Power Bi Model Documenter Download
Sebrina Trottier
Time fore new enhancements to the Power BI model Documenter tool! I just presented the new enhanced version of the Power BI model Documenter at the Dutch Power BI User group. Soon, there will also be a recording online of the presentation that I will add to this post as soon as it is available.
Back in 2020, I released the first version of the Power BI external tool to document your Power BI data model. Since then, I wrote a lot about this topic, such as why adding descriptions to everything is important and various releases of the model documenter.
The Power BI Model Documenter is primarily focused on documentation purposes. The tool will only extract information that is part of your data model. This is done by taking benefit of the VPAX file extension, which includes meta data of Tabular Models.
This is one of the best external tools I have seen. The evolution between the two version is beautiful. Congratulations on this amazing work!
I have one question. Can we connect an XMLA endpoint in PBI Service? if not, do you think that might be a good feature for V3? I would like to keep the doc up to date when something is changed in the model.
Again amazing work guys!
So you can open SQL Server Management Studio, connect to an instance of SSAS (Tabular model for the sake of this post) and run the following query to get lots of information about tables in your Tabular model:
In SSAS Tabular 2016 and above there is a tiny metadata database that can be loaded in Power BI Desktop or Excel to document the corresponding SSAS Tabular model. The database is a SQLite database. In the previous post I explained how to visualise SQLite data in Power BI. The requirements for this post are the same as the previous post, so I encourage you to check it out. Therefore, I just explain how to find the metadata file and how to build a model in Power BI Desktop. I also explain how to do the same in Excel for those of you who would like to add some annotations or comments to the outcomes.
I built a report like below that contains two pages. One report page provides general information about the model and the second one shows more details about measures and KPIs including expressions and formatting.
A while back I created the Tabular Model Documenter Power BI model that can connect to your SSAS Tabular or Power BI model and display metadata about the model to help you see relationships, calculations, source queries, and more. I had been meaning to turn it into a parameterized template since templates became available and just finally got around to it.
I am trying to use the template but am getting the query.firewall error from your previous post on this. I do not have any perspectives so am thinking that might be causing an issue. What would you suggest. 2016 tabular model.
Power BI has a vibrant community of business intelligence professionals and developers. Community contributors create free tools that use Power BI and Analysis Services APIs to extend and integrate with Power BI Desktop's data modeling and reporting features.
The External Tools ribbon provides easy access to external tools that are installed locally and registered with Power BI Desktop. When launched from the External Tools ribbon, Power BI Desktop passes the name and port number of its internal data model engine instance and the current model name to the tool. The tool then automatically connects, providing a seamless connection experience.
Semantic modeling - Open-source tools such as DAX Studio, ALM Toolkit, Tabular Editor, and Metadata Translator extend Power BI Desktop functionality for specific data modeling scenarios such as Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) query and expression optimization, application lifecycle management (ALM), and metadata translation.
Data analysis - Tools for connecting to a model in read-only to query data and perform other analysis tasks. For example, a tool might launch Python, Excel, and Power BI Report Builder. The tool connects the client application to the model in Power BI Desktop for testing and analysis without having to first publish the Power BI Desktop (pbix) file to the Power BI service. Tools to document a Power BI semantic model also fall into this category.
Power BI Desktop (pbix) files consist of multiple components including the report canvas, visuals, model metadata, and any data that was loaded from data sources. When Power BI Desktop opens a pbix file, it launches an Analysis Services process in the background to load the model so that the data modeling features and report visuals can access model metadata and query model data.
When Power BI Desktop launches Analysis Services as its analytical data engine, it dynamically assigns a random port number. It also loads the model with a randomly generated name in the form of a globally unique identifier (GUID). Because these connection parameters change with every Power BI Desktop session, it's difficult for external tools to discover on their own the correct Analysis Services instance and model to connect to. External tools integration solves this problem by allowing Power BI Desktop to send the Analysis Services server name, port number, and model name to the tool as command-line parameters when starting the external tool from the External Tools ribbon, as shown in the following diagram.
With the Analysis Services Server name, port number, and model name, the tool uses Analysis Services client libraries to establish a connection to the model, retrieve metadata, and execute DAX or MDX queries. Whenever an external data modeling tool updates the metadata, Power BI Desktop synchronizes the changes so that the Power BI Desktop user interface reflects the current state of the model accurately. Keep in mind there are some limitations to the synchronization capabilities as described later.
External tools, which connect to Power BI Desktop's Analysis Services instance, can make changes (write operations) to the data model. Power BI Desktop then synchronizes those changes with the report canvas so they're shown in report visuals. For example, external data modeling tools can override the original format string expression of a measure, and edit any of the measure properties including KPIs and detail rows. External tools can also create new roles for object and row-level security, and add translations.
PowerModels.jl is a Julia/JuMP package for Steady-State Power Network Optimization. It provides utilities for parsing and modifying network data (see PowerModels Network Data Format for details), and is designed to enable computational evaluation of emerging power network formulations and algorithms in a common platform.
The code is engineered to decouple Problem Specifications (e.g. Power Flow, Optimal Power Flow, ...) from the Formulation Details (e.g. AC, DC approximation, SOC relaxation, ...). This enables the definition of a wide variety of power network formulations and their comparison on common problem specifications.
IAMC Wiki provides an overview of the IAM models using a transparent wiki-based approach that has been used consistently across a range of models. This allows for direct comparison of these models. In addition to the harmonized model documentation, also Model comparison allow for direct comparisons.
760c119bf3