Load multiple-language reports

To load multiple-language reports in the user's language, you can use bookmarks or embed reports.

Use bookmarks to select a language

If you plan to publish a Power BI report with data translations for access by users through the Power BI service, you need to load the report with the correct language for the current user. Create a set of bookmarks that apply filters to the Languages table.

1. Create a separate bookmark for each language that supports data translations.

   

2. Disable Display and Current Page and only enable Data behavior.

   

3. To apply the bookmark for a specific language, supply a second parameter in the report URL.

   ?language=es&bookmarkGuid=Bookmark856920573e02a8ab1c2a
   

   This report URL parameter is named bookmarkGuid. The filtering on the Languages table is applied before any data is displayed to the user.

Embed reports that implement data translations

Loading reports with Power BI embedding provides more flexibility than the report loading process for users accessing the report through the Power BI service. You can load a report using a specific language and locale by extending the config object passed to powerbi.embed with a localeSettings object containing a language property.

let config = {
  type: "report",
  id: reportId,
  embedUrl: embedUrl,
  accessToken: embedToken,
  tokenType: models.TokenType.Embed,
  localeSettings: { language: "de-DE" }
};

// embed report using config object
let report = powerbi.embed(reportContainer, config);

When you embed a report with a config object like this which sets the language property of the localeSettings object, the metadata translations and report label translations work as expected. However, there's one more step required to filter the Languages table to select the appropriate language for the current user.

It's possible to apply a bookmark to an embedded a report. Instead, you can apply a filter directly on the Languages table as the report loads using the Power BI JavaScript API. There's no need to add bookmarks for filtering the Languages table if you only intend to use a report by using Power BI embedding.

To apply a filtering during the loading process of an embedded report, register an event handler for the loaded event. When you register an event handler for an embedded report's loaded event, you can provide a JavaScript event handler that runs before the rendering process begins. This approach makes the loaded event the ideal place to register an event handler whose purpose is to apply the correct filtering on the Languages table.

Here's an example of JavaScript code that registers an event handler for the loaded event to apply a filter to the Languages table for Spanish.

let report = powerbi.embed(reportContainer, config);

report.on("loaded", async (event: any) => {

  // let's filter data translations for Spanish
  let languageToLoad = "es";

  // create filter object
  const filters = [{
    $schema: "http://powerbi.comproduct/schema#basic",
    target: {      table: "Languages", 
      column: "LanguageId"
    },
    operator: "In",  
    values: [ languageToLoad ], // <- Filter based on Spanish
    filterType: models.FilterType.Basic,
    requireSingleSelection: true
  }];

  // call updateFilters and pass filter object to set data translations to Spanish
  await report.updateFilters(models.FiltersOperations.Replace, filters);

});

Tip

When you set filters with the Power BI JavaScript API, you should prefer the updateFilters method over the setFilters method. The updateFilters method allows you to remove existing filters while setFilters does not.

Related content

• Guidance for Power BI