The Case for an Azure DataMarket Date Table

Since the release of PowerPivot Excel pros and power users have been encouraged to learn and “play” with the add-in. There is one little thing from the world of BI which we (as long-standing BI professionals) are used to but apparently troubles our new friends from the Excel world – the Date table. In the SSAS Multidimensional world we have BIDS which can generate a date table in a variety of formats. Still, much more common is the custom Date table, which we build through a SQL script as it enables us to dynamically generate it for a range of dates. I have also used Excel in the past for quick and dirty solutions. Although all these scenarios are very “workable” for database professionals, when it comes to Excel power-users fiddling with databases is far from ideal. Luckily, there is a better way.

Azure DataMarket

The answer I am proposing is the new DataMarket, which as an added bonus (in cases when we cannot use third-party products) is Microsoft-owned. It is integrated very well within PowerPivot since the last update and allows selecting subsets of the data (e.g. we do not need to import everything available in the data set). Because the data is in a feed format we can connect and pull data we want anytime.

The DataMarket is the vehicle but it needs a good data set to transport. With the Microsoft SSAS team being busy with new releases and unable to chase this up with the Azure DataMarket team, I tried contacting the latter directly to no avail. It would be very simple to create a sample, test and if all goes well – we could easily expand the feed to include lots of necessary columns which could simplify any PowerPivot implementation. As a start, a minimum of a calendar hierarchy with 4-5 levels should suffice, but the possibilities are very exciting. We could have multiple financial/fiscal calendars, public holidays, weekends, leap years taken care of and many other Date properties built right into the feed. If customisation is required (as it probably will be in many cases), PowerPivot developers have the Excel and DAX to play with the data through formulas and change various properties like member names and formats.

In my opinion with a miniscule development effort Microsoft can win on both new fronts – PowerPivot and the Azure DataMarket. After all, both products need more exposure and a popular Date feed will definitely help in this direction (not to mention how much easier it would be for developers to “get into” PowerPivot-based BI implementations).

PS: I have emailed the DataMarket team a few months ago and I received no reply. This remains so even after Julie Strauss from the SSAS team followed up on this – it seems like someone is sleeping on the job…

PPS: I just created a Microsoft Connect suggestion – please vote if you feel like this is a good idea. Also, if you feel even more inclined to act you can email the DataMarket guys directly asking them to pay attention through the links provided on their Contact Us page.