Demystifying Power BI — Report Types and File Formats
A summary of report types & file formats in the Power BI ecosystem
Power BI offers multiple report types to suit various reporting needs. Of course, everyone knows about the Power BI reports, but what about the other report types? And a handful of other file types in Power BI that can make your life easier to standardize your reporting needs.
This article will discuss the Power BI-specific report types and file formats. We will also look at how support for report types and file size varies with the hosting back-end platform.
This article is a part of the multipart series on the Power BI ecosystem and continues the concepts introduced in the introduction article and refers heavily to the Power BI back-end platforms. We recommend reading through both articles for a complete understanding.
Report Types
Every report resides in a workspace, and the kind of report supported depends on the workspace’s back-end platform. Furthermore, each back-end platform limits the report file size and features supported. Finally, in some cases, they have additional dependencies, such as software or licensing requirements, that may restrict the use of a specific report format.
The power BI platform can host three types of reports.
Power BI Reports (.pbix): Power BI reports are the primary report format in Power BI and are stored as a zipped and compressed file. A typical Power BI report file stored locally (anywhere other than the Power BI service) can contain the data model metadata, data, connection details, calculations, layout, and visualizations. Power BI reports are highly interactive and offer the richest data visualization and storytelling options.
It’s important to mention that when a Power BI report is published to the Power BI service, data and reports are published as two separate objects. So, if your report has imported data, you’ll see a new dataset with the same name as the report in your workspace. Downloading the report from the Power BI service will merge the data and report again into a single report file.
All back-end platforms can host Power BI reports. However, the file size limit varies by platform and usually applies to the size of the dataset.
Excel Workbooks (.xslx or .xslm): Excel workbooks are typical Excel files that organizations or business users use for routine business analysis. Excel workbooks in Power BI allow customers to continue using Excel for data analysis, reducing the need to migrate to Power BI reports and dependency on the IT department. Excel workbooks support Excel formulas (in addition to DAX), PivotTables for ad hoc data exploration, cube functions, Power View (Excel visualization add-in), and Power BI custom visuals.
There are two methods to bring Excel workbooks to the Power BI service: upload and import. Upload allows users to publish Excel workbooks into Power BI and retain their native format. The Power BI service enables users to open workbooks in native form in Excel Online. In contrast, import is a Power BI service-only feature that converts Excel workbooks into Power BI elements. Import aims to migrate Excel tables or data models into new Power BI datasets or to migrate Power View reports to native Power BI reports.
All back-end platforms can host excel workbooks. However, the origin of the Excel workbook (cloud hosted vs. local) determines whether the workbook will be read-only or can accept changes. For an Excel workbook to be editable and refreshable, the workbook must originate from OneDrive for Business, OneDrive Personal, or SharePoint Online, which carry additional licensing requirements.
Paginated Reports (.rdl): Paginated reports are highly formatted, pixel-perfect, and output-optimized reports for printing. Paginated reports are best suited for operational reports or printing forms such as invoices or transcripts. A paginated report focuses on the creation of one individual report. There is a dataset within a .rdl file, but it is scoped to that one report, i.e., the dataset is not a separate object in the Power BI service.
The development of paginated reports is a higher learning curve than Power BI reports. However, the benefit is the fine-grained control over layout and placement and improved printing and exporting capabilities. In addition, they display all the data in a table, even if the table spans multiple pages. To point it out clearly, not all the Power BI report features are available with paginated reports, such as interactivity, pinning report tiles to dashboards, comments, etc.
Paginated reports are based on Microsoft’s Report Definition Language (RDL) report technology in SQL Server Reporting Services. Support for paginated reports in Power BI reduces the need for a separate SQL Server environment. All back-end platforms can host paginated reports, except for Free and Power BI Pro.
The following table summarizes the limitations imposed on the reports by the back-end platform.
Refer to the latest file size limits on Microsoft Docs.
Other Supporting File Formats
A handful of other files make the lives of report authors easier by providing means to standardize and customize the development process and reports in an organization.
Power BI Templates (.pbit): Templates in Power BI Desktop help developers jump-start their work and standardize report creation across the teams. A .pbit file contains almost everything from the source report file except the data. Power BI templates allow report creators to create a new file with the following:
- A corporate color scheme in place
- Corporate branding has already been applied to pages
- Connections to commonly used data sources already created
- Parameterized queries connected to a data source
- Commonly used DAX measures already created in the dataset
- Sample visuals that employ data visualization and accessibility best practices
Template files are also an excellent sharing and storing medium as they do not store any data, thus preventing data leakage and unauthorized access.
Power BI Data Source Files (.pbids): Power BI data source file streamlines the Get Data experience for new or beginner report creators. A .pbids file contains the data source connection information except for the user credentials. Data source files can be stored in a shared location and are editable with a text or JSON editor. Currently, a .pbids file can contain only one data source connection information per file. Azure Purviews allows users to open cataloged assets (data sources) in the Power BI Desktop with the help of a .pbids file.
Power BI Custom Visuals (.pbiviz): Power BI visuals are packages that include code for rendering the data served to them. A .pbiviz file is a packaged custom visual that can be imported into either the Power BI service or a Power BI Desktop report. In addition, custom visual files can be stored locally or shared with other Power BI users.
Power BI Theme Files (.json): Power BI themes files are custom report themes stored as JSON. Using a JSON file, developers can create a report theme file that standardizes charts and reports, making consistency a key feature in your organization’s reports. A report themes file only specifies what we want to change. Whatever is not specified in the .json file reverts to the Power BI Desktop default settings.
That’s all about reports and file formats in Power BI.
Conclusion
Power BI is not limited to a single report type but provides multiple formats to suit various reporting needs. In addition, Power BI offers supporting file types to standardize and streamline report development and requirements of an organization.
This article discussed the report types and file formats available in the Power BI ecosystem. In addition, we briefly discussed how supporting file formats help bring consistency and branding to an organization’s reporting solution.
Next in series
This article was a part of the article about report design and data modeling tools in Power BI. We recommend reading through the following article to complete the knowledge.
In the next article, we discuss the client applications and sharing options for the end-users and APIs, interfaces, and embedding options available to developers in Power BI.
In another article, we talked about the data management capabilities of Power BI. We will discuss the types of data models, storage modes, connectivity modes, data cleansing, and refresh options in Power BI.
