Load PBIX without data and without PBIT

[Anonymous]

Hello all, 

I'm currently working on a way to automate deployment, versioning and management of reports with PowerShell (and Octopus under the hood). 

To achieve that, I needed to be able to version our Power BI Reports on Azure DevOps and package them for octopus to deploy on a dedicated environment. 

Therefore we were trying to find a way to store Power BI Reports efficiently in Azure DevOps. 

First I've thought about the pbit. (template) files that are perfect for this. 

BUT they cannot be deployed afterwards as they have to be opened and re-save as pbix to be uploaded in our ReportServer (On premise not Cloud)

That's why I've found an other solution : getting the pbiX without data. 

I know it is possible because it is what Power BI does under the hood when saving temporarily the reports. 
But I do not know how to do it on purpose. (even with an external tool Tabular Editor / Dax Studio etc..)

My current process if the following : 
1. Work on my pbix.

2. Get the temp save (100 x smaller without data) from AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop SSRS\AutoRecovery

3. Store the temp save pbix (temp save to TFS)

4. Deploy the pbix  with PowerShell with Reporting Service Tool

5. Path DataSource if needed with API

5. Refresh on Power BI with API 
6. Add RLS with API

Some screenshots to help you understand the file I want to get 

1. The three Files

Thank you all 

Romain

[lbendlin]

Depending on your data source you could use M query parameters that help you to restrict the returned data if needed, and give you full data once deployed.

Or use your described process - that seems to be working, non?

[Anonymous]

I'm working with Power BI Report Server. I do not think it is possible to change M Parameter programatically isn't it ? 

The process I've described indeed works but it is painful. If you have just a tiny update to perform you still have to wait to the autosave to be done.. and it is relying on something (AutoSave) that I cannot fully control.

[v-lionel-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

Good idea, but I have never done this before. Can you elaborate on the problem you encountered?

Best regards,
Lionel Chen

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