Table of Contents

Import a Metric View and view diagnostics

  • 2026-07-02
  • Greg Baldini
Applies to:
  • ❌ Tabular Editor 2
  • Tabular Editor 3 (Available since 3.25.0)
    ❌ Desktop
    ❌ Business
    ✔ Enterprise

This how-to demonstrates importing a loaded Metric View into a Tabular model with a C# script, and reviewing the diagnostic messages the import produces.

Note

These how-tos target Tabular Editor 3.26.2 and later. Earlier versions do not support the v1.1 Metric View features shown here.

Load the sample Metric View for these code samples

Before starting, make sure you have Tabular Editor 3 open and have a Tabular model opened, or create a new model.

This how-to uses a sample e-commerce Metric View representing sales data with three dimension tables (product, customer, date) joined to a fact table (orders). Use either method below to load it (either "download and load" or "copy and deserialize"), then follow along with the rest of this how-to. You can run either command in the same C# script as the rest of this example, or you can run it first, in its own C# script, and the rest of the example in its own C# script.

Download sample-metricview.yaml and load it by path:

SemanticBridge.MetricView.Load("C:/path/to/sample-metricview.yaml");
Note

Each example below imports into the open Tabular model. To run more than one, we recommend that you undo the import after each example (Edit>Undo in the menu, or CTRL-z in the TOM Explorer). If you run each import one after the other, you will get multiple translated copies of the Metric View.

Import the loaded Metric View

ImportToTabular translates the currently loaded Metric View into the open Tabular model. The Databricks hostname and HTTP path are used when we build the M partition expressions; for a quick test you can pass placeholder values and fix them before refreshing data.

var success = SemanticBridge.MetricView.ImportToTabular(
    Model,
    "your-workspace.azuredatabricks.net",
    "/sql/1.0/warehouses/abc123def456",
    out var diagnostics
);

var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.AppendLine($"Imported {Model.AllColumns.Count()} fields and {Model.AllMeasures.Count()} measures.");
sb.AppendLine(success ? "Import successful." : "Import failed.");
sb.AppendLine($"Diagnostics: {diagnostics.Count}");
foreach (var diag in diagnostics)
{
    sb.AppendLine($"  [{diag.Severity}] {diag.Code}: {diag.Message}");
}
Output(sb.ToString());

Output:

Imported 15 fields and 6 measures.
Import successful.
Diagnostics: 0

Note that the number of fields imported includes join keys and implicit column references from the Metric View definition, so it is larger than the number of explicit Fields in the Metric View definition.

Review the last import's diagnostics

The diagnostics from the most recent import are available at any time through ImportDiagnostics, including after an import done through the GUI.

foreach (var d in SemanticBridge.MetricView.ImportDiagnostics)
    Output($"[{d.Severity}] {d.Code}: {d.Message}");

See a translation diagnostic

Some Metric View constructs cannot be translated to Tabular. A window measure, for example, is not translated to DAX: the import creates a placeholder TOM measure with the original Metric View definition in a comment and reports a diagnostic warning to you.

Add a window spec to a measure, then import to see the diagnostic:

using MetricView = TabularEditor.SemanticBridge.Platforms.Databricks.MetricView;

var view = SemanticBridge.MetricView.Model;

// add a window spec
view.Measures["total_revenue"].Window =
[
    new MetricView.Window
    {
        Order = "order_date",
        Range = "trailing 3 month",
        Semiadditive = MetricView.Window.SemiadditiveType.Last
    }
];

var success = SemanticBridge.MetricView.ImportToTabular(
    Model,
    "your-workspace.azuredatabricks.net",
    "/sql/1.0/warehouses/abc123def456",
    out var diagnostics
);

var sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
sb.AppendLine(success ? "Import succeeded with issues." : "Import failed.");
foreach (var diag in diagnostics)
{
    sb.AppendLine($"  [{diag.Severity}] {diag.Code}: {diag.Message}");
}
// note that we search for the DisplayName, as that is what is translated to TOM
sb.AppendLine($"TOM measure expression: {Model.AllMeasures.First(m => m.Name == "Total Revenue").Expression}");
Output(sb.ToString());

Output:

Import succeeded with issues.
  [Warning] MEASURE_WINDOW_UNSUPPORTED: Measure 'Total Revenue' uses a window specification that is not currently supported; it has been left inert with the original definition preserved as a comment.
TOM measure expression: // This measure uses a window specification (windowed / cumulative / semiadditive),
// which is not currently supported when importing Databricks Metric Views.
// The measure has been left blank - review the details below and author the DAX
// manually. The translated DAX does NOT account for the window spec; you will most
// likely need to wrap it in CALCULATE (or similar) to apply the windowing.
//
// Original source expression (Databricks SQL):
/*
SUM(revenue)
*/
//
// Suggested DAX translation (window spec NOT applied):
/*
SUM('Fact'[revenue])
*/
//
// Window specification:
/*
- order: order_date
  range: trailing 3 month
  semiadditive: last

*/

Next steps

See also