Jan 09, 2014

Okay, so have you done our 10778 course? The SQL Server 2012 Data Models and Reports course? Oh, you haven't. I see. Well... you should, it's REALLY good! Anyway, back to my point, if you had, or you've had a sniff around SQL Server 2012's new Power View, you would have been told by me, or read, that it only works with Tabular Data Models, and it's only available through SharePoint. Had you been on my course, I would have cautioned you to keep your ears open 'cos things would be changing or evolving. Well, it's happened... Microsoft has made available a CTP release that opens up your investment in OLAP cubes to the wonderful world of Power View. Yah!!! That's excellent news. Okay, where are the strings I hear you ask? Well, yes, there are some. This is a CTP release. CTP stands for Community Technology Preview (or something like that) and it means that this is just a preview of the technology for you to have a look at; it's not a full release. There's been no news as to how this will end up RTM, maybe it'll be a Service Pack release down the track, no information yet on that. As such, you won't be implementing it on any of your production servers, will you? No... really, NO! The other thing is that while it's still available as an option through SharePoint (and you'll need to upgrade both your SharePoint server and your SSAS server) the new functionality is not available with Power View in Excel 2013. You'll need to wait for some other release vehicle for that. And the last caveat for you... you won't be able to upgrade the CTP to RTM when it becomes fully available. No big deal though, right? You can just use a sandboxed test server or a virtual machine to check it out in the meantime. Have fun with the CTP... cheers until next time.