TMDL and Model Options come to the service, and with them a question every team has to answer: who is the model's source of truth. Also — organizational apps with audiences, the new theming system, and the list of known bugs.
July 2026 update: the semantic model moves to the browser, distribution moves to enterprise apps, and design moves to theme sets.
July 2026Executive Summary — What's New This Month
Five minutes of reading that give you the full picture, before diving deep. Published on 22.07.2026.
TMDL View opens in the browser in preview. Writing model objects in a code editor, with a script, preview and apply cycle — without dropping down to Desktop. Scripts in the browser aren't saved.
Model Options is available in the service. Type detection, relationships, Auto date/time, parallel loading, Locale and DirectQuery. Two settings take effect immediately, the rest only on the next refresh.
A key architectural warning: Publishing from Desktop is a full replacement, not a merge. Any change made in the service between download and publish is overwritten and lost, and there's no sync back to the pbix.
Organizational apps with audiences, now generally available. The audience is a navigation layer, not a filter, and the permission also extends to the semantic model and is revoked together with removing the user.
No migration tool from workspace apps, and there's no timeline for discontinuing support for them. Migration is a manual rebuild.
An extended theme system: Three base themes and the Customize current theme experience in the formatting pane. Manual formatting on a visual always overrides the theme.
Conditional formatting for line charts and visuals with a Legend Generally available, with coloring by a single DAX measure.
16 known bugs and limitations documented in Chapter VII, with a workaround for each.
Estimated reading time · 85 minutes
01
Navigating between topics
the buttons Previous Fnext fixed at the top of the screen. Also available via keyboard shortcut, by swiping on a phone, or by jumping to a topic from the topics list.
02
Questions and practice
At the end of the lesson, a short quiz with immediate feedback for each question, and application exercises with full solutions.
03
Progress is saved
The topic where you stopped and the topics you have read are saved only in your browser. You can close and come back, and reset from the topics list.
How each topic is built
Every topic opens with an explanation why The feature exists — the pain point in the field and the vision behind it — and continues into the technical detail. The most important topic in the lesson is Chapter IV: override risks. Don't skip it.
What the lesson covers
July 2026 update, published on 22.07.2026.
modeling
TMDL View in the browser
The model as code, with a script, preview, and apply cycle — now even without Desktop.
settings
Model Options in the Service
Model-level settings that were locked in Desktop, and what takes effect when.
government
Sync and overwrite
Why publishing from Desktop erases changes made in the service, and how to prevent it.
distribution
Enterprise apps with audiences
Audience as a navigation layer, and permission that propagates to the model and is revoked with it.
design
Themes and mobile
Three base themes, the Customize current theme pane, and adaptation for small screens.
production
Bugs and workarounds
16 known phenomena, the reason for each, and the fix.
Prerequisite: An introduction to the semantic model, workspaces and permissions. The lesson is about managing a model in production, not building a report.
Chapter I · Why the browser
The pain that gave birth to the transition
Before the features — the architectural problem they come to solve.
Until now, any change to the model — even renaming a column, even fixing a relationship — required a whole route: download the pbix file, open Desktop on Windows, edit, republish, and hope no one else touched the model in the meantime. This locks out Mac users entirely, prevents two people from working in parallel, and drags a full publish cycle into a two-minute fix.
01
The main problem
The pbix file is a monolithic artifact. As long as the model lives in a binary file on someone's computer — there's no governance, no real version control and no collaboration.
02
the vision
The semantic model is a service, not a file. The browser is the client, TMDL is the format, and Git is the source of truth.
03
the price
Two editing surfaces for the same model create two versions of the truth. Chapter IV in the lesson is entirely about this cost.
Power BI Desktop doesn't disappear — but it becomes one tool among several, instead of the only gateway to the model.
