Do you know the Power BI version control features?

To follow best practices for version control for Power BI reports you must know about the following features:

* [Power BI Desktop projects (PBIP)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-overview)
* [Git integration in Power BI Service via Microsoft Fabric](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/cicd/git-integration/intro-to-git-integration)
  * Requires either Fabric capacity or a Power BI Premium per User license
  * Currently only integrates with Git repos in Azure DevOps

The following video provides an overview of these features.

<youtubeEmbed url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdkS7DF7ElY" description="Video: Empower every BI professional to do more with Microsoft Fabric | OD06 (Watch from min 5:00 to 13:00)" />


<imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={false}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'Once version control has been setup you can see more clearly what changed in the report.',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/good-example-compare-changes-2_1719542104669.png"
/>

1. Convert all your Power BI reports to the PBIP format

   * First enable Power BI Projects in Power BI Desktop - File | Option Settings | Options | Preview features | Power BI project (.pbip) save option
   * Second "Save As" all your .pbix files as .pbip

     
<imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={false}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'Enable PBIP format in Power BI Desktop',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/enable-pbip-format.png"
/>

     
<imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={false}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'Convert all .pbix files to PBIP format',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/save-as-pbip.png"
/>

   * Converting reports to the PBIP format decomposes it into the following artifacts.

     * [A Dataset folder](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-dataset), which contains files and folders representing a Power BI dataset
     * [A Reports folder](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-report), which contains the report settings, metadata for custom visuals, etc.

     
<imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={false}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'PBIP artifacts',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/ProjectFolders.png"
/>

2. Commit the PBIP artifacts into a Git repository in an Azure DevOps project. Note, as of this writing Power BI's Git integration only works with Azure DevOps.

   **Note:** Once you convert the report Power BI Desktop will save a copy of the data into a file called [cache.abf](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/developer/projects/projects-dataset#pbicacheabf) which gets stored in a ".pbi" folder inside the Dataset folder. This file should not be saved in version control. You can create a .gitignore file to prevent Git from committing it to the repository.

   <imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={true}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'cache.abf',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/PBICache.png"
/>

   <imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={true}
  figureEmbed={{
    preset: "default",
    figure: 'The .gitignore file',
    shouldDisplay: true
  }}
  src="/uploads/rules/do-you-know-powerbi-version-control-features/Gitignore.png"
/>

3. [Connect a workspace in Power BI Service with a branch in the Git repo in Azure DevOps](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/cicd/git-integration/git-get-started?tabs=commit-to-git#connect-a-workspace-to-an-azure-repo)