BI Pixie Semantic Model
The BI Pixie semantic model is the Power BI semantic model behind the BI Pixie Dashboard. BI Pixie installs it in your Microsoft Fabric workspace together with the dashboard, as described in Set up BI Pixie Dashboard. You can connect to this semantic model from Power BI Desktop to build your own custom reports on top of your engagement data.
This page documents the tables, columns, and relationships in the semantic model. For the measures and calculated metrics, see the BI Pixie Metrics reference.
Fact Tables
Fact tables store the transactional event data captured by BI Pixie.
Report Sessions
One row per user session at the report level. A session starts when a user opens a report and ends after a period of inactivity (configurable timeout).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| User Key | The viewer identifier: an email address, a masked ID or a masked IP address, depending on your settings (links to Users). |
| Report Key | Report identifier (links to Reports). |
| Session Start Date | Date of the session start (links to Calendar). |
| Session Start / Session End | Timestamp when the session began and ended. |
| Duration (Sec) | Session duration in seconds. |
| Unique Pages Viewed | Number of distinct pages the user viewed in this session. |
| Pages Interaction Count | Total count of active interactions across all pages in this session. |
| Platform | Access platform (links to Platforms). |
Page Sessions
One row per page-level session. Each time a user navigates to a page within a report, a page session is created.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| User Key | The viewer identifier: an email address, a masked ID or a masked IP address, depending on your settings (links to Users). |
| Report Page Key | Page identifier (links to Pages). |
| Session Start Date | Date of the page session start (links to Calendar). |
| Session Start / Session End | Timestamp when the user arrived at and left the page. |
| Duration (Sec) | Time spent on this page, in seconds. |
| Session Interactions | Count of active interactions on this page. |
| Recalculations | Number of visual interaction events (cross-filtering triggers). |
| Slicing Count | Number of slicer interactions. |
| Tooltip Views | Number of tooltip hover events. |
| Other Actions | Count of other interaction types. |
| Page Index | The position of the page within the report (0-based). |
Events
Raw individual event records. Each row is a single user interaction: a bookmark click, a link click, a drill-through, a slicer selection, a visual click, or a feedback response.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Event Type | Type of event: Bookmark, Drillthru, Feedback, Filter, Link, Page, RLS, Sense, Slicer, Tooltip, or VizClick. |
| Created On | Timestamp of the event. |
| Visual Name / Visual Type / Visual ID | The visual involved in the interaction. |
| Bookmark | Name of the bookmark clicked (for Bookmark events). |
| Link | URL of the link clicked (for Link events). |
| Filtered Column / Filtered Values | The column and values selected through slicers or filters. |
| Username / Client IP | The viewer's user identifier, and a masked form of the viewer's IP address that does not reveal the address itself. |
| Platform | Access platform (Desktop, Web, Mobile, or Mobile App). |
Feedback
One row per feedback click. Stores responses from the feedback controls.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Feedback | Numeric value: 1 (positive), 0 (neutral), -1 (negative). |
| Feedback Button | The button style used (thumbs, smile, etc.). |
| Created On | Timestamp of the feedback submission. |
Survey
One row per survey answer submission. Stores responses from embedded surveys.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Feedback | Numeric value of the survey answer (e.g., NPS rating 0-10, hours saved, monetary value). |
| Answer | Text label of the answer option selected by the user. |
| Question Key | Identifier linking to the Survey Questions dimension. |
| Created On | Timestamp of the survey response. |
Survey Latest
A calculated table that keeps only the latest survey response per user, per report, per question. Used when the "Latest Response" survey calc type is selected. Has the same columns as the Survey table (User Key, Report Key, Question Key, Answer, Feedback, Date), with only the most recent row per user-report-question retained.
Data Selections
Tracks data values selected through slicers, filters, and visual interactions. Used in the Data Auditing page. Excludes RLS events (those go to the RLS Events table).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Filtered Table | The semantic model table being filtered. |
| Filtered Column | The column being filtered. |
| Filtered Values | The actual values selected. |
| Filtered Distinct Count | Number of distinct values in the selection. |
RLS Events
Row-Level Security audit events. One row per RLS filter observation. Used in the RLS Auditing page.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| RLS Role | The RLS role applied to the user. |
| Filtered Table / Filtered Column / Filtered Values | The table, column, and values that RLS restricts. |
| Filtered Distinct Count | Number of distinct allowed values. |
| RLS Expected Rows | Expected row count based on the RLS filter. |
| RLS Actual Rows | Actual row count loaded by the user. A discrepancy between expected and actual indicates potential overexposure. |
| Session Index | Session identifier for grouping RLS events within a session. |
Clicks by Visual
Visual-level click events. Each row is a click on a specific visual, including the selected value and column. Used in the Heatmap pages. Requires visual-level click tracking to be enabled (see Use Heatmap).
Dimension Tables
Reports
One row per tracked report.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Report Name | Display name of the report. |
| Project | Project grouping that maps to the BI Pixie item, one row per project, typically one project per Fabric workspace. |
| Report URL | Direct link to open the report in Microsoft Fabric. |
| Report ID | Power BI report identifier. |
| External Semantic Model | Name of the external semantic model (if the report uses a shared semantic model). |
| Instrumented At / First Instrumentation Date | When BI Pixie tracking was last added / first added to this report. |
Pages
One row per report page across all tracked reports.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Page Name | Display name of the page. |
| Page Index | Position of the page within the report (0-based). |
| Page URL | Direct link to open this specific page in Power BI. |
| Height / Width | Page dimensions in pixels (from layout scan). |
Users
A calculated table of distinct users derived from all event data. The User Key identifies each viewer by an email address, a masked ID or a masked IP address, depending on your settings. BI Pixie collects viewer user names only when you turn on Capture user identity, and then the choice on the Account page decides whether it keeps the email address, a masked ID, or nothing. Until then, BI Pixie counts viewers by a masked IP address.
