I recently tackled a Power BI project where I needed to transfer several measures from one model to another. Manually copying each measure can be a tedious task. Fortunately, the ALM Toolkit from MAQ Software streamlines this process by allowing a comparison between the two PBIX files and copying the selected differences over.
However, I encountered an issue early on. The comparison couldn’t be completed because the compatibility levels of the two PBIX files were different.
I discovered that the compatibility level in Power BI is stored in the Model View. By simply clicking on the Semantic model, the Compatibility Level is prominently displayed in the Properties pane.
So how do I change it?
My first instinct was to save the report in the latest version of Power BI. However, this made no difference. Determined to find a better solution, I kept looking. I discovered online that Power BI doesn’t update the version compatibility level of the semantic model automatically until a new feature has been used.
To identify these new features, I found an article that I believe will be updated in the future: TOM Compatibility Levels | BI & Other Tech Notes (mthierba.net). Although it’s not official Microsoft documentation, the author has impressively managed to extract this information from the API, compensating for Microsoft’s lack of publication on this topic.
By working through this documentation up to release 1601, I uncovered the necessary details.
This was my Aha! moment. FormatStringDefinition instantly connected with the dynamic format strings I’m utilizing in the source report for calculation groups. I swiftly created a new dummy calculation group and activated the dynamic format string for the calculation item – mission accomplished!
There it is – 1601!
The comparison proceeded flawlessly!
