pypbireport 0.1

Package to manipulate Power BI reports

Coding Power BI Report Layout with Python

• Coding Power BI Report Layout with Python
  • Installation and use
  • Why?
  • Features
  • Use case
  • Licensing and Author

Installation and use

To use this module in Python, just install it with pip in the command line.

pip install pypbireport

Inside a jupyter notebook or python script, import the module. ppr is just a recommendation.

import pypbireport as ppr

Instantiate a PBIReport object and follow examples in use case.

report = ppr.PBIReport(pbix_path)

Why?

Power BI report developing can become boring sometime. Get visuals in right place, modify pages and settings a lot of bookmarks (buttons) behavior in report. Puffs 😣

I was lazy about doing this in the Power BI user interface. 🦥

I wonder one day having some way to coding PBI reports layout, so that I run a script and voilà, everything in its place.

So, here we are. This module for python does some of this work. Import it from your script, point out an existing PBIX file and check what you can do and some examples.

Features

Version 0.1

1. Read PBI report json as a python dictionary
2. Resume pages, visuals and bookmarks in report
3. Create groups of bookmarks with desired configurations
4. Create bookmarks navigators for groups of bookmarks
5. Insert groups of bookmarks and its navigator in pages
6. Duplicate a page
7. Save changes as a new report

Use case

0. The first thing to do is to instantiate a PBIReport object with desired PBIX file path

pbix_file_path = r'path\to\your\report.pbix'

report = ppr.PBIReport(pbix_path=pbix_path)

After PBIReport object defined features can be used:

1. Read PBI report json as a python dictionary
   After reading the PBIX file, the layout_pbi_dict stores all Power BI layout settings as a python dictionary. Besides exploring the keys, all modification done in this dict could be consolidate as a new report.

>>> print(report.layout_pbi_dict.keys())
dict_keys(['id', 'resourcePackages', 'sections', 'config', 'layoutOptimization'])

>>> for key in report.layout_pbi_dict.keys():
        print(type(report.layout_pbi_dict.get(key)))
<class 'int'>
<class 'list'>
<class 'list'>
<class 'str'>
<class 'int'>

2. Resume pages, visuals and bookmarks in report
   There are three methods to capture information on PBI report: resume_report_pages(), resume_report_visuals(), and resume_report_bookmarks(). I would say that resume_report_visuals is the most important. This returns a pandas dataframe that could be filtered.

>>> df_visuals = report.resume_report_visuals('Cover')
>>> print(tabulate(df_visuals))
+------------+----------------------+---------+---------------+----------------------+-------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+
| pagename   | visualid             | type    | displaymode   | position             | size                          | title  | subtitle   | fields   | groupname   | groupid   | pageid        |
|------------+----------------------+---------+---------------+----------------------+-------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------|
| Cover      | ba11b203b4ce6a5c7490 | textbox | show          | {'x': 110, 'y': 56}  | {'width': 318, 'height': 56}  |        |            | {}       |             |           | ReportSection |
| Cover      | dfb0ef76dbaad8215b35 | shape   | show          | {'x': 110, 'y': 97}  | {'width': 357, 'height': 14}  |        |            | {}       |             |           | ReportSection |
| Cover      | 86673bea6b52652fd0e8 | image   | show          | {'x': 549, 'y': 126} | {'width': 180, 'height': 246} |        |            | {}       |             |           | ReportSection |
+------------+----------------------+---------+---------------+----------------------+-------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+
>>> df_filtered = df_visuals[df_visuals.type == 'shape']
>>> print(tabulate(df_filtered))
+------------+----------------------+--------+---------------+---------------------+------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+
| pagename   | visualid             | type   | displaymode   | position            | size                         | tile   | subtitle   | fields   | groupname   | groupid   | pageid        |
|------------+----------------------+--------+---------------+---------------------+------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------|
| Cover      | dfb0ef76dbaad8215b35 | shape  | show          | {'x': 110, 'y': 97} | {'width': 357, 'height': 14} |        |            | {}       |             |           | ReportSection |
+------------+----------------------+--------+---------------+---------------------+------------------------------+--------+------------+----------+-------------+-----------+---------------+

3. Create groups of bookmarks with desired configurations
   Most part of the time, the buttons in Power BI report are created in pairs or groups of them. The function create_group_of_bookmarks() allows to create bookmarks in report just passing a dict of setting. For this, we should use visualid information delivered by resume_report_visuals(). After creation, it must be using insertion methods to really pass this to report layout dict.

>>> button_group = {
...     'Button A':{
...         ppr.bookmarks.SHOW:['86673bea6b52652fd0e8'],
...         ppr.bookmarks.HIDE:['ba11b203b4ce6a5c7490']
...     },
...     'Button B':{
...         ppr.bookmarks.HIDE:['ba11b203b4ce6a5c7490'],
...         ppr.bookmarks.SHOW:['86673bea6b52652fd0e8']
...     }
... }
>>> bookgroup = report.create_group_of_bookmarks('Buttons A and B', book_group_config_dict=button_group)
>>> print(bookgroup)
('Bookmark4644f2b71269f48b63b6', {'displayName': 'Buttons A and B', 'name': 'Bookmark4644f2b71269f48b63b6', 'children':... )

5. Insert groups of bookmarks and its navigator in pages
   After bookmarks or bookmarks navigator are created, it should be put in Power BI layout dict.

>>> print(len(report.resume_report_bookmarks())) # bookmarks before
1 
>>> bookgroup = report.create_group_of_bookmarks('Buttons A and B', book_group_config_dict=button_group)
>>> report.insert_bookmark_in_page(ppr_bookmark=bookgroup)
>>> print(len(report.resume_report_bookmarks())) # bookmarks after
2

6. Save changes as a new report
   Is work done? Save it as a new report. Use the method save_report() to create and visualize your changes in a new file.

>>> report.save_report()
'Sample Report ppr_out.pbix created in folder'

Explores more example in example folder.

Licensing and Author

Be free to use this module in your Power BI development and don't hesitate to contact me.

Ismael Miranda
[e-mail]