Microsoft has recently released the latest web designer which has been named Azure Analysis Services (AAS) Web Designer. It is being expected that this browser-based web designer will enable the developers to create and manage the semantic models of Azure Analysis Services, more quickly and easily. This might not seem a new approach to many developers out there but before they flip the book cover, let it be known that unlike SQL Server Data Tools and SQL Server Management Studio, the AAS web designer aims to provide a new experience to the developers and will aid in making simpler changes in an effective and efficient manner.
The initial release comes with three main functionalities:
– Model creation.
– Model editing.
– Designing queries.
Features of AAS Web Designer:
With the Azure Analysis Services Web Designer, the developer can create a new model directly from the Azure SQL Data Warehouse and SQL Database. It also provides the developer with an option to import an entire model from a Power Business Intelligence Desktop PBIX files. While in the process of creating the model from the database, you can easily choose as which table to include and which one to omit. After a few clicks and ticks, a developer will have a pretty nice Direct Query Model added to the data source in no time. Once the model has been created, the developers can enjoy the privilege of viewing the model’s metadata, adding several measures and editing the tabular model scripting language (TMSL) JSON.
Moreover, there are options which provide the developer with a rich and interactive experience such as the shortcuts which have been put there to open the models in a Power BI Desktop, spreadsheets and even has the shortcut to open up a Visual Studio project which is coded directly from the model. Last but not the least, using the AAS web designer, you can create queries to test the model and also to check the validity of the measures you applied on the model.
This was a brief intro of the AAS web designer. There are many other features which we will be unveiling in our articles to come. Till next time.
