pbiplint

Rules / Error Prevention

Action points at nothing

error BROKEN_ACTION_TARGET · built in · report layer · scope: Visual

What it checks

Buttons, shapes, and images whose page navigation, drillthrough, or bookmark action names a page or a bookmark the report does not have, matched against the name in each page.json and bookmark file.

Each finding names the visual, as actionButton (e4b7a1) on "Overview", or as "Go to detail" on "Overview" when it has a title, at the line of the action's destination in its visual.json, and its detail names the action and the destination it could not find: Page navigation action points at page "a91c3e5f7d2b4086e1c9", which does not exist, Drillthrough action points at page "a91c3e5f7d2b4086e1c9", which does not exist, or Bookmark action points at bookmark "Bookmark067aa4e496527c92a256", which does not exist.

Example

Fires the rule
{
  "definition/pages/pages.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/pagesMetadata/1.0.0/schema.json",
    "pageOrder": ["p1", "7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4"],
    "activePageName": "p1"
  },
  "definition/pages/7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4/page.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/page/2.1.0/schema.json",
    "name": "7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4",
    "displayName": "Detail",
    "displayOption": "FitToPage",
    "height": 720,
    "width": 1280
  },
  "definition/pages/p1/visuals/e4b7a1c9d3f2068b5a17/visual.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/visualContainer/2.8.0/schema.json",
    "name": "e4b7a1c9d3f2068b5a17",
    "position": { "x": 1100, "y": 20, "z": 1000, "height": 40, "width": 140, "tabOrder": 1000 },
    "visual": {
      "visualType": "actionButton",
      "visualContainerObjects": {
        "visualLink": [
          {
            "properties": {
              "show": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "true" } } },
              "type": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "'PageNavigation'" } } },
              "navigationSection": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "'a91c3e5f7d2b4086e1c9'" } } }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}
After the fix
{
  "definition/pages/pages.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/pagesMetadata/1.0.0/schema.json",
    "pageOrder": ["p1", "7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4"],
    "activePageName": "p1"
  },
  "definition/pages/7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4/page.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/page/2.1.0/schema.json",
    "name": "7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4",
    "displayName": "Detail",
    "displayOption": "FitToPage",
    "height": 720,
    "width": 1280
  },
  "definition/pages/p1/visuals/e4b7a1c9d3f2068b5a17/visual.json": {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/visualContainer/2.8.0/schema.json",
    "name": "e4b7a1c9d3f2068b5a17",
    "position": { "x": 1100, "y": 20, "z": 1000, "height": 40, "width": 140, "tabOrder": 1000 },
    "visual": {
      "visualType": "actionButton",
      "visualContainerObjects": {
        "visualLink": [
          {
            "properties": {
              "show": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "true" } } },
              "type": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "'PageNavigation'" } } },
              "navigationSection": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "'7c41d9e0a2b35f18c6d4'" } } }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

The report has two pages, Overview and Detail. The button on Overview navigates to a page named a91c3e5f7d2b4086e1c9, which neither page is, as a visual.json copied in from another report can still name that report's page, so the finding reads actionButton (e4b7a1) on "Overview" with Page navigation action points at page "a91c3e5f7d2b4086e1c9", which does not exist. The fix points it at Detail by the name in Detail's page.json.

Why it matters

An action is what a button is for. Microsoft describes page navigation as taking the reader to a different page in the report, drillthrough as taking them to a drillthrough page filtered to their selection, and a bookmark action as presenting the report page associated with a bookmark defined for the report. When the page or bookmark the action names is not in the report, the button offers readers a destination the report does not have: the detail page, the next step of a guided story, or the entry in a menu of pages it was placed there to lead to is not there to reach.

Destinations are stored by name, a page's or bookmark's identifier, rather than by the name readers see, so they break when identifiers change underneath them. Microsoft lists copying pages, visuals, and bookmarks between reports among the scenarios the PBIR format makes possible, and a copied visual.json keeps the destination it had in the report it came from. Microsoft also warns that renaming the name property in a PBIR file might break references inside the report, and a button's destination is one of them.

How to fix it

In Power BI Desktop, select the button, and on the Button tab of the Format button pane, expand Action. Check that Type is the action you meant, then pick the page under Destination, the target drillthrough page for a drillthrough action, or, for a bookmark action, the bookmark under Bookmarks. Shapes and images carry actions too; select the one the finding names. To test the button while you edit, hold Ctrl and select it. If the button should not do anything any more, turn Action off or delete the button.

In visual.json, the action is an entry of visualLink under visual.visualContainerObjects, and its destination is the property that belongs to its type: navigationSection for 'PageNavigation', drillthroughSection for 'Drillthrough', and bookmark for 'Bookmark'. Set it to the name of the page or bookmark, in single quotes inside expr.Literal.Value as the example shows. That is the identifier in its page.json or bookmark file, not its display name. Microsoft's PBIR documentation says pages and bookmarks are named with a 20-character identifier by default, used as their folder or file name as well, and that Power BI Desktop can copy an object's name to the clipboard once Copy object names when right clicking on report objects is turned on in its report settings.

When to ignore it

There is no legitimate case. An action whose destination is not in the report has nowhere in it to take readers, so point it at a page or bookmark that exists, or turn the action off if the button is meant to do nothing.

To ignore this rule on one visual, add { "name": "pbiplint.ignore", "value": "BROKEN_ACTION_TARGET" } to the annotations array of its visual.json. Power BI Desktop keeps the annotation. To turn the rule off for a whole project, set "BROKEN_ACTION_TARGET": "off" under rules in pbiplint.config.json.

Quirks

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