PBIR Visual Creator

Create Power BI visuals for PBIR (.Report folder) projects using validated templates.

When to Use This Skill

Use when the user wants to:

• Add a new visual to a Power BI report page
• Create a card, chart, table, matrix, slicer, or map visual
• Generate visual.json files for PBIR projects
• Bind measures or columns to visuals

Available Templates

Search visual-templates/ in this plugin for available templates:

| Template | Visual Type | Use Case | |----------|-------------|----------| | card-single-measure.json | Card | Single KPI display | | line-chart-category-y.json | Line Chart | Trend over category | | line-chart-multi-y.json | Line Chart | Multiple measures on Y | | line-chart-with-series.json | Line Chart | Category + legend series | | bar-chart-category-y.json | Bar Chart | Horizontal bars | | bar-chart-with-series.json | Bar Chart | Grouped/stacked bars | | clustered-column-multi-measure.json | Column Chart | Side-by-side columns | | table-basic.json | Table | Columnar data | | matrix-basic.json | Matrix | Pivot table | | pie-chart.json | Pie Chart | Part-to-whole | | scatter-bubble-chart.json | Scatter/Bubble | X-Y relationship | | azure-map-gradient.json | Azure Map | Filled regions | | azure-map-bubble.json | Azure Map | Bubble markers | | slicer-between-date.json | Slicer | Date range filter | | slicer-dropdown.json | Slicer | Dropdown selection | | slicer-list-multiselect.json | Slicer | Multi-select list | | image-static.json | Image | Static logo/image |

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Ask the user:

1. Visual type - What kind of visual? (card, bar chart, line chart, etc.)
2. Data bindings - Which measures/columns?
3. Position - Where on the page? (or use layout defaults)
4. Title - Visual title text
5. Target page - Which report page folder?

Step 2: Select Template

# Find matching template
Glob: visual-templates/*.json

# Read template
Read: visual-templates/[selected-template].json

Step 3: Substitute Placeholders

Replace {{PLACEHOLDER}} values:

Common:

• {{VISUAL_NAME}} - Unique identifier (e.g., TotalSalesCard)
• {{X}}, {{Y}} - Position coordinates
• {{WIDTH}}, {{HEIGHT}} - Dimensions
• {{Z}} - Z-order (typically 2000+)
• {{TAB_ORDER}} - Keyboard navigation order
• {{TITLE}} - Visual title text
• {{FILTER_GUID}} - Generate with secrets.token_hex(10)

Data Bindings:

• {{TABLE_NAME}}, {{MEASURE_NAME}} - Primary measure
• {{CATEGORY_TABLE}}, {{CATEGORY_COLUMN}} - X-axis dimension
• {{SERIES_TABLE}}, {{SERIES_COLUMN}} - Legend/series

Step 4: Generate visual.json

Create folder structure:

.Report/definition/pages/[PageGUID]/visuals/[VisualGUID]/visual.json

Generate GUID: VisualContainer + 8 random hex digits

Step 5: Validate Output

Before writing, verify:

• [ ] JSON is well-formed
• [ ] All placeholders replaced
• [ ] Measure/column references are correct
• [ ] Position within canvas (1600x900)

Example: Create a Card Visual

User request: "Add a Total Sales card to the Dashboard page"

Process:

1. Read visual-templates/card-single-measure.json
2. Replace placeholders:

   {{VISUAL_NAME}} → "TotalSalesCard"
   {{TABLE_NAME}} → "Fact_Sales"
   {{MEASURE_NAME}} → "Total Sales"
   {{TITLE}} → "Total Sales"
   {{X}} → "24"
   {{Y}} → "80"
   {{WIDTH}} → "300"
   {{HEIGHT}} → "180"
   {{Z}} → "2000"
   {{TAB_ORDER}} → "0"
   {{FILTER_GUID}} → "a1b2c3d4e5f6789012ab"
   {{FONT_SIZE}} → "32"
   {{DISPLAY_UNITS}} → "1"
   

3. Write to .Report/definition/pages/ReportSection.../visuals/VisualContainerABCD1234/visual.json

Data Binding Patterns

Measure reference:

{
  "field": {
    "Measure": {
      "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "TableName" } },
      "Property": "Measure Name"
    }
  },
  "queryRef": "TableName.Measure Name",
  "nativeQueryRef": "Measure Name"
}

Column reference:

{
  "field": {
    "Column": {
      "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "TableName" } },
      "Property": "column_name"
    }
  },
  "queryRef": "TableName.column_name",
  "nativeQueryRef": "column_name",
  "active": true
}

Schema Version

All templates use PBIR schema version 2.4.0:

https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/visualContainer/2.4.0/schema.json

Constraints

• Templates are read-only (don't modify originals)
• Always generate unique visual GUIDs
• Validate JSON before writing
• Use queryState/projections structure (not legacy config blobs)