Loom Power BI Dashboard Editor — Fabric-parity spec¶

Captured 2026-05-26 by catalog agent fabric-parity-loop. Source: Microsoft Learn — Power BI dashboards/tiles (/power-bi/create-reports/service-dashboards, service-dashboard-edit-tile, service-dashboard-create, service-dashboard-add-widget) and Power BI REST API (Dashboards operations, CloneTile, embed).

A Power BI Dashboard is a single-page canvas (not a report) that aggregates tiles pinned from one or more reports, Q&A, Excel, SSRS, or standalone widgets. Editing happens entirely in the Power BI service (no Desktop equivalent) and tiles are the unit of composition — designers pin visuals from underlying reports/semantic models, then arrange/resize/restyle the dashboard canvas.

UI components¶

Top action bar (above the canvas)¶

+ Add a tile — opens the widget picker (Web content, Image, Text box, Video, Custom streaming data, Real-time data)
Ask a question — Q&A natural-language query box pinned at the top of the dashboard
Comments pane toggle
View menu — Phone view layout · Web view layout · Full screen · Print
Share — direct user share / link share
Subscribe — email subscription with cadence
Set as featured / Pin to / Favorite
File menu — Save a copy · Settings · Refresh dashboard tiles · Delete · Move to workspace
Edit (toggle) — switches the dashboard into Editing view where tile move/resize/edit handles appear

Dashboard canvas¶

Grid-based tile layout, 1×1 through 5×5 cells per tile
Drag-drop tile reposition (handle on top edge)
Drag-resize tile bottom-right corner
Tile flow on/off (auto-reflow vs free placement)
Background image / color via dashboard Settings
Mobile (phone) layout designer — separate vertical stack

Per-tile chrome (Editing view)¶

Hover reveals More options (…) menu:
Edit details (Tile details dialog)
Pin tile (clone to another dashboard, same/different workspace)
Open in Focus mode
Export data (when backed by a report visual)
Delete tile
Pencil / pin icons on hover

Tile details dialog (per tile)¶

Title (override) · Subtitle
Functionality section:
Display last refresh time
Set custom link — link to another dashboard/report in current workspace, web URL, SSRS report
Disable default click behavior
Alerts (numeric / KPI / card tiles only) — threshold + Teams/email notification

Web content — HTML/iframe snippet
Image — URL with optional title and link
Text box — rich text with title
Video — YouTube / Vimeo URL
Custom streaming data — bind to a streaming dataset push endpoint
Real-time data — pre-existing streaming dataset visual

Pin source flows (driven from upstream items, not the dashboard editor itself)¶

Pin from report — pin icon on any report visual; choose existing or new dashboard
Pin a live page — pin an entire report page as one interactive tile
Pin from Q&A — type a question, then pin the resulting visual
Pin from Excel — pin a range / table / PivotTable from a OneDrive/SharePoint workbook
Pin from SSRS — pin paginated-report tiles via the on-prem gateway

Settings pane (File > Settings)¶

Rename dashboard
Q&A on / off
Tile flow on / off
Background image / color
Theme

Comments pane (right side)¶

Threaded comments per dashboard
@-mentions push notifications
Reply / resolve

Q&A bar¶

Natural language input across all tiles' underlying semantic models
Suggested questions
Result preview rendered as a visual; can be pinned

Right-rail Insights / Smart narrative¶

Auto-generated insights against the dashboard's underlying semantic models (where enabled)

What Loom has¶

DashboardEditor (apps/fiab-console/lib/editors/phase3-editors.tsx:1649)
Workspace picker, refresh button, dashboard list (left tree)
Tile grid that renders each tile as a card showing subTitle, title, and colSpan×rowSpan
Tile-detail card showing id, reportId, datasetId, embedUrl as raw fields
Cosmos-backed listing via /api/items/dashboard (already wired to a backend per the BFF route shape)
C-grade verdict — listing + metadata works, no embedded canvas, no widget picker, no tile-detail dialog, no Q&A