Chapter I · Why the browser
What actually came in in July
The update map before diving into each component.
the component
the status
Does it matter
TMDL View in the browser
Preview
Writing and editing objects in the model in a code editor, without dropping to Desktop
Model Options in the Service
available
Model-level settings, including Auto date/time, Locale, and DirectQuery
The semantic model settings pane
Preview, from August by default
The settings open alongside the content instead of a full page
Enterprise apps with audiences
General availability
One app that serves different experiences to different groups
APIs for apps and audiences
available
Create, read, update, delete, and list — also for Paginated Reports
Modern Visual Defaults
Extended preview
The Customize current theme experience in the formatting pane
Conditional formatting for line charts and Legend
General availability
Coloring by a single DAX measure, consistent across the report
Audiences on mobile
available
The audience experience reaches iOS and Android
A message worth marking on the calendar: Starting in October, users with Power BI Desktop version March 2026 or earlier will not be able to save and share files to OneDrive and SharePoint. It's worth updating in advance.
Chapter II · TMDL — The Model as Code
What is TMDL and the workflow
Once you understand that the model is text, mass changes stop being a problem.
TMDL, short for Tabular Model Definition Language, is the textual representation of the semantic model. Every table, column, measure, relationship and perspective is text.
ScriptDrag an object from the data panel to the editor, or right-click and choose Script TMDL. You can drag an entire section, and select several objects with CTRL.
EditThe editor includes semantic highlighting, autocomplete (also with Ctrl+Space), tooltips, code actions with a lightbulb, formatting with Shift+Alt+F, and a Problems panel.
PreviewShows a full diff of the model before and after running the script, in red and green.
ApplyRuns the script against the model. On failure, an Output pane opens with the error details.
Two subtleties in Preview: The comparison isn't against the script in the tab but a comprehensive model comparison, so some properties may appear in a different order. In addition — preview only runs on valid TMDL; a faulty script won't run a preview at all.
TMDL only touches metadata: A change doesn't refresh the data and doesn't affect the report. If you changed a Power Query expression or a calculated column — you must refresh manually.
Chapter II · TMDL — The Model as Code
What doesn't have a GUI
The real reason to learn TMDL: objects you can't reach any other way.
Through TMDL you can touch objects and properties that have no interface at all — IsAvailableInMDX, DetailRowsDefinition, translations and perspectives.
Perspective is a prerequisite for using Personalize this visual effectively in large models — and it can't be created from the interface
TMDL
createOrReplace /// Adds VAT to the received amount functionAddVat = ( amount : NUMERIC ) => amount * 1.18
DAX functions are also written in TMDL — and in a PBIP project they're saved in the functions.tmdl file
01
Duplicating a table between models
with the full definition: columns, a Power Query expression and a sort definition.
02
Changing storage mode
Switching between DirectQuery and Import by updating the partition property.
03
Backup before a big change
Write out the model's script, save it, and if needed rerun it to restore.
Chapter II · TMDL — The Model as Code
Renaming and sourceColumn
The real power of TMDL, and the minutes nobody tells you about.
Renaming an object requires writing a script of the father its: renaming a column requires the table's script, and renaming a table requires the script of the whole model. After that, find and replace with regular expressions does the job.
Field in the dialog
the value
Find
(^\s+column\s+)(.+)
Replace
$1\L$2
To convert all the column names in the table to lowercase. Make sure Regular Expression is turned on, then Replace All and Apply
The least intuitive trap in the lesson: After renaming in TMDL, the column name will differ from the property sourceColumn. The sync between the model table and the Power Query query is based on sourceColumn, so the names stay independent: the Power Query editor will display the sourceColumn names, and renaming through the interface will not add a rename step to the query as long as the two are not identical.
✓Before every Apply: run Preview and scan the diff — to make sure you haven't touched measure or column names that contain the same string. And after Apply — check the dependent reports, because renaming a field can break visuals.
Chapter II · TMDL — The Model as Code
TMDL in the browser vs Desktop
The same experience, four differences that change how you work.
topic
Desktop
Browser (preview)
Work modes
No separation — can be applied at any time
View mode for writing and previewing, Edit mode to apply. Safe experimentation before committing
Saving scripts
Saved as part of the model, and in a PBIP project as tmdl files in the TMDLScripts folder
Not saved at all. They're deleted when the model or browser closes, and previous scripts aren't shown
Version history
not available
Relies on the workspace's version history for restoration
permissions
Not relevant
Write permission on the semantic model is required
Practical conclusion: In the browser, every long script you write is transient. Save it aside — in a Git repo, a file, or Visual Studio Code — before you close the tab.
