Powerbi Report CLI

Conditional Formatting Patterns - Part 2

Contents

• Chart target capability matrix

• Card

• KPI

• Azure Maps layers

Continuation of conditional-formatting.md. Open this file directly from the skill reference index.

Chart target capability matrix

Use this matrix to choose the formatting object and property. Confirm the property against the installed CLI before authoring:

powerbi-report-author formatting describe-object <visualType> <objectName>

*No* means value-driven conditional formatting is unsupported. Use static styling instead; see the combo limitation below and the scatter-label row note.

Metadata boundary: a property having CLI type fill proves the PBIR property path and value shape, but not that the Power BI UI offers the conditional-formatting fx button for that property. Use this matrix for the supported chart targets documented by Power BI; do not generalize it to other fill properties such as axes, reference lines, or visual-container colors.

Combo limitation: treat Gradient, Rules, and Field Value as unsupported for combo lines and markers. Use static per-series styling instead.

Line-path routing: use dataPoint.fill for a full line path and lineStyles.strokeColor for per-category segmented line coloring. Do not move a full-series line rule to lineStyles.strokeColor.

Card

• Rule-based callout and label font colors use the Conditional.Cases[] expression structure from Type 2: Rules-Based Formatting.

• Constant callout and label font colors use a Literal color expression.

• Both value.fontColor and label.fontColor are ConstantOrRule; either property can use a constant or a rule.

• Both properties require selector: { "id": "default" }. Omitting it can validate but silently leave the card unchanged.

• These properties do not accept gradients; do not use FillRule or linearGradient*.

KPI

• Rule-based indicator, goal, distance, and date font colors use the Conditional.Cases[] expression structure from Type 2: Rules-Based Formatting.

• Constant font colors use a Literal color expression.

Each supported property is ConstantOrRule and can independently use a constant or a rule:

• KPI formatting objects do not use a selector.

• These properties do not accept gradients; do not use FillRule or linearGradient*.

• indicator.fontColor is available only when the KPI has no Goal projection. When a goal is bound, use the KPI status behavior and supported goals color properties instead.

Azure Maps layers

The Azure Maps visual (visualType: "azureMap") supports conditional formatting on icon-marker fill color, 3D-column fill color, choropleth fill color, and marker rotation. Image markers do not support fill-color conditional formatting; use rotation for data-driven image-marker formatting. Separately, measure-driven magnitude (marker size, 3D-column height, heat-map weight) is driven only by the Size measure role. Marker border, heat-map color ramp, baseline intensity, radius, and transparency have no conditional formatting (no ƒx); author them as static literals.

Apply conditional fill color with the object for the target layer:

Set bubbleLayer.markerType to "icon" before authoring marker fill CF. Put the CF expression on bubbleLayer.fillColor in a wildcard-selected bubbleLayer entry. Keep show, sizeByValue, radius, marker shape, and other static marker properties in a separate unselected bubbleLayer entry.

Do not add marker fill CF when markerType is "image"; Desktop disables the entire marker Fill group for image markers.

Preserve dataPoint.fill when editing an older Desktop-authored marker rule. Current custom-marker builds read that property as a backward-compatibility fallback. Do not migrate or dual-write the rule unless the target Desktop build has been tested with that shape.

Author 3D-column and choropleth conditional fill only on dataPoint.fill. Author their static colors on barChart.defaultColor and filledMap.defaultColor.

Supply the fill color as:

• Field value (a measure/column returning a color) → Type 6: Field-Driven Color

• Rules (Conditional.Cases[]) → Type 2: Rules-Based Formatting

• Gradient (FillRule / linearGradient2|3) → Type 1: Color Gradient (FillRule)

Summarization (input field aggregation) — the Rules/Gradient Input (or Comparison.Left) and a Field-value column input must resolve to one scalar per location: reference a measure directly, or wrap a column in an Aggregation expression whose Function is the format pane's Summarization dropdown. See expressions.md § Aggregation Expression (see expressions.md, section aggregation-expression) for the JSON shape and the full Function enum.

The choropleth (filled map) layer is mutually exclusive with the Size role — while any field is bound to Size the Filled map layer is disabled and will not render. Leave the Size projection empty to use the choropleth layer.

