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Edwin5454
Regular Visitor

How to extract report and workspace descriptions using Power BI REST API or other tools?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to extract metadata from Power BI, specifically the descriptions of reports and workspaces. I’ve been using the Power BI REST API (e.g., GetReports, GetWorkspaces), but I couldn’t find any fields related to description in the response payload.

Here’s what I need to know:

  • Is it possible to retrieve the description field of a report or workspace using the REST API?

  • If not available through the API, are there any other ways (like Microsoft Purview, XMLA, Admin APIs, or third-party tools) to get this information?

  • Has anyone found a workaround or method to document report/workspace descriptions at scale?

Any insights or examples would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

@Edwin5454 You cannot get the description of a Power BI report from the service directly via PowerShell or REST as of now as it is not exposed in the Get-PowerBIReport or Get-PowerBIWorkspace responses. Possible workarounds:

  • XMLA access with custom parameters
  • Using a metadata catalog like Microsoft Purview
  • Maintaining a central report registry in SharePoint or SQL


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7 REPLIES 7
v-hashadapu
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Edwin5454 ,

Hope you're doing fine. Can you confirm if the problem is solved or still persists? Sharing your details will help others in the community.

v-hashadapu
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Edwin5454 ,

Hope you're doing okay! May we know if it worked for you, or are you still experiencing difficulties? Let us know — your feedback can really help others in the same situation.

v-hashadapu
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Edwin5454 , hope you are doing great. May we know if your issue is solved or if you are still experiencing difficulties. Please share the details as it will help the community, especially others with similar issues.

v-hashadapu
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Edwin5454 , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

 

The Power BI REST API does not expose the description field for reports or workspaces. This applies across all current endpoints, including admin and tenant-level APIs. There is no supported method to retrieve this metadata from classic Power BI workspaces.

 

In contrast, the Fabric REST API does return the description field, but only for items stored in Microsoft Fabric workspaces. The GET /items endpoint provides this metadata for reports, datasets and other Fabric-native assets.

 

The Scanner API and other metadata APIs do not include report or workspace descriptions. Tools like Microsoft Purview support manual metadata management but cannot extract these fields automatically.

 

At present, the Fabric REST API is the only way to retrieve report and workspace descriptions programmatically and only within Fabric workspaces.

GilbertQ
Super User
Super User

Hi @Edwin5454 

 

I think you can also get this information from the Scanner API.





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Greg_Deckler
Community Champion
Community Champion

@Edwin5454 You cannot get the description of a Power BI report from the service directly via PowerShell or REST as of now as it is not exposed in the Get-PowerBIReport or Get-PowerBIWorkspace responses. Possible workarounds:

  • XMLA access with custom parameters
  • Using a metadata catalog like Microsoft Purview
  • Maintaining a central report registry in SharePoint or SQL


Follow on LinkedIn
@ me in replies or I'll lose your thread!!!
Instead of a Kudo, please vote for this idea
Become an expert!: Enterprise DNA
External Tools: MSHGQM
YouTube Channel!: Microsoft Hates Greg
Latest book!:
DAX For Humans

DAX is easy, CALCULATE makes DAX hard...
ibarrau
Super User
Super User

Hi. Sure you can, but using the Fabric Rest API. When using Fabric rest api you have a "Core" section to run requests to items. When you list the item or get the item you can see the description. Example of the list:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/fabric/core/items/list-items?tabs=HTTP

As you can see in the response you can see the "description".

You could use simplepbi (python library for this) like this:

# Import library
from simplepbi import token
from simplepbi.fabric import core

# Set variables
TENANT_ID = "xxxxxxx"
power_bi_client_id = 'xxxxxx' 
power_bi_secret = 'xxxxxxx'
workspace_id = 'xxxxxxx'

# Create category objects
t = token.Token(TENANT_ID, power_bi_client_id, None, None, power_bi_secret, use_service_principal=True)
it = core.Items(t.token)

# Run request to get reports
reports_with_description = it.list_items(workspace_id, type="Report")

If this is the first time with the API, check this out: https://blog.ladataweb.com.ar/post/740398550344728576/seteo-powerbi-rest-api-por-primera-vez

I hope that helps,


If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Happy to help!

LaDataWeb Blog

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