✓ For editing TMDL files outside Power BI there's a dedicated Visual Studio Code extension, with semantic highlighting for DAX and Power Query, autocomplete, diagnostics, and formatting.
Chapter III · Model Options in the service
The settings and validity timing
What used to be locked in Desktop opens up in the browser — with different timing for each setting.
Why Microsoft introduced this
These settings determine fundamental behavior of the model: whether hidden date tables get created, how dates and numbers are parsed, how many parallel connections open to the source. Until now they were locked in Desktop, so even someone managing the model in the service was blind to them. The result: models bloated with unnecessary date tables without anyone noticing.
How to get there
Open a semantic model in Model view in the service, switch to Editing mode, and then File > Options. Write permission is required.
the setting
What it does
When it takes effect
Type detection
Automatic detection of column types and headers in unstructured sources
at the next load or refresh
Relationships
Importing relationships on the first load, updating or deleting on refresh, and detecting new relationships
at the next load or refresh
Auto date/time
Automatic creation of hidden date tables
Immediately upon saving
Parallel loading
Parallelism mode when loading tables: Default, One, or Custom
at the next load or refresh
Regional settings: Locale
How numbers, dates and times are interpreted in imported text
at the next load or refresh
DirectQuery connections
Can other models connect to this model via DirectQuery
Immediately upon saving
Max connections per source
A limit on parallel connections to the source, in DirectQuery only
at the next load or refresh
Chapter III · Model Options in the service
The three traps of the dialog
One setting in the browser can break dozens of downstream reports.
Turning off Auto date/time is a destructive action: Turning it off deletes the hidden date tables behind the automatic date hierarchies. Reports that use them will show broken-field errors after the refresh. The immediate fix — turn it back on; the permanent fix — switch to an explicit date table.
A Locale trap with no way back: Some locales aren't displayed correctly in the dialog and may appear empty. The model keeps working, but if you change the locale in this state — it can't be reverted in the browser, and you have to republish from Desktop.
limitation
the implication
Per model only
There are no defaults for new models and no bulk update in the browser
Only from Model view
The dialog isn't available from Report view, from DAX Query View, from TMDL View, or from the settings page
Save failed
make sure there are no concurrent changes via XMLA or another client, close and reopen the dialog, and try again
Chapter IV · Sync and override
The override scenario — why it happens
The most important topic in the lesson. It's not a bug, it's architecture.
the principle: Publishing from Desktop is an operation of Full replacement of the model, not a merge. Desktop does not know what happened in the service since the download, so it writes its own snapshot over everything.
Desktop settings are saved on publish, so the initial values in the browser reflect what was in Desktop. Once you change a setting in the service, the service's values take precedence. But if you download the pbix, edit it in Desktop, and republish — the Desktop settings overwrite the service's values, and any change made in the service between the download and the publish is lost. Changes in the service do not sync back to the local file.
TIMELINE
Sun 09:00 download the pbix from the service Sunday 11:00 Amit adds a measure in the browser and changes Locale Monday 14:00 the pbix from Sunday gets republished ← Amit's measure and Locale disappeared
✓The only rule that prevents this: One source of truth per model. Don't mix editing in Desktop with editing in the browser on the same model.
Chapter IV · Sync and override
Blocked models and gaps
Three more facts that change the work routine.
No undo: Changes to the model in the service are saved automatically and are permanent. The only safety net is the semantic model's version history, which is supported for models edited in the browser and is designed exactly for recovering from critical mistakes.
Models that can't be edited in the browser
the model
the solution
Deployed via deployment pipelines
Browser editing only in the development environment — not in test and not in production
Not upgraded to the improved metadata format
Open the .pbix in Desktop and republish
Automatic aggregations defined
No editing in the browser
live connection
No editing in the browser
Migrated from Azure Analysis Services
No editing in the browser
✓ To find out which limit is blocking a particular model — hover over the button Open semantic model On the model details page, and the tooltip will state the reason.
Functional gaps that remain
✕Renaming a field in the service doesn't automatically update in downstream visuals
✕It's not possible to define a feature table or change its properties
✕You can't change a table's storage mode from the interface, and there's no View as
✕No Q&A definition and synonyms
✕If the conversion to Large Semantic Model storage format fails — you're left in view-only mode
Chapter IV · Sync and override
The governance and monitoring rule
How to set a policy that prevents lost work, and how to know that someone touched the model.
