Edit

TMDL Reference - Objects overview

Applies to: SQL Server 2016 and later Analysis Services Azure Analysis Services Fabric/Power BI Premium

All TMDL objects have an exact match with their Tabular Object Model (TOM) properties, except for Translations and Role members.

For example, here's s TMDL calculated column representation:


table Calendar

  column 'Date (Year-Month)' = DATE([Year], [Month],1)
    dataType: dateTime
    formatString = mmm yyyy
    lineageTag: 0e65a7a5-6c15-437d-8333-10653d8d673f
    summarizeBy: none

    annotation SummarizationSetBy = automatic

Each of the preceding TMDL properties maps to the CalculatedTableColumn class properties as follows:

Translations in TMDL

In TOM, translations are represented as a collection of ObjectTranslation objects. For optimal interaction and readability, TMDL breaks the principle of alignment with the TOM object tree and replicates the model hierarchy underneath each culture as virtual TMDL properties.

For each object, translations can be added for the following properties:

Property Description
caption Translated table/column/measure/... title that appears in any client application supporting visualizations of a Tabular model.
description Translated description appears as model information.
displayFolder translated column/measure/hierarchy display folder used by client applications to organize content.

The following code example is a TMDL translation for Portuguese culture (pt-PT):

culture pt-PT
 translations
  model Model
   caption: Modelo
   description: Modelo
   table Calendar
    caption: Calendário
   table Sales
    caption: Vendas
    measure 'Sales Amount'
     caption: Total de Vendas
     displayFolder: Métricas Base
    measure 'Sales Amount (LY)'
     caption: Total Vendas (Ano Anterior)
     displayFolder: Métricas Base
    measure 'Sales Amount (YTD, LY)'
     displayFolder: Métricas Base
   table Product
    caption: Produto
    description: Tabela de Produto
    column Product
     caption: Produto
     description: Coluna de Produto
    column ProductKey
     caption: Chave de Produto
    column Weight
     caption: Peso
    hierarchy 'Product Hierarchy'
     caption: Hierarquia de Produto
   table Customer
    caption: Cliente
    column Address
     caption: Morada
   table Store
    caption: Loja
    column StoreKey
     caption: Código de Loja

 linguisticMetadata =   
   {
     ...
   }

Role members in TMDL

Role members could number in the hundreds or thousands, so serializing each member as a separate object using its native TOM representation (WindowsModelRoleMember or ExternalModelRoleMember) would be unreadable. To optimize for interaction and readability, TMDL breaks the principle of alignment with TOM object tree, and optimizes role members representation for the most common scenario: Microsoft Entra ID (formerly known as Azure AD) and Windows Identity.

The following rules are applied:

  • Member ID isn't serialized and assumes the same value as name
  • Blank lines between members aren't emitted
  • Members are emitted in the end after permissions

Default property of the member determines the member type:

Default Property Value Description
user ExternalModelRoleMember - IdentityProvider = AzureAD, RoleMemberType = User
group ExternalModelRoleMember - IdentityProvider = AzureAD, RoleMemberType = Group
auto ExternalModelRoleMember - IdentityProvider = AzureAD, RoleMemberType = Auto
activeDirectory WindowsModelRoleMember

The following code example is a TMDL role with ExternalModelRoleMembers members:


role 'StoreRole'
 modelPermission: read

 tablePermission Store = 'Store'[Store Code] IN {"1","2","4"}
 
 member 'user1@company.com'
 member 'group@domain.com' = group
 member 'user2@company.com' = auto
 member user1FromCustomProvider
  identityProvider = customProviderName
 member group1FromCustomProvider
  identityProvider = customProviderName

The following code example is a TMDL role with WindowsModelRoleMember members:


role 'StoreRole'
 modelPermission: read

 tablePermission Store = 'Store'[Store Code] IN {"1","2","4"}
 
 member company\user1 = activeDirectory
 member company\group = activeDirectory
  • Last updated on