabric Git Integration for Power BI Semantic Models and Reports so we can continue to improve.

For example:

• What changes would you like to see?
• What are your main challenges/issues?
• Any suggestions for additional settings or capabilities?

Thanks,

-Power BI team

[mike_honey]

The way I imagine it, there wouldnt be much duplication.  After the "file" is opened, the PBIP files do not need to be read or written if a PBIX file is being updated. I would rather have the reverse of what you proposed - an Export as PBIP option that will update the PBIP files from the PBIX.  There could also be a prompt for this when closing the "file".

This would surely be a simpler and less error-prone process than the current requirement to co-ordinate live updates to multiple PBIP JSON files while the user works.  That code was already written and tested a decade ago - seems very solid.  Instead the PBIP code can concentrate on the bulk sync/update task. That only needs to run on open and close for a typical session.

[mike_honey]

I think a minor change to the UI and the way the files are organised would ease the pressure on this change and help it get finalised and out to GA quicker:

- add the PBIP format select to the CURRENT FILE section of the options, so we can select file-by-file whether to use PBIP and in what format (PBIR and TMDL options)

- when a PBIP format is selected, still create a PBIX file. The PBIP content would go in a subfolder.

- when the user opens a PBIX with a subfolder of PBIP content, the UI should check for differences and present the user with a list, to approve or reject.

With those changes in place, the PBIX file can be thought of as the "compiled" version of the solution, and can always be trusted as being up-to-date. It is the only file that needs to be shared, published or read by third-party tools, which simplifies all of those scenarios.

For the vast majority of Power BI Desktop users, PBIP can be a format that they only need to worry about when they have a specific need. Pro-Developer types can have PBIP on all the time, run CI/CD, Git integration etc to their hearts content.  But the reality is the vast majority of current Power BI Desktop users will never use Git or similar, and have no interest in coding the json content.

The PBIP format can then be free to evolve, without the pressure of being the main storage format.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks for your feedback and ideas. Please also create an idea in Fabric Ideas - Microsoft Fabric Community

Regarding using PBIX and PBIP simultaneously, I understand the request, but I’m concerned that it might create more issues than benefits due to duplication. When working in PBIP, you always have the option to save as PBIX. While this does alter the save workflow, what if we provided an "Export as PBIX" option from PBIP? Would that help?

[Ferfren]

Hello, we are a development team. Our workflow is as follows: we use the new .pbip project format in Git, with Azure DevOps, synchronized in a workspace called "Development." Then we use Deployment Pipelines to deploy to the test workspace and later to the production workspace.

We are encountering an issue where using then new format .pbip whit the Deployment pipelines, results in an error. This error does not provide any details; it only includes the GUIDs of the operation:

• Operation IDa95548bf-35a9-4de8-829f-7ac8c4ac6317
• Correlation IDacec632a-8aff-116d-6b7a-e0bc846eff1b
• Request IDba95b513-b606-4e8c-78a4-b9112c05e62d
• Time16/1/2025, 7:50:19
• Service version13.0.24852.33
• Client version2412.1.22075-train
• Cluster URIhttps://wabi-south-central-us-redirect.analysis.windows.net/

[Ferfren]

Thanks! 

[RuiRomanoMS]

We are working to provide more details in situations like these. 
In the meantime, please open a support ticket they can help provide more details into what is going on.

[mike_honey]

Tried the PBIR format but ran into the limitations about not being able to "Save As" back to PBIX or true PBIP format. This made the whole thing too much of a leap-of-faith for me - a one-way journey to a preview format.

For now went back to the PBIP format and was able to get what I needed done (copying pages) within the monster report.json file.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Are you referring to the "Save as Copy" in service limitation? If not, which limitation are you referring to? You should be able to convert between PBIP and PBIX with PBIR format.

[mike_honey]

WRT https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-report#pbir-considerations-an...

• Once a report is converted from PBIR-Legacy to PBIR, it isn't possible to roll it back.

• Converting a PBIP file to a PBIX file using the "Save As" feature embeds the PBIR report within the PBIX file, carrying over all PBIR limitations to the PBIX.

[Meagan]

I'm getting an error when saving my PBIR format report after switching themes. The report started with a base theme, then I modified a couple of properties. That was all fine. Then I changed the theme by uploading a file from my local machine. The theme itself works fine. If I go to Customize Theme, I can see the updated theme is applied. But when I go to save the file, I get the error: 
Unable to save document
An error occurred while trying to save '<filepath>\Filename.pbip': Access to the path '<filepath>\<reportName>.Report\StaticResources\RegisteredResources' is denied. 

(The filepath and reportName values are filled in with actual values, I just replaced them with a placeholder in order to share this info.). 
I tried this in two versions: 2.137.952.0 64-bit (October 2024) and 2.138.828.0 64-bit (November 2024). I get the same error in both versions. 

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks Meagan, can you share a step by step repro into this? Following your instructions above I'm not able to repro and I should be missing some step.
Btw, you are not saving the PBIP into OneDrive location right?

[Meagan]

Ah, I was saving to my desktop, but it was going through OneDrive instead of directly to the location. I moved it to my Downloads folder and am no longer having the issue. Thanks for pointing that out!

[RuiRomanoMS]

Yes, Onedrive does lock the files when syncing. I'll add a note to PBIP docs that saving PBIP to OneDrive can have these issues.

[ManuGP]

Argh! I had been having this issue as well: Everytime I deleted a visual or some other element and tried to save I got the "Access top path ... is denied" error and I had to manually delete the folder and then try saving again. I was happy to realize that my git repository was in a OneDrive location. 

So I moved my git repository to a regular folder in the C: drive and finally open the .pbip report again to make a change... but I still get the "Access to the path is denied" error. Any other thing I should check?

[gtdoug]

My whole team is having this same issue now.  We moved to the C drive, but continue to have this problem of access to path is denied.  This is a complete deal-breaker for the PBIR format.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks for reporting. I dont think this is related to PBIR but a bug that is making Desktop to lock the PBIP file. Can you please confirm that the error message only refereed to the pbip file?

Can you get me a consistent repro or does it happen randomly?

[ManuGP]

In my case the issue went away after a few days (maybe 2 or 3). It sort of stuck after the folder change (from OneDrive to C: drive) but at some point stopped happening and now I haven't seen the error for a long time. A colleague had the exact same thing happening. So I hope it solves for you too some days from now.

[UNIheve]

Maybe try to install Microsoft PowerToys (a lot of cool, free tools) and use File Locksmith to see what is locking it. When File Locksmith is toggled on, just Rclick file or folder and 'Unlock with File Locksmith'

[Willow0136]

File Locksmith doesn't return anything for me.
The visual folder is empty, and I can delete it manually, which then resolves the issue (unless there are multiple of those).

I've observed that the issue always occurs on empty visual folders - upon saving, PBID creates those and, presumably, attempts to writes data, but fails to do so.

Pausing or even closing OneDrive doesn't resolve the issue for me, but either removing those manually or creating a new save does, at least until the issue happens again, which can very well be a minute later upon the next save attempt.

I can imagine it has to do with OneDrive trying to sync the new folder immediately, thus blocking PBID from whathever it's trying to do at the same moment, but I'm not sure why the issue persists after OneDrive being closed.

[Amm5061]

Hi @RuiRomanoMS, 

I've been watching the git integration release and the updates to make Power BI files to be more collaboration friendly with a lot of eager anticipation. Unfortunately as a govcloud user, we see in the documentation that the git integration features are not supported on sovereign clouds at this time.  Any idea when that feature may make it over to us?

Thanks!