Track A
The model is managed with Git and PBIP
block browser editing at the permission level, and leave the browser for viewing and TMDL View in View mode only.
Track B
The model is managed by the service
You don't download the pbix and you don't republish. Changes are promoted through deployment pipelines or a schema comparison tool.
Mixing the two paths is exactly the situation where the official documentation guarantees lost changes.
Three audit actions
Operation name
When you registered
ApplyChangeToPowerBIModel
Any change to the model: writing a measure, managing relationships, and more
GetPowerBIDataModel
Opening the model or resyncing it
ApplyQueriesExecution
Running Power Query operations like Refresh all and Transform data
✓ For load monitoring, the metrics app exposes two dedicated operations: Web Modeling read andWeb Modeling write, both are classified as interactive. You can build on these actions an alert for when someone edits a production model in the browser.
Chapter V · Enterprise apps with audiences
The pain and the vision
What actually broke in the old release — including a silent security exposure.
01
The distribution pain
One organization, different audiences: management wants three metrics, regional managers want a full breakdown, analysts want everything. The solution was to duplicate — another workspace, another app, another copy of the same report.
02
The security pain
In the old workspace apps, app permission and model permission were two separate things. A user removed from an app could still be left with access to the model - and through it, to all the data.
03
the vision
An app is a Fabric item like any other: it lives in a workspace, goes into Git, passes through deployment pipelines, and is controlled via the API.
The convergence: Distribution, governance and security become a single point. The audience doesn't filter a view, but Navigation layer, and the permission extends to everything the app exposes and is revoked along with it.
Chapter V · Enterprise apps with audiences
The audience as navigation, not as a filter
Three architectures and three display configurations.
01
How many apps in a workspace
Each has its own content and experience: leadership, managers, department, meeting series.
02
One app with audiences
A consistent look, filtered navigation and content for every audience.
03
combination
Several apps, and inside each one, audiences for further segmentation.
Three navigation configurations
the configuration
When is it suitable
The All tab together with the audience tabs
When you want movement between a wide view and focused views
Hiding the All tab
When the audiences are the main navigation, and the first tab of each audience functions as a home page
Hiding the audience tabs
When you want a smooth experience where the visibility rules work in the background without the user being aware of them
✓ A user who belongs to only one audience won't see audience tabs anyway. For quick setup, you can duplicate an existing audience along with its visibility settings, and assign users to an audience directly from the sharing experience.
Chapter V · Enterprise apps with audiences
Permissions and lifecycle
The change that really matters is here, not in the interface.
Access distribution applies both to the items and to the semantic models behind them. Removing a user or removing content consistently revokes access, and no dangling access to models is left behind. This is secure-by-default behavior, which eliminates a familiar source of confusion from workspace apps.
The life cycle
✓The items are pulled directly from the workspace content, and updates flow to them automatically
✓You can do staging and controlled promotion via deployment pipelines or Git
✓API-Full APIs for creating, reading, updating, deleting and listing — for app items and for audience items as child items
✓In July, equivalent APIs were also added for Paginated Reports
An operational implication that's easy to miss: Since item updates flow automatically, there's no longer an "app publish" step acting as a gate. Editing a report in the production workspace is a change in production. Anyone who wants a control gate needs deployment pipelines or Git.
What else was added in July
01
bookmarks
both of the report's author and personal, inside the app.
02
Storytelling for PowerPoint
Adding report pages and live visuals from the app's content to a presentation.
03
Audiences on mobile
The audience experience reaches iOS and Android.
Chapter V · Enterprise apps with audiences
Migration — what needs to be planned
The most important design point in the chapter.
There's no published timeline for discontinuing support for workspace apps, and there's no migration tool. Workspace apps are fully supported alongside organizational apps.
Your situation
what to do
New distribution project
To start directly with enterprise applications. There's no reason to build on the old track
Dozens of existing apps
to plan a gradual transition. A transition is Manual rebuild — don't wait for a tool that doesn't exist
One central application
to recreate it as an organizational app in a parallel environment, test permissions, and only then replace
✓Efficient build order: First build the broadest audience with all the items, then duplicate it for each additional audience and toggle visibility off — much faster than building from scratch.
