How to review a Pull request before accepting it and merging it into a main Git Power BI

[BI-Nomad]

Hi All,

i have a question for the all the Git Azure Devops aficionados. How can i review a Power BI report on azure Devops before i accept a pull request? Let me explain the Situation below:

We have two colleagues A and B. A goes and creates a Report. Lets call it Test.pbix. He saves this Test Report as a .pbip file and this splits the report into what it requires for Git version control. A goes and creates a Repository in Visual Studio Code and commits this Report to a Remote Azure Devops Git instance. So all the Jazz with the pbip is in Azure Devops Git repository. Lets imagine after sometime Colleague B wants to make a change to the Test Report. He creates a branch and adds some new visuals to the Reports and creates a Pull Request and assigns it to Colleague A. Colleague A is now tasked with approving this Pull request and merging the Branch into the main. What i want to know is how in the hell can colleague A check which changes were made to the Report? As he can only look at the Report Json which doesnt say a lot about what the actual changes were. Is there a way i can actually open the pbir or pbip or something to see what the changes are before A confirms the merge? This maybe trivial for some and clear for others but i cant seem to get my head around it and am hoping for some nice answers.

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi, @BI-Nomad 

The most straightforward way to do this is to have colleague A open the original and modified files in Power BI Desktop. This way, they can visually compare reports side-by-side.

Publish two versions of the report (the original version and the modified version) to a separate workspace or to a Power BI service with different names. This allows for online review and comparison of reports. Sharing a report with colleague A for review before merging a pull request can streamline the approval process. For more information about publishing reports, visit Publish from Power BI Desktop:

Incremental refresh for semantic models and real-time data in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

While Azure DevOps doesn't natively support visualization or file changes, a structured review process can be employed. After colleague B submits a pull request, they can also attach a short document or screenshot highlighting the key changes made to the report.
Consider automating PDFs or screenshots in Power BI reports in your CI/CD pipeline for Azure DevOps. These items can be automatically attached to a pull request, providing a visual summary of the changes.

For more insights into using Power BI projects in general, you may find the following documents helpful:

Azure DevOps integration with Power BI Desktop projects - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

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Best Regards

Yongkang Hua

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