Feature Request: Add ability to Import Flat Files / Text / CSV Files from Table Import Wizard

[db-matt]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe

It is not intuitive for me to fill out the appropriate Data Source and Table properties/M code to import a text file (CSV, TSV, or any flat file data source). I work in the healthcare industry and while the majority of our data is coming from a database, there are still hundreds of text files we use on an annual basis. Leading medical record software vendors are making it easier to import text files into their analytics modules. It would be very helpful if Tabular Editor could follow suit.

Describe the solution you'd like

Similar to VisualStudio, you should be able to import a text file/CSV file by answering a few questions in a wizard style import routine. If no PowerQuery transformations are needed, it should be a straightforward task that does not require any involvement of special M code. Just tell TabularEditor the path to your file and click "Import".

Goals

1. Addresses projects where database data is not available.
2. Addresses projects that need to be agile and quick, where importing the data into a database first is not feasible or adds no value.
3. Addresses projects for larger organizations that do not use Power BI but use Analysis Services.
4. Addresses flat-file projects that would otherwise be done in tools like Tableau that lack the semantic layer that tabular offers.

Background

It is possible to do this in Visual Studio by creating a data source that imports from a CSV file, but I would prefer to do all or most of my tabular development in TE3. Our software vendor is beginning to release functionality to import CSV files because they have recognized that mid- to large-sized businesses like healthcare systems like ours still use hundreds or thousands of flat files to do business every day. While we import data into our data warehouse where it makes sense, we shouldn't have to import CSV files for one-off tabular models. The ability to import a flat file using the GUI in Tabular Editor would make the process intuitive and less time-consuming.

Additional context

Our organization does NOT use PowerBI. We use Tableau for our viz layer and flat files, live queries, and tabular models for our data layer.