A BISM Tabular model can be browsed in Excel by using just the standard PivotTable like it was a regular Analysis Services cube (that now we call a Multidimensional model). If you are used to PowerPivot, this seems a limitation, because you cannot interact  Read more

In an Analysis Services cube you can define drillthrough actions on a cube. This feature has been working since SQL 2005 and now it will be available in both BISM Multidimensional and BISM Tabular in the next version of SQL Server “Denali”. In the current  Read more

In the PowerPivot book and in the PowerPivot Workshop I mentioned the difference between implicit and explicit measures. The use of implicit measures might be confusing because at the end they are automatically created and maintained by the user interface  Read more

It seems that the next SQLBits will be larger than ever! The SQLBits 9 will take place in Liverpool from 29th September to 1st October 2011. It will be hard to get a nicer weather than in Brighton, but we will try to bring a bit of sun from Italy! I and  Read more

Alberto Ferrari published an interesting blog post regarding how to write particular calculations over a parent-child hierarchy in PowerPivot Denali (and in BISM Tabular, of course). One case is the Sum of Leaves (summing only the leaves of a parent-child  Read more

When you install Analysis Services Denali, chances are that you create an instance for Tabular that is not the default instance for Analysis Services. When you try to create a Tabular project, you might get the following error: You cannot open the BIM  Read more

If you have 30 seconds available, please vote the following items on Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/679618/import-attribute-key-from-ssas-in-powerpivot When you import data coming from an Analysis Services cube in PowerPivot,  Read more

Microsoft released the CTP3 of Microsoft SQL Server Code Name “Denali”, as you can see in the SSAS product group blog post . This is the first public release of Denali and after many months of forced silence (I was under NDA) I can finally write my first  Read more

I and Alberto Ferrari will present a DAX Deep Dive training day at SQLBits 9 in Liverpool, on September 29th. The conference will continue on September 30th and October 1st. Registrations are not yet open, but you should definitely save the date for SQLBits!  Read more

As Chris announced in his blog, some of the sessions from the SQLBits 8 in Brighton are already available (for free!). Yesterday I watched more than half of my BISM Introduction session just to check that no NDA was broken. And, believe it or not, the  Read more