We are pleased to announce a significant milestone in the evolution of Power BI modeling tools – Power BI Desktop is now compatible with any semantic model in Fabric.
Previously, models with multiple partitions and tabular data sources, containing metadata typically found in enterprise deployments or Azure Analysis Services, could not be edited using Power BI modeling tools. Now, these models can be opened for editing with Power BI Desktop and Fabric web modelling, and any metadata not accessible through the user interface can be edited using TMDL view.
External tools have become part of the Power BI ecosystem, particularly for semantic modeling. This update is very important for external tool users. Previously, certain write operations, such as adding new tables or editing query expressions, were not possible. Now, external tools can be used for any write operations on the semantic model running in Power BI Desktop.
Illustrated in the examples is an Azure Analysis Services model, featuring table partitions, that have been migrated into Fabric and opened for editing in the service.
Edit queries
The user interface of Power BI Desktop does not support editing queries of partitioned tables or using legacy data sources. Consequently, these tables will not appear in the Power Query editor, and you must use the TMDL view to edit the queries of these tables.
The example shows editing a partitioned table query with a provider data source in TMDL view:
Refresh
You can refresh tables with partitions and tabular data sources in Power BI Desktop, although for this initial release refresh using the ribbon will skip these tables and you must refresh using the right-click context menu in the data pane:
When using data sources, you might get prompted to provide credentials:
And just like any data source, the credentials are saved in Power BI Desktop data source settings.
In summary
With this update, you’re no longer required to rely on external tools to edit a semantic model running in Fabric. At the same time, it enhances interoperability between external tools and Power BI Desktop, enabling them to do even more.