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Generate Power BI columns and measures to pages lineage
App

You can generate lineage between Microsoft Power BI columns or measures and Power BI report pages by using the PowerBI Columns/Measures -> Pages lineage app. This helps you see which columns and measures are used by each page so that you can troubleshoot issues or assess the impact of changes.

This guide walks you through preparing your Power BI enhanced report project (.pbir) files and configuring the app to read them from object storage such as AWS S3 or Azure Blob Storage.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Access to the PowerBI Columns/Measures -> Pages lineage app in your Atlan workspace. If you don't have access, contact Atlan support or your Atlan customer team.
  • A Microsoft Power BI connection set up and crawled for the reports you want to include in lineage.
  • The ability to enable Developer mode in Power BI Desktop and save reports as Power BI project files. For background on the enhanced report format, see Projects enhanced report format.
  • Permissions to store and read files from an AWS S3 bucket or Azure Blob Storage that stores your extracted Power BI report projects.

Prepare Power BI report projects​

To generate page-level lineage, the app reads metadata from the enhanced report project structure, including each page and its visuals.

  1. In Power BI Desktop, open each report you want to include and enable Developer mode by going to File → Options and settings → Options → Preview features and selecting the enhanced project save option.

  2. Save the report by using the enhanced project format so that you can access the internal project structure on disk.

  3. Locate the extracted project folder on your machine and confirm that its structure matches the following pattern, where each page contains a page.json file and a visuals subfolder with visual.json files:

    📦 <Power BI report ID>/
    └── 📁 <report-name>.Report/
        └── 📁 definition/
            └── 📁 pages/
                └── 📁 <page-id>/
                    ├── 📄 page.json
                    └── 📁 visuals/
                        └── 📁 <visual-id>/
                            └── 📄 visual.json

  4. Upload the extracted project folders to your chosen object storage location.

    • AWS S3

      • Create a folder for each Power BI report. The folder name must match the Power BI report ID.

      • Inside each report folder, upload the corresponding <report-name>.Report directory with its definition/pages/... structure.

    • Azure Blob Storage

      • Create a container that stores only the extracted Power BI reports.

      • Inside the container, create a folder for each Power BI report. The folder name must match the Power BI report ID.

      • Inside each report folder, upload the corresponding <report-name>.Report directory with its definition/pages/... structure.

For authentication patterns and additional examples, see Object storage for apps.

Set up workflow​

After your PBIR project folders are available in object storage, configure the workflow.

  1. Go to the homepage and click New workflow in the top navigation bar.

  2. Search for PowerBI Columns/Measures -> Pages lineage, and then select Set up workflow.

  3. In Workflow Name, enter a descriptive name that clearly identifies the scope of the lineage, such as Power BI columns and measures to pages lineage - finance workspaces.

  4. In Output type, select Generate Lineage to create lineage from the PBIR project files. If you want to delete lineage previously created by this app for the same scope, select Delete Lineage.

  5. In Connection, click Select a connection and choose the Atlan Microsoft Power BI connection that's associated with the reports whose PBIR folders you uploaded.

  6. In Input, select the storage option that matches where you uploaded your PBIR project folders, such as AWS S3 IAM Role, AWS S3 IAM User, or Azure Blob.

  7. Based on your selected storage option, configure the required fields such as the bucket or container name, folder path, and region (or the equivalent settings for Azure). For role configuration examples, see Object storage for apps.

  8. Review the configuration and save the workflow.

  9. Run the workflow once to generate lineage between Power BI columns and measures and the Power BI pages in your reports.

Verify lineage​

After the workflow finishes, validate that lineage has been created as expected.

  1. From the left navigation, click Assets.

  2. Search for a Power BI page that was in scope for the workflow and open its asset profile.

  3. Click the Lineage tab and zoom in on the page.

  4. Check that:

    • Power BI columns and measures appear as upstream nodes connected to the page.
    • The lineage graph reflects how each page uses columns and measures from its underlying datasets.

  5. Repeat the check for a few additional pages and reports to make sure lineage coverage matches your expectations.

If you need to adjust which assets are included in lineage, update the workflow configuration or the set of PBIR folders in your bucket or container and rerun the workflow.

Need help?​

If you have any issues while configuring or running the app, contact Atlan support.

See also​