Import data from Analyses Services without MDX (for business users)

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

We are important Data from Analyses Services into Power BI.

The challenge we are finding is that we can't filter on the data before importing into Power BI. Therefore it takes significanlty long to import and also loads unnsessery data.

For instance, if we want to see Sales by Year, instead of importing every year available in the CUBE, we would want to import only the current and previous year.

I do know this is possible by MDX, but the issue with this is when business users are doing their own analysis (Self Service) in Power BI.

So the question is:

Is there a non technical way for users import data and filter before hand without the use of MDX, SQL or DAX?

[cwebb · Accepted solution]

Hi Laz,

Yes, it is possible to filter data from a cube without using MDX - you can do this in the Query Editor window just the same as with other data sources. After you have connected to Analysis Services and made an initial selection of data in the Navigator pane, click the Edit button:

You can then select more measures and attributes by clicking the Add Items on the Cube Tools/Manage tab on the ribbon in the Query Editor:

 

Once you have added your Year attribute you can then filter the years that are imported by clicking on the dropdown menu in the left-hand side of the Year column:

Doing this will change the MDX query that is generated to only include the selected years - however you need to be careful, because there are some things you can do in the Query Editor that will stop the filtering from taking place in the MDX query, something I blogged about here:

https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2018/05/10/how-to-tell-whether-query-folding-is-taking-place-when-impor...

HTH,

Chris

[Syndicate_Admin · Accepted solution]

Hi Laz,

Yes, it is possible to filter data from a cube without using MDX - you can do this in the Query Editor window just the same as with other data sources. After you have connected to Analysis Services and made an initial selection of data in the Navigator pane, click the Edit button:

You can then select more measures and attributes by clicking the Add Items on the Cube Tools/Manage tab on the ribbon in the Query Editor:

 

Once you have added your Year attribute you can then filter the years that are imported by clicking on the dropdown menu in the left-hand side of the Year column:

Doing this will change the MDX query that is generated to only include the selected years - however you need to be careful, because there are some things you can do in the Query Editor that will stop the filtering from taking place in the MDX query, something I blogged about here:

https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2018/05/10/how-to-tell-whether-query-folding-is-taking-place-when-impor...

HTH,

Chris

[cwebb · Accepted solution]

Hi Laz,

Yes, it is possible to filter data from a cube without using MDX - you can do this in the Query Editor window just the same as with other data sources. After you have connected to Analysis Services and made an initial selection of data in the Navigator pane, click the Edit button:

You can then select more measures and attributes by clicking the Add Items on the Cube Tools/Manage tab on the ribbon in the Query Editor:

 

Once you have added your Year attribute you can then filter the years that are imported by clicking on the dropdown menu in the left-hand side of the Year column:

Doing this will change the MDX query that is generated to only include the selected years - however you need to be careful, because there are some things you can do in the Query Editor that will stop the filtering from taking place in the MDX query, something I blogged about here:

https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2018/05/10/how-to-tell-whether-query-folding-is-taking-place-when-impor...

HTH,

Chris

[Anonymous]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your reply!

It was super helpful and gave us the answer we was looking for 

Thanks,

Laz