Marker rotation — bind bubbleLayer.markerRotation to a field producing the angle in degrees under the wildcard selector. Use a direct Measure expression for a measure. Wrap a column in Aggregation using the summarization selected in Desktop; do not emit a raw Column. Keep the rotation entry separate from the unselected static marker entry. The rotation CF dialog supports only Field value; do not use a FillRule or Conditional expression. Rotation renders only on directional icon/image markers, not symmetric dots.

Selector — select fill CF and rotation with { "data": [ { "dataViewWildcard": { "matchingOption": 1 } } ] } (format pane Apply settings to → Locations: All). Do not use a role selector ({ "roles": ["Category"] }); it does not round-trip.

Use the same wildcard selector for an all-series rule when a Legend (Series) field is bound and the target Desktop build exposes the all-series fx control. If the target build does not expose that control, remove the Legend for value-driven fill or author static per-series metadata colors (see color-strategy.md § Per-Series Colors (see color-strategy.md, section pattern-per-series-colors)).

Conditional-formatting support by layer

Each row is a CF-capable property and the CF styles it accepts. Non-CF properties (Size-role magnitude and static-only) are not listed here — author them in map.md § Layers (see map.md, section layers).

Magnitude and static properties are not conditional formatting. Marker size, 3D-column height, and heat-map intensity are driven by the Size measure role (with the bubbleLayer.sizeByValue / barChart.heightByValue / heatMapLayer.heatMapUseSize toggles); marker shape/border, heat-map radius, transparency, and the heat-map color ramp are static Literal values. None of these accept ƒx (Conditional / FillRule) — author them in map.md § Layers (see map.md, section layers).

Example — gradient fill on an icon marker:

"objects": {
  "bubbleLayer": [
    {
      "properties": {
        "show": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "true" } } },
        "markerType": { "expr": { "Literal": { "Value": "'icon'" } } }
      }
    },
    {
      "properties": {
        "fillColor": {
          "solid": {
            "color": {
              "expr": {
                "FillRule": {
                  "Input": {
                    "Measure": { "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "Metrics" } }, "Property": "Revenue YoY %" }
                  },
                  "FillRule": {
                    "linearGradient2": {
                      "min": { "color": { "Literal": { "Value": "'#D13438'" } } },
                      "max": { "color": { "Literal": { "Value": "'#107C10'" } } },
                      "nullColoringStrategy": { "strategy": { "Literal": { "Value": "'asZero'" } } }
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      },
      "selector": { "data": [{ "dataViewWildcard": { "matchingOption": 1 } }] }
    }
  ]
}

Swap the FillRule input for a Conditional.Cases[] block (Type 2) for rules, or a field-value measure/column (Type 6) for field-driven color. For an enabled 3D-column or choropleth layer, put the same expression on dataPoint.fill instead. Do not put 3D-column or choropleth CF on barChart.defaultColor or filledMap.defaultColor; use those properties for static color only.

"dataPoint": [
  {
    "properties": {
      "fill": {
        "solid": {
          "color": {
            "expr": {
              "FillRule": {
                "Input": {
                  "Measure": { "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "Metrics" } }, "Property": "Revenue YoY %" }
                },
                "FillRule": {
                  "linearGradient2": {
                    "min": { "color": { "Literal": { "Value": "'#D13438'" } } },
                    "max": { "color": { "Literal": { "Value": "'#107C10'" } } },
                    "nullColoringStrategy": { "strategy": { "Literal": { "Value": "'asZero'" } } }
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "selector": { "data": [{ "dataViewWildcard": { "matchingOption": 1 } }] }
  }
]

Marker rotation is Field-only on a separate wildcard-selected bubbleLayer entry. Use a direct measure:

"markerRotation": { "expr": { "Measure": { "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "Metrics" } }, "Property": "Heading °" } } }

For a column, use the summarization selected in Desktop:

"markerRotation": {
  "expr": {
    "Aggregation": {
      "Expression": {
        "Column": {
          "Expression": { "SourceRef": { "Entity": "Routes" } },
          "Property": "Heading"
        }
      },
      "Function": 0
    }
  }
}