Power BI Project file (*.pbip) to Power BI File (*.pbix)

[Sidhant]

Hi everyone,
So I have agentic setup in place wherein through a given MetaData file (of a source: like Tableau) which has the requitred set of information I generate a Power BI Project file (*.pbip). And to add this we can even publish a respective report to a workspace (all the pre-setup part like secret id, adding the app in security group was been done beforehand). The only minor bottleneck here that I have is we cannot publish the Power BI Project file (*.pbip) to a given workspace instead we need to save it as Power BI File (*.pbix) which is done through the Power BI Desktop. 
The bottle neck is its not about 1/2 reports, I have agentic setup in place wherein I will be deploying my code base in an client environment so therein they will be simply interacting with the frontend part wherein they just click on 'Execute' and that respective task starts execution:

The above image will give you some context what I am referring to. So I just wanted to understand are there are any approaches through which we can automate this process i.e. conversion of a Power BI Project file to a Power BI File. As I tried two approaches:
i) Simply changing the extension: From pbip to pbix : This did not work as when I open the report it shows a file corrupted message

ii) Using Power Automate Desktop flows: Herein I created a desktop flow wherein I captured the UI clicks and saved files in a respective folder (like I have an Extraction folder wherein the respective Power BI Project files are stored, so through the PAD {Power Automate Desktop} flow I used loops to loop through the given folder and save all the pbip files to pbix in a respective folder)
Issue: This was been done locally on my system and in the context of the agentic setup that I just mentioned this won't be feasible solution in that regards.

So if anyone has any suggestions that might be worth trying do let me know. I had posted a similar query on the forum which was in regards  to publishing a Power BI project file to workspace (which is solved: I did find the solution on how to publish that but that was for the Power BI file (pbix) so there I had received a comment stating we can't publish a pbip file to workspace) and I also came across a similar a forum post wherein a user had asked about the same of converting pbix to pbvip and vice versa (2 years back), there was one comment:

Git Integration 
I did not fully understand that part (based on the above documents link which was mentioned).

Related forum post:
Publishing Report to a Workspace automated manner (programmatically) 
Conversion PBIX to PBIP 

Regards,
Sidhant

[nandic]

@Sidhant using this approach (Azure Devops - PBIP files) is more developer focused solution.
Only developers can make changes locally, commit changes to Git (Azure Devops), and then to have sync from Azure Devops to Power BI workspace.

Users who need to have these permission need to have all needed access.
They need to know how to use it (get versions from Azure Devops, update what is needed, commit changes).

Alternative, end users do front-end on their side (change visual, add new page, remove filter...) and then they send you pbix file, you convert it to pbip and then commit changes.

[Sidhant]

Hi @nandic ,
I will like to clarify few things over here:

In my case I am starting with the Power BI project file and most of the details are abstracted (like the code part -> so the end-user is mainly interested in the final output so consider them they won't be having any technical knowledge just layman). So in this case the given approach won't be user friendly and to answer your next point this accelerator (the solution that I have built) it is build that it gives the report base for the user to work with so that later if they need to make any changes or modifications they can do on their own (but they won't be starting from scratch kind of 50%-60% is taken care of through the accelerator)
I want it to be more end-user friendly with minimal setup.

If you need more clarification do let me know.

Regards,
Sidhant.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @Sidhant ,

Thanks for the clarification and for sharing the additional context.

As highlighted earlier by @nandic, the Git connected PBIP workflow is currently the only supported option that avoids PBIX generation, but it remains developer oriented and requires DevOps plus workspace permissions. Based on your setup where the PBIP is generated automatically and the end user only interacts with the front end, that model may not fit your scenario.

At present there is no supported service side conversion from PBIP to PBIX and PBIP cannot be published directly. Any automated flow that starts from PBIP still depends on Power BI Desktop for generating the PBIX, which is the limitation affecting your accelerator design.

There is an existing idea specifically requesting programmatic conversion between PBIP and PBIX that matches your requirement:
Programmatically conversion between PBIP and PBIX ... - Microsoft Fabric Community
You may want to upvote this so it gains more visibility and can be considered by the product team.

Hope this helps. Please reach out for further assistance.

Thank you.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @Sidhant ,
Just wanted to check if the response provided was helpful. If further assistance is needed, please reach out.
Thank you.

[Sidhant]

Hi @v-veshwara-msft ,
Sorry for the late response as you mentioned there is no option as of now for the conversion process apart from the Git connected workflow which @nandic had mentioned earlier. So I will be upvoting the idea that you mentioned, meanwhile I had read somewhere that some node package may help in this, I need to get the details (which my colleague had talked about, need to check)

Regards,
Sidhant.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @Sidhant ,
Just checking in regarding your query. Could you kindly provide an update on whether you were able to locate the Node package or if you were able to try any additional approaches on your side.

Thank you.

[v-veshwara-msft]

Hi @Sidhant ,
Thanks for the update, and appreciate you upvoting the idea. If you find the Node package your colleague mentioned, please share it here so others can review it as well, since there’s no documented library today that performs a full PBIP to PBIX conversion.

[nandic]

@Sidhant , the logic is to use pbip files and to store them (publish them) to Azure Devops branch.
And then you connect your Power BI workspace to Azure Devops branch.

Summary: you keep pbip files, no need to convert them to pbix files, and these files are in sync with Power BI workspace.

Useful links:
Microsoft: Link
Youtube links on this topic: Link

Cheers,
Nemanja

[Sidhant]

Hi @nandic ,
Thanks for the response I will check that out. So I just wanted to understand in my current context the (end-user centric) wherein the user clicks execute and then the respective report has to be published and when they log in the respective workspace they see the respective reports will this be viable option?

Regards,
Sidhant.