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:

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

Step 2: Select Template

code

# 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:

code

.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:

•Read visual-templates/card-single-measure.json

•Replace placeholders:

code

{{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"

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

Data Binding Patterns

Measure reference:

json

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

Column reference:

json

{
  "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:

code

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)