UDFs in GCC and DoD: A big step for reusable, testable semantic models

Thanks to the Microsoft team, we recently got User Defined Function (UDF) support in GCC and DoD sovereign tenants.

Why is that so important? If you have seen what DAXLib offers with SVG image and chart generation, or if you are trying to simplify and reuse measures, UDFs unlock a lot of value. Even better, many of these UDFs are open source under the MIT License, which makes it easier to adopt and adapt them for your own needs.

For my teams, this fits directly into how we approach testing. We have been using PQL.Assert along with Power Automate to validate semantic models and catch issues early. With continued government investment in G3 and G5 licenses, Power BI and Power Automate already give us a solid way to automate data refreshes. Now we can go a step further and validate that those refreshes did not introduce any issues into the semantic model.

It also changes how we think about production issues. When something breaks, we do not just fix it. We add a test for it. Over time, that builds a safety net that helps prevent the same issue from happening again.

If you want to learn more about testing semantic models, check out the first three parts of the series:

1. Intro
2. Naming
3. Power Automate

I cannot always say features work in GCC or DoD, especially when it comes to Fabric, but this is one you can try today to make your semantic models and reports better.