Gaps for parity¶

No embedded dashboard canvas — Fabric renders the actual tiled dashboard via the embed JS SDK; Loom shows only metadata cards
No "+ Add a tile" widget picker (Web content / Image / Text box / Video / Streaming)
No tile detail dialog (rename, custom hyperlink, alert threshold, refresh time)
No tile move / resize handles — Fabric supports drag positioning and 1×1–5×5 sizing
No mobile/phone view designer
No Q&A bar at top of dashboard
No Pin-from-report / Pin-from-Q&A / Pin-from-Excel flows (these originate in other editors but must land in dashboards)
No Comments pane
No Subscribe / Share / Featured action bar
No alert configuration for KPI/card tiles
No dashboard Settings (Q&A toggle, tile flow, background)
No clone-tile flow (Fabric supports duplicating tiles within or across dashboards)

Backend mapping¶

List dashboards: GET /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards (already used by Loom's /api/items/dashboard)
List tiles: GET /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards/{dashboardId}/tiles
Get tile: GET /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards/{dashboardId}/tiles/{tileId}
Clone tile: POST /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards/{dashboardId}/tiles/{tileId}/Clone (CloneTileRequest with targetDashboardId/targetWorkspaceId/targetReportId/targetDatasetId/positionConflictAction) — backed by Microsoft.PowerBI.Api.IDashboardsOperations.CloneTile
Create dashboard: POST /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards with {name}
Delete dashboard: DELETE /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards/{dashboardId}
Embed dashboard: generate an embed token via POST /v1.0/myorg/groups/{groupId}/dashboards/{dashboardId}/GenerateToken, then render via powerbi-client JS SDK using embedType: 'dashboard' and the tile-level GenerateToken for focus-mode tile drill-in
No public REST surface exists for "Add tile (widget)" — Web content / Image / Text box tiles can only be added through the Power BI service UI today. Loom must either iframe the Fabric dashboard edit URL or document this gap with a MessageBar
Pin operations (POST /reports/{id}/Clone, pinVisualToDashboard) live on the report side, not the dashboard side

Required Azure resources / tenant settings¶

Power BI Premium / Premium-Per-User / Fabric capacity assigned to the workspace (embed requires capacity)
Tenant setting Embed content in apps = enabled
Tenant setting Service principals can use Power BI APIs = enabled (Loom's SP must be in the security group)
Workspace role for the calling identity: Member or Contributor for edit; Viewer for read-only embed
For streaming/real-time tiles: a Power BI streaming dataset push endpoint provisioned
For Q&A: the underlying semantic model must have Q&A enabled and synonyms configured

Estimated effort¶

3-4 sessions.

Phase 1 (1 session) — Embed the actual dashboard via powerbi-client SDK + GenerateToken; replace the metadata-card grid with the live rendered canvas. Add a "Open in Power BI" deep link as fallback.
Phase 2 (1 session) — Surface tile detail dialog (Edit details, custom hyperlink, alerts) by capturing tile-click events from the embedded client and rendering Loom-chrome panes around them. Wire CloneTile for tile-copy.
Phase 3 (1 session) — Build the "Add tile" widget picker for the four widget types REST cannot create — implement by deep-linking into the Power BI service "Add a tile" dialog inside an iframe popout (the same pattern Fabric uses). Document the limitation with a MessageBar.
Phase 4 (optional) — Q&A bar (powerbi-client exposes Q&A iframe component), Comments pane (REST: /v1.0/myorg/dashboards/{id}/comments), Subscribe (/subscriptions).

Notes¶

Loom will not reimplement the dashboard canvas from scratch; it embeds the PBI dashboard inside Loom chrome (same pattern as Report editor)
Several tile widget types (Web content, Image, Text box, Video) have no public REST API for create/update — these must remain documented gaps until the Fabric REST surface catches up, with a MessageBar pointing the user to the Power BI service for those specific widget actions
Phone-view layout and tile flow toggles are Power-BI-service-only and cannot be replicated through REST