Forum Discussion

rnola16's avatar
rnola16
Advocate II
11 months ago

Create Semantic Model as in Business Objects

We are transitioning to PBI from Business Objects. Currently in Bus Obj, users would use the Universe and build their own queries for their choice of time periods. These tables are huge, runs into 2...
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v-pnaroju-msft's avatar
v-pnaroju-msft
Community Support
10 months ago

Hi rnola16,

Thank you for the follow up.

Based on my understanding, Power BI does not currently offer a query panel equivalent to the SAP BO Universe that allows users to build ad-hoc queries directly against the semantic model without interacting with visuals or writing DAX. Power BI’s architecture is centred on semantic datasets. Ad-hoc access is typically provided through connected tools and views rather than through an internal query builder.

If your requirement is for user driven, ad-hoc querying without modifying the model, the following options may be helpful:

  1. Analyze in Excel which allows users to drag and drop fields and apply filters in Excel directly against the Power BI dataset without editing the dataset.
  2. XMLA endpoint connectivity which enables Excel, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and third party BI tools to query the Power BI semantic model as if it were a cube, supporting large scale concurrent access.
  3. Perspectives allow creation of simplified, business friendly views of large models so that users see only the fields relevant to them.
  4. Fabric datamarts which provide a SQL endpoint and a visual query editor for no-code data exploration.

If you require a native query panel experience identical to SAP BO Universe, that functionality is not available at present. You may consider submitting this requirement as a feature request in the Microsoft Fabric Ideas Forum using the link: Fabric Ideas - Microsoft Fabric Community

For further reading, please refer to the following links:
Create Excel workbooks with refreshable Power BI data - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Power BI semantic model experience in Excel - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Semantic model connectivity and management with the XMLA endpoint in Power BI - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
Perspectives in Analysis Services tabular models | Microsoft Learn
Introduction to datamarts - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

We hope that the information provided will help to address the issue. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact the Microsoft Fabric community.

Thank you.