Tabular tools and workspaces - Unplugged #11

What are the differences between Power BI Desktop, Visual Studio, and Tabular Editor as modeling tools?
Introducing the workspace is important to understand why Tabular Editor results in being more flexible and productive.
Read more about the "unplugged" format: www.sqlbi.com/...
#unplugged

[@DarkOri3nt]

Its worth mentioning that on your point about numerous changes that it is better practice in general with the tabular model because you can sync the project to a source controlled environment like azure devops to monitor changes and releases aswell. Power bi is lacking this functionality. Also that it is good practice after changing a model to reopen the solution in visual studio after making changes using tabular editor to validate and build the model to see if your changes are valid and not erroneous.

[@SQLBI]

Good points. The video was intended to be an explanation of how the architecture works. More content about Tabular Editor is already available in other videos, and we'll produce more content about that in the future.

[@DarkOri3nt]

@@SQLBI your videos as always are awesome guys keep up the good work with all of it. My intention was to add onto the already amazing overview you provided for tabular editor. I'm interested to see where Daniel will take the tool and the sort of pricing model he's going to go with. Microsoft should be investing in these external tools they are a life saver.

[@vanlessing]

found that vid by accident. Not much views. But I just started with TE2 and all the context provided here ++++++++. Thnx

[@khardu]

I am a complete newbie to this stuff. It started making sense to me when Marco began using Tabular Editor. At that point, I understood why we are doing such an exercise :) Thank you Marco for this great video, it certainly taught new things.

[@antoniogarrido3058]

Really interesting description of the engine room of tabular object model... thanks again for such a high clearly and well explained information.

[@gFowmy]

This made it clear how different tools work with the model Thanks Marco!

[@kadirkkkk]

24:00 I have a 6.gen i7 processor so i mean it's not fast. So when i use tabular editor i feel it is way much faster then PowerBI when altering measures etc. So it was so clear it's working in memory and apply all changes only when i click save button. But anyway, this video content be as a proof of my thoughts. Thank you so much

[@sarva0483]

Great information to understand the Process in detail..Thank you

[@scramiro1]

Very nice explained. I learnt a lot about these tools and AS. Thanks Marco!

[@dmitriypo1]

Thank you very much for this great explanation, Marco! I always watch your videos with great interest and always learn something new out of them.

[@user-gk7ds5lp6z]

Brightly explanation! 💪 Thanks a lot!

[@smartdata678]

Thanks Marco! Super clear and useful as always! :)

[@joaquinsantiagocarrazcoobr2207]

Excellent explanation and very useful

[@aspacsa1]

As always, a very educative video!

[@lbarbyery]

DAX Studio and Tabular Editor fill a lack of advanced features. I understand the priority in a self-service solution, in this moment and hope that Microsoft some day improve the investiment in advanced features. For now I hope that they help these free softwares like Tabular e Dax Studio

[@SQLBI]

Not likely to happen in the next 1-2 years (at least). I suggest you read these for more details and explanation: powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/community-tools-for-enterprise-powerbi-and-analysisservices/ www.sqlbi.com/articles/development-tools-for-tabular-models-in-2021/

[@awer45t]

Excellent video. What would be the use cases for using Visual Studio rather than Power BI desktop?

[@SQLBI]

Deploy to Azure Analysis Services, or Power BI service controlling features not available in Power BI Desktop. However, we would use Tabular Editor 3 rather than Visual Studio today.

[@pcorvalan109]

HI Marco, thanks for this video! Is it possible to use tabular editor connected to a model in Excel ?

[@SQLBI]

No, Power Pivot for Excel cannot be used with external editors.

[@copinhenry]

Ciao Marco great video. I was wondering do you have any plan to make a video about when to use PBI premium or when to stick with Azure AS or ssas. It seems that microsoft is really pushing to move to PBI premium but it would be great to have your thoughts on that

[@SQLBI]

This depends on licensing/features that could change very often and we don't record videos that could have a short lifetime. Take a look at the "Latest news" section on our last newsletter: www.sqlbi.com/nl/v/2255/ There is a link to an article with a cost comparison between PBI Premium and Azure AS.

[@Henrik.Vestergaard]

Great video. 'Offline' batch editing in Tabular editor and then saving to Analysis server subsequently is just marvelous. Any news on release time for Tabular editor 3?

[@SQLBI]

Tabular Editor 3 should be announced by end of March... we should be close!

[@krishraj4]

Hi Marco, superb video as usual. One related question - I have a premium workspace with multiple datasets. Is there a way to run a simple MDX query (like SELECT * FROM $System.DISCOVER_M_EXPRESSIONS ) for all datasets available in that workspace via DAX Studio/SSMS? Thanks in advance.

[@marcorusso7472]

No, neither in DAX nor MDX. Every database is separated from that point of view, there are certain DMV that you can query at the system administrator level like select * from $SYSTEM.DBSCHEMA_CATALOGS but most of the DMV working on data for a specific dataset/database only work for the catalog specified in the connection string.

[@bertalanronai2182]

You could use powershell for this. I just started using that 2 weeks ago and I think it's not hard to write it.

[@krishraj4]

@@bertalanronai2182 can you pls share the same if possible. I am novice in powershell. Thanks for help.

[@MortenHannibalsenOlsen]

I wonder which you consider best practice: connecting Tabular Editor to the model in Power BI Desktop or directly on the Power BI Service?

[@SQLBI]

It depends. If you only modify properties supported in PBI Desktop, then you can use it that way. If you want full access to all the model properties in Tabular Editor without any restrictions, you should maintain the model in Tabular Editor and deploy it to PBI Service (please note that downloading the PBIX will be no longer possible). You can see supported operations here: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/desktop-external-tools Other changes might work, but they are not supported by Microsoft - which means you cannot call MS Support is something crashes.

[@Reduce_Scan]

HI Marco, thanks for this video How can I use MDX in PivotTable

[@SQLBI]

A PivotTable in Excel always uses MDX.

[@Reduce_Scan]

Excuse me, did the table name change in Power Bi Makes the name change on Database

[@SQLBI]

Once you activate the Power BI window, Power BI "sees" the changes made to the model and updates the UI as well. You just have to click on Power BI window to obtain that.

[@HariharasudanP]

@Marco - While partition in TE for model and further update, it seems model is not compatible. Is there any fix in TE 3.0 version ?

[@SQLBI]

Please, can you clarify the question?

[@HariharasudanP]

@@SQLBI thanks for response. Let me clarify. For ex: we create partitions using tabular editor. Once we create in PBI dataset, it seems it becomes incompatible for further edit. This seems to be happening only during partitions and not with perspectives. Have you faced similar issues ? Does this issue will resolve in tabular editor V3.0 ?

[@SQLBI]

If you create partitions on Power BI service, the PBIX file cannot be downloaded (any change to the model through XMLA endpoint has the same limitations), but Tabular Editor should be able to edit the model. Creating partitions in Power BI Desktop is not supported - supported operations are described here: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/desktop-external-tools

[@HariharasudanP]

@@SQLBI thank you. Any limitations on creating partitions in tabular editor ? Do you recommend SSDT or tabular editor for creating partitions ? We are facing some compatible issues with partitions created using tabular editor

[@SQLBI]

Post your Tabular Editor issue here (checking whether the same issue has already been posted), thanks! github.com/otykier/TabularEditor/issues