PBIP - can I have one folder per project?

[Kurren]

In the blog post it says i can have "Multiple Reports and Datasets at same folder". Can I instead have one folder per report + dataset? 

Eg if I have a Sales report + dataset and a HR report + dataset, I want these inside 2 folders "Sales" and "HR". I tried this but I am unable to update my workspace from git using the git integration.

The reason I want this is to be able to use git submodules. 

[arpost]

@Kurren, I created this idea (link) to address the need for subfolder support as I too want this. Feel free to upvote and share with others.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks Kurren for the feeback.
To ensure I understand your goal, you want to store the items in Git using a folder structure like:

• Sales
  • Sales.Report
  • Sales.Dataset
• HR
  • HR.Report
  • HR.Dataset

And when you connect the workspace into Git, Fabric simply scans the .pbir and .pbidataset recursively and creates the HR and Sales report in the workspace side by side. You are not asking to create folders in the service workspace, correct?

Onething that is possible though, is to use the "Git folder" configuration and target the "Sales" or "HR" folder and it will only deploy the items within the folder. 

[Kurren]

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Yes I want to have a git folder structure like this:

• Sales
  • Sales.pbip
  • Sales.Report
  • Sales.Dataset
• HR
  • HR.pbip
  • HR.Report
  • HR.Dataset

I understand that power bi workspaces don't support folders, that's not what I am asking. I am asking for the git integration to scan all subfolders of the repository for the relevant dashboard files instead of just the first level of the git repository. To clarify, I am fine if after scanning, all the dashboards end up in the flat power bi workspace. 

This will allow me to keep the dashboards in separate repositories using git submodules but then include them all into one workspace.

[RuiRomanoMS]

Thanks for the feedback.
Its not possible at the moment, but its something we are considering to improve.
Until we support folders in workspace, the problem is not reading the folders but writing back from workspace to git.
I'm curious to understand your thoughts on this:
- If we let you connect and recursively read all folders, what should happen when you create a new report in the service? To which folder it should go?

[arpost]

Folders would be a wonderful new feature in PBI workspaces; creating new reports could then be pointed to top-level (as someone else said) or a specific folder. I've posted elsewhere about the need for organization in general in PBI Workspaces especially now that Fabric artifacts have come on the scene. *shameless plug* 😏

[Kurren]

To be honest writing back to git from the workspace is not usually how developers do things in a CI environment. We would work from power bi desktop, commit the dashboard to a git repo, push to azure devops and have the build pipeline automatically deploy to the workspace. 

Ideally you should have a workspace to either be read-only from the git repo (to support what most developers would do with azure devops and continuous integration) or read-write as it is now.

As to your question: if a new report is created directly in the workspace it could just be added to the top level of the repository as it is now.

[TomMartens · Accepted solution]

Hey @Kurren ,

I'm pretty sure that this is not possible at the current moment, because a workspace does not know the concept of folders.

Regards,

Tom

[Kurren]

Hi @TomMartens . To clarify, I am not asking for a power bi workspace to contain folders, please see my comment above.

[Kurren]

Thanks. That's a shame, the workspace could just scan all folders and subfolders for all pbip/pbir files