Chapter VI · Themes and Mobile
The three basic sets
Every report sits on a base theme. The choice of it determines the starting point of every visual.
Why Microsoft introduced this
In an organization, visual consistency isn’t aesthetics, it’s trust. A report where every page looks different creates uncertainty for the reader even when the data is correct — they don’t know if the color difference signals something. Until now, consistency was achieved by manual work on every visual, or in a JSON file that only one person in the organization knew how to edit.
Base set
When to choose it
Fluent 2 (preview)
Modern design aligned with Fluent 2. New reports get it automatically after enabling the preview
Classic 2026
the current default for new reports in Desktop
Classic 2018
Reports created before 2026, or when you want consistency with legacy reports in the organization
Replacement: View ← Themes ← Customize current theme ← the Base theme menu
What changes in Fluent 2
01
canvas
New pages sized 1920x1080, and a background and wallpaper in gray tones for better contrast.
02
Uniform formatting
Titles and subtitles are on, axis titles are off, padding is increased, and corners are rounded.
03
Style themes
For every visual type: a chart with an axis or with labels, a smooth or straight line, a button in Default, Outline, Transparent and Icon & Text states.
note: A custom theme applied on top of the base theme and overrides only what it explicitly defines. Also: Slicer as a dropdown by default and the Small multiples switch to a 1x4 layout instead of 2x2.
Chapter VI · Themes and Mobile
Priority order in design
The theme comes out of the JSON file and goes into the Format pane.
When the preview is on and no visual is selected, the format pane shows the theme settings. The change applies immediately to the whole report.
the segment
What can be changed
Colors
A built-in palette like Accessible Default, and data colors, structure, sentiment and diverging scales
Visual properties
background, border with thickness and corner radius, header icons, tooltip, shadow and padding — for all visuals at once
Page
Default page size, background color and wallpaper for all pages
Export theme
Export to a JSON file for use in other reports or to add to organizational theme sets
The priority order you must understand: Formatting applied manually to a single visual takes precedence always on the theme. So changing the theme will only update visuals that were left with the default formatting — which is why an old report "doesn’t respond" to a branding change.
Warning before resetting:Reset to default on an entire visual also removes button actions, conditional formatting rules, images from a URL or a field, and attribution labels. It's better to reset a single section in the formatting pane.
Chapter VI · Themes and Mobile
Mobile — the report on a small screen
A mobile layout isn't a shrunk desktop, it's a different report.
How it works: A mobile-optimized view is displayed only In the iOS and Android apps, and only in portrait mode. In the browser the report is always shown in the regular layout. Built in View > Mobile layout in Desktop, or via editing the report in the service.
Building both layouts togetherDuplicating a page duplicates both, so a page with a title and navigation serves as a template for the other pages.
Select only what mattersRecommended minimum size: 323 points wide for a large visual, 158 for a small one. Font no smaller than nine points.
Clean up noiseRemove axis titles, gridlines and legend; arrange navigation and slicers horizontally; reduce white space.
Testing an interactionTooltips are disabled on the editing canvas but work in the app. Slicer selections on the canvas don't carry over to the grid layout.
✓What this update adds to mobile: Audiences in the enterprise app now also work on iOS and Android, so each user sees exactly what's meant for them within the app — which significantly reduces the need for a separate mobile deployment per group.
Automatic responsiveness may clash with manual formatting. You can turn it off inGeneral > Properties > Advanced options.
