How to brand PowerBI Report Server

One of the coolest features of SQL Server Report Server is branding/customizing the report server web portal.  This feature was introduced in SQL Server 2016. We can do the same branding in PowerBI Report Server as well. In terms of the process there are no changes between SSRS and PowerBI report server branding.

Before and after branding

Let’s see the steps needed to follow. A brand package for reporting services consists of three files in a zip file.

• Metadata.xml - The metadata.xml file allows you to set the name of the brand package, and has a reference entry for both your colors.json and logo.png files
• Color.json - When the brand package is uploaded, the server extracts the appropriate name/value pairs from the colors.json file and merges them with the master LESS stylesheet, brand.less. This LESS file is then processed, and the resulting CSS file is served to the client. All colors in the stylesheet follow the six-character hexadecimal representation of a color
• Logo.png – This is just an logo image. The logo file should be in png format

If you already have standard branding files, your job would be much easier, just a matter of changing the color codes and the logo file and then zip it. You can download the SQL Server Report Server default package. You will these 3 files under the folder

Once you applied custom branding you can’t change the name as you want in the Site setting, so make sure you include the name in the logo as well.  To get a better appearance, based on my experience, it should scale to around 100px height and any length. However, some sites say It should scale to around 290px x 60px

If you need a more explanation about the color coding please refer to the below link.

https://craigporteous.com/ssrs-2016-brand-package-breakdown/ 

You can easily upload the new branding package using Site setting 🡪 Branding. There is no harm in this process, you can Download or Remove the package. Removing the package will reset the web portal to the default brand immediately.

 

Cheers!

Uma