Internal Users
Optional user enrichment table. When you upload an employee directory, this table adds organizational context: Person Name, Department, Division, Region, and Manager hierarchy.
External Users
Optional table for external (B2B guest) user attributes with hierarchical grouping levels.
Workspaces
One row per Microsoft Fabric workspace that contains tracked reports. Includes Workspace Name, Workspace URL, and the last known Capacity ID.
Capacities
Microsoft Fabric and Power BI capacities with SKU information. Column SKU and Capacity Name combines the capacity SKU with its display name.
Calendar
Date dimension table with Date, Year, Month, Quarter, Year-Month, Year-Week, and Day of Week columns.
Time
Time-of-day dimension for analyzing usage patterns by hour.
Platforms
Access platforms: Desktop, Web, Mobile, and Mobile App.
Event Types
Lookup table for event type names: Bookmark, Drillthru, Feedback, Filter, Link, Page, RLS, Sense, Slicer, Tooltip, and VizClick.
Survey Questions
Lookup table mapping question keys to question labels for the five survey questions: NPS, Reported Issues, Time Saving, Faster Decisions, and Financial Gains.
Answers
Lookup table of all possible survey answer options with their numeric feedback values, linked to Survey Questions.
Feedback Icons
Lookup table mapping feedback scores to icon labels (positive, neutral, negative).
Scan Tables (Layout Metadata)
These tables store the report layout metadata collected by BI Pixie for heatmap and design impact analysis. They use a Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) pattern to track layout changes over time.
Visuals
One row per visual across all tracked pages. Used for heatmap positioning and custom visual analysis.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Visual ID | Unique identifier of the visual within the page. |
| Visual Display Name | Title or name of the visual. |
| Visual Type | GUID of the visual type (links to All Visual Types). |
| X / Y / Z / Width / Height | Position and dimensions on the page canvas. |
| Tab Order | Accessibility tab order of the visual. |
Visual Scans / Page Scans / Report Scans
Historical scan records with SCD tracking. Each scan captures the layout at a point in time (Since/Until dates). Page Scans include counts of visuals, slicers, table visuals, tooltip pages, and drillthrough pages per page. Report Scans track bookmark counts.
All Visual Types
Reference table of Power BI visual types with GUID, display name, Source (Built-in, AppSource, Organization), Publisher, certification state, and description.
Visual Trust Levels
Maps visual states (Certified, Not Certified, Unlisted, Unknown) to trust levels and color codes for the Custom Visuals Heatmap.
Field Parameter Tables
With field parameters, a Power BI feature, you can switch which measure a visual displays. BI Pixie uses field parameters to power the metric selection slicers in the dashboard. Each table below defines a set of measures that users can switch between using a slicer. When you select a metric in the slicer, the corresponding DAX measure is used in the visual.
| Table | Available Metrics |
|---|---|
| Activity Metrics | Report Sessions, Page Sessions, Visual Interactions, Slicer Clicks, Bookmark Clicks, Tooltip Opens, Drillthroughs, Link Clicks |
| User Adoption Metrics | Total Users, Engaged Users, Passive Users, % Active Users, % Passive Users, DAU, MAU, Share who come back daily, DAU (not passive), MAU (not passive), Engaged share back daily, WAU, WAU (not passive), Share who come back weekly, Engaged share back weekly |
| Report Session Metrics | Avg Session Duration (Sec), Report Sessions, Interactive Sessions, Passive Sessions, % Interactive Sessions, Report Interactions, Total Hours, Avg Duration of Interactive Sessions, Avg Duration of Passive Sessions |
| Page Session Metrics | Avg Interactions per Session, Avg Time Spent in Page (sec), Page Sessions, Interactive Page Sessions, Passive Page Sessions, % Interactive Page Sessions |
| Business Outcome Metrics | Adoption: MAU, Adoption: Share who come back daily, Engagement: Interactive Sessions, Feedback: CSAT, Survey: NPS, Survey: Financial Gains, Survey: Hours of Savings |
| Design Attributes | Complexity Score, Usability Score, Passivity Score, Visuals per Page, # of Visuals, # of Columns in Table Visuals, # of Table Visuals, # of Objects, # of Bookmarks, # of Slicers, # of Tooltip Pages, # of Drillthru Pages |
| RLS Metric | Users with Secured Rows, Users with Single Roles, Users with Unmatched or Multiple Roles, Users with Suspicious Changes in RLS, Row-Level Secured Page Views, RLS Views with Single Roles, RLS Views with Unmatched or Multiple Roles, Suspicious Changes in RLS, RLS Views with Over-Blocking |
Calculation Groups
Calculation groups automatically apply to measures in your visuals when you add their column to the Columns or Filters well. The semantic model includes two calculation groups:
- Time Calcs: Applies time intelligence calculations to any measure (Current, Total, MTD, QTD, YTD, PM, MOM, MOM%, PY, YOY, YOY%, Running Avg/Total 7/30 days, and period-over-period variants). Add the Time Calcs.Calc column to a slicer to let users choose the time calculation. See Time Intelligence for the full list.
- Scan Attributes: Switches between page-level and visual-level aggregation of layout metadata. Select Page Attribute to see metrics like Visuals per Page; select Visual Attribute to see individual visual properties like position and size. With this switch, the layout metrics come from the historical snapshot in the scan data that matches the date selected in the report.
What's Next
- BI Pixie Metrics: Detailed reference of all calculated metrics and their formulas.
- BI Pixie Dashboard: Walkthrough of all dashboard pages.
- Data Residency: Store your engagement telemetry in your own OneLake lakehouse.
- Set up Dashboard: Load your engagement data into the dashboard.