Chapter VII · Bugs and Workarounds
16 bugs and workarounds
Based on the constraint clauses and official documentation. Worth reviewing before running this in production.
the phenomenon
the reason
The workaround
The script I wrote in the browser disappeared
In the browser, scripts aren't saved and are deleted when the model or browser closes
Copy to a file or to Git before closing the tab; work in VS Code with the TMDL extension
Changes in the service disappeared after publishing from Desktop
Publishing is a full replacement, not a merge
A single source of truth; restoration through the model's version history
Reports show a broken field error after a refresh
Turning off Auto date/time deleted the hidden date tables
Turn it back on as an immediate fix, and switch to an explicit date table as a permanent fix
The Locale field looks empty and can't be brought back
Some locales aren't displayed correctly in the dialog
Don't change the locale when the field is empty; recovery requires republishing from Desktop
Saving Model Options fails
Parallel changes through XMLA, or metadata cached in memory
make sure there's no concurrent write, close and reopen the dialog, and then try again
Model Options doesn't appear at all
You don't have write permission, or you're not in Model view
Confirm write permission and switch to Model view in Editing mode
Visuals broke after a rename in TMDL
Renaming a field doesn't update automatically in downstream visuals
Run Preview before Apply, and scan the dependent reports right after
Power Query shows different column names than the model
The sync is based on sourceColumn That keeps the original name
also change sourceColumn in the script if you want full identity, or document the separation
A change in a Power Query expression doesn't affect the data
TMDL changes metadata only and doesn't refresh
to refresh the table or the model manually after Apply
TMDL scripts didn't go into Git
Setting up an initial Git integration from the workspace doesn't include them
To move important scripts to the repository manually as tmdl files
Some commands in the Command palette don't work
A known limitation: the palette shows commands that aren't currently supported
To use the ribbon buttons and the documented keyboard shortcuts
Fluent 2 is not available in the service
In preview you can only enable the base theme in Desktop
create or update the report in Desktop and then publish. Also, Customize current theme is not available in the service
I swapped the base theme and the columns stayed the old size
Existing pages don't resize; only new pages
to update manually, or through the Page section in the theme pane that updates all the pages
The slicer looks like a list styled as a dropdown menu
A known behavior in the Fluent 2 preview
Perform Reset to default on the slicer to return it to dropdown mode
Reset to default deleted important settings
Resetting an entire visual removes button actions, conditional formatting, images from a field, and attribution labels
To reset a single section in the Format pane instead of the whole visual
The custom theme broke after moving to Fluent 2
Old themes don't always match the modern defaults
to undo the theme update and go back to the previous base theme until the JSON file is updated
Chapter VIII · Self-check
Quiz — 12 questions
One question at a time. A correct answer is colored green, an incorrect one red, and the correct answer is always revealed along with a full technical explanation.
What happens to a TMDL script you wrote in the browser after closing the tab?
explanation: This is one of four substantive differences between TMDL View in Desktop and the browser version. In Desktop, scripts are saved as part of the model, and in a PBIP project they come down as tmdl files in the TMDLScripts folder. In the browser, on the other hand, they are not saved at all and are deleted when the model or browser is closed — and even scripts previously saved in Desktop will not be shown there. Version history restores the the model after Apply, not the script you wrote.
To rename a column in TMDL, which object needs to be written as a script?
explanation: TMDL works in the object hierarchy of the tabular model, and renaming requires writing a script of the father of the object: a column belongs to a table, and a table belongs to the whole model. The reason is that the name is the object's identifier within its parent, so it's the createOrReplace operation on the parent that performs the replacement. It follows that a mass rename of tables needs to drag the whole model into the editor.
You downloaded the pbix, edited it in Desktop and republished. What happens to settings that were changed in the service in the meantime?
explanation: Publishing from Desktop is an operation of Full replacement of the model, not a merge. Desktop has no idea what happened in the service since the download, so it writes its own picture over everything. Changes made in the service don't sync back to the local file, and anything done there between the download and the publish is lost. This is why the only rule that works is a single source of truth per model: either Git and PBIP, or full management in the service — not a mix.
What's the risk of turning off Auto date/time from the browser in an enterprise model?
explanation: Auto date/time creates a hidden date table for every date column in an Import table, and the hierarchies users drag onto visuals are based on them. Turning the setting off deletes these tables, so any visual relying on such a hierarchy will show a broken-field error after the refresh. Note that this is one of only two settings in the dialog that take effect Immediately upon saving and not on the next refresh. The permanent fix is switching to an explicit date table and updating the reports.
