Microsoft launches new tabular model definition language for Power BI

Microsoft has announced the end of support date for Power BI Desktop on Windows 8.1. Recently, the tech giant’s premier data analytics platform also introduced TypeScript support and other new features.

Today, a new Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL) for Power BI was launched and is now available in public preview.

TMDL is required due to the highly complex BIM files extracted from the huge semantic data model created using Power BI. Traditionally containing model metadata in Tabular Model Scripting Language (TMSL), this file is considered difficult to process further. Additionally, collaboration in the form of multiple developers working on the same model can also be quite an arduous process.

• Use a human-readable format similar to YAML syntax. Each table metadata object has a text representation with minimal delimiters. Indentation is used to indicate parent-child relationships between objects.
• Better editing experience, especially for properties containing DAX and M expressions.
• A standard folder output format in which each model object has a separate file representation, making TMDL more source control friendly and ideal for collaboration.

Currently, TMDL allows serialization of model metadata into multiple text files, as well as reading and reconverting folders containing TMDL text files into appropriate tabular object models ( TOM). In the future, Microsoft plans to release an open source VS Code extension for a better TMDL editing experience. The tech giant is also integrating TMDL into more Microsoft tools, with all community-developed tools that write tabular model metadata files now supporting adoption of TMDL.

You can learn more about TMDL by viewing its documentation here. Those who are interested in starting using it right away can follow the steps mentioned here.

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