Native DAX support

Background

[Version: 2021 - Summer]
[Build: 21222]

Microsoft Tabular Databases utilizes the DAX language, while OLAP databases relies on MDX for querying.

Tabular Databases we're introduced with SQL Server 2012 and has since been developed further with every release of SQL Server, while the OLAP technology has been more or less static.

Furthermore - Azure Analysis Services is based on Tabular only - OLAP isn't offered as a cloud database.

TARGIT and Tabular

TARGIT has been able to connect to Tabular Databases since the beginning (2012) - that has been possible since Analysis Services is bilingual. So TARGIT has generated MDX queries to query a database based on DAX. (many other client tools - including Excel does the same).

This has worked fine, but to fully support Tabular Models now and in the future TARGIT has developed a new way of connecting to Tabular Database, where the queries are made in the DAX language which is a part of the TARGIT 2021 Summer Release.

This new native DAX Support ensures optimal query performance when querying a Tabular database - on premise or in the cloud (Azure).

Prerequisites

You need a SQL Server Analysis Services version 2016, 2017, 2019 or newer for this to work.
The best performance when expanding single hierarchy values will be with the 2019 version and newer.

How is it done?

In TARGIT Management where you set up connections to data sources, you create a new connection:

Now you pick Multidimensional from the options below:

And from the next option list you pick Microsoft Analysis Services Tabular (DAX) - or Azure Analysis Services if your Tabular model is an Azure Analysis Services model:

Now you name the connection and press next

Finally you fill in the server name and pick the tabular database from the drop-down offered:

That's it - now you have a connection to your Tabular Database that utilizes DAX for querying!