What happens to the semantic model permission when a user is removed from an enterprise app?
explanation: This is the most important change in enterprise apps, and it's a security change, not a visual one. Propagated access applies both to the items and to the semantic models behind them, and the removal is consistent: there's no more dependent access left behind. In the old workspace apps, app permission and model permission were separate, so a removed user could remain with access to the data — and that was a silent exposure in every organization that turns over employees.
You applied a new theme and half the visuals didn't change. Why?
explanation: The priority order in formatting is: the base theme, above it a customized theme, and above both, formatting applied directly to a single visual in the format pane. So changing the theme only updates visuals that were left at default. The fix is to reset the relevant section in the format pane for every visual that was formatted manually — and not to do a Reset to default on the whole visual, since a full reset also removes button actions, conditional formatting, and field-based images.
How do you activate the Fluent 2 base theme in a report edited in the service?
explanation: In preview, the Fluent 2 base theme can only be turned on in Power BI Desktop, and the Customize current theme option and the options below it in the Themes menu aren't available in the service. To get the style in the service you have to build or update the report in Desktop and then publish. Also note that switching the base theme doesn't change the size of existing pages — only new pages get the new canvas.
Which settings in Model Options take effect immediately upon saving?
explanation: The settings split into two groups by what they change. Auto date/time and blocking DirectQuery change the model's structure and the permission to connect to it, so they take effect immediately. Type detection, Relationships, parallel loading and Locale affect Loading method of the data, so they only take effect on the next load or refresh. This distinction matters: changing the locale won't fix data that's already loaded until you run a refresh.
A model deployed through deployment pipelines — where can you edit it in the browser?
explanation: Browser editing is only supported in the pipeline's development environment; in test and production it's deliberately blocked, so that promotion between environments remains the only way to change production. This is one of five categories of models not supported for browser editing — alongside models that haven't been upgraded to the enhanced metadata format, models with automatic aggregations, models with a live connection, and models migrated from Azure Analysis Services. Hovering over the Open semantic model button will indicate which restriction applies.
How do you move a workspace app to an organizational app?
explanation: Microsoft has explicitly stated that there is no migration tool and no published timeline for ending support for Workspace apps, and they are fully supported in parallel. The planning implication: a new rollout project should start directly with enterprise apps, and an organization with existing apps should plan a gradual transition rather than waiting for a tool that does not exist. Build tip: first set up the broadest audience with all the items, then duplicate and toggle off visibility.
What happens to the data after Apply of a TMDL script that changed a Power Query expression?
explanation: TMDL changes Metadata only: it updates the object's definition in the model, but doesn't run a refresh and doesn't touch the report. So a change to a Power Query expression or a calculated column will sit in the model with no effect until you run a refresh of the table or model. The advantage of this behavior is that you can make dozens of structural changes without paying for a refresh on each one — the downside is that it's easy to forget to refresh and conclude the change didn't work.
After renaming a column in TMDL, what will the Power Query editor show?
explanation: The sync between the model table and the Power Query query is based on a property sourceColumn, which stays on the original name even after the column is renamed in the model. So the names become disconnected from each other: the editor will display sourceColumn, and renaming through the graphical interface won't add a rename step to the query as long as the two aren't identical. Anyone who wants full identity needs to also change sourceColumn in the script — otherwise it's worth documenting the separation so it doesn't confuse the team.
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Chapter VIII · Self-check
Summary and next steps
Ten rows that summarize the lesson.
topic
what to remember
the rationale
The semantic model turns from a file into a managed service, with TMDL as the format and Git as the source of truth
TMDL
Script, preview, apply cycle. Metadata only, no data refresh
TMDL in the browser
Preview, two working modes, scripts aren't saved, write permission required
rename
Requires the parent's script, and disconnects the model name fromsourceColumn
Model Options
Auto date/time and blocking DirectQuery immediately; everything else on the next refresh
override
Publishing from Desktop is a full replacement. There's no sync back to the pbix
protection
Automatic saving without undo; version history is the only safety net
Enterprise applications
An audience is a navigation structure, not a filter. The permission spreads to the model and disappears with it
migration
There's no migration tool — moving is a rebuild
Themes
Manual formatting on a visual overrides the theme. Fluent 2 in Desktop only at this stage
You finished the updates module
The last two updates point in the same direction: logic, model, and report — everything becomes code that can be managed, versioned, and tested.