Question: Call AlmToolkit via command line

[Yavari]

We want to use AlmToolkit in our devops pipeline for a PowerBI dataset. Is it possible to call AlmToolkit from the command line to accomplish this?

Can this otherwise be added as a subset of what the GUI does? I am interested to help if I know that it is on the roadmap and wil be taken in to the reposistory.

[christianwade]

Hi, yes you can run it from the command line. The executables (with references to other files) are in the ALM Toolkit installation directory.

This is a quick video recorded a long time ago that does a quick demo of using the command line interface:
https://youtu.be/LZdOwfJqFrM?t=606

Page 31 of this doc covers it too.
https://github.com/microsoft/Analysis-Services/blob/master/BismNormalizer/Model%20Comparison%20and%20Merging%20for%20Analysis%20Services.pdf

[Yavari]

Thank you. I did not understand before that I could use Visual Studio to generate the BSMN file for PowerbI. Thought it only worked with Tabular model

[shengdoescoding]

Thank you. I did not understand before that I could use Visual Studio to generate the BSMN file for PowerbI. Thought it only worked with Tabular model

Hi, can you explain how you generate BSMN files for PowerBi?

[christianwade]

Hi, you can create an ALMT file by doing Save As from ALM Toolkit. You can use the ALMT file instead of the BSMN file to run from the command line. You can take the executable BismNormalizer.exe from the ALM Toolkit installation directory.

[shengdoescoding]

Hi, you can create an ALMT file by doing Save As from ALM Toolkit. You can use the ALMT file instead of the BSMN file to run from the command line. You can take the executable BismNormalizer.exe from the ALM Toolkit installation directory.

Hi Christian, thank you, this is very useful. Staying with the notion of using the command line, is it possible for me to generate the ALMT file from the command line?

[christianwade]

Hi, unfortunately no. I can think about adding it at some point, but you could create a file independently of ALM Toolkit based on a template.

[shengdoescoding]

Hi, unfortunately no. I can think about adding it at some point

For the sake of using pipelines to automate cicd it would be great if ALM toolkit can be used exclusively from the command line. The deployment is already possible, so I look forward to the ability to create the ALMT file from command line also in the future!

but you could create a file independently of ALM Toolkit based on a template.

Is it possible for you to elaborate a bit more on this? Do you mean an ALMT template file? What's the angle here for this approach? I'm happy to investigate on my own if you can point me in the right direction.

Much thanks :)

[christianwade]

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. I'll keep this suggestion in mind for when I next get time to make any enhancements to ALMT. The suggestion to create the file independently was that you can create an ALMT file manually at first and see the contents of it (it's fairly basic XML). You could then have an automated process that parameterizes the necessary parts of it to unblock your automation requirement. Let me know if you need more info.

[shengdoescoding]

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. I'll keep this suggestion in mind for when I next get time to make any enhancements to ALMT. The suggestion to create the file independently was that you can create an ALMT file manually at first and see the contents of it (it's fairly basic XML). You could then have an automated process that parameterizes the necessary parts of it to unblock your automation requirement. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks for your help Chris I understand what you mean now. I think that sounds simple enough.

[axellebot]

Hello,
@shengdoescoding How do you use ALMT digest to apply changes on existing powerbi dataset (in workspace) ?