Overview

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to bring you some exciting new features! These updates include two brand new data sources that Cosmos can now connect to: Excel and Azure SQL. We've also added some enhancements to the Data Model section to make it even easier to work with your data.

Excel Data Sources

It's oftentimes said that Excel is the world's most widely used database, and Cosmos customers are no exception! We find that many customers have data living in Excel that they would like to incorporate into their core Business Central data. Now, Cosmos makes it easy to have this Excel data live in a single, managed place within Cosmos and be merged in with Business Central data however you want. You can read more details about it in the article here:

How to Create an Excel Data Source

Azure SQL Data Sources

Many customers have legacy data or additional operational systems that live in SQL databases, either in Azure or on-premises. Cosmos now makes it easy to incorporate that data into your Data Model so it can live side-by-side with your Business Central data. You can either migrate your on-premises data into Azure SQL or, if the data you want is already in Azure SQL, you can easily connect to it with Cosmos in just a few clicks.

We have full details of the capabilities and process in the article here:

How to Create an Azure SQL Data Source

Users Can Easily Copy Transformations in the Data Model

Sometimes you may have many calculated fields or lookups that are similar but slightly different. You can now easily take one and, with a single click, take a copy of it and make any minor adjustments to easily create a brand-new field. This takes what used to be a laborious task (if you had to create many similar fields) and makes it much easier.

Key Fields are Automatically Set when Adding New Data Model Tables

Customers had mentioned that they tended to have problems when setting up new Data Model tables because they were unsure as to what the Key Fields should be set as. Now, when adding a new table to the Data Model, as soon as a BC table is mapped into it the Company and System ID fields are automatically created, mapped to the correct fields in the source table, and set as the Key Fields in the table. This takes the guesswork out of creating new tables and streamlines the overall process. 

We hope you enjoy these updates as much as we enjoyed creating them for you. As always, we’re here to support you and look forward to your feedback. Happy reporting! 🚀