microsoft / microsoft/Analysis-Services

Relationships reported as different due to auto-generated relationship IDs

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Dominant language
C#
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Description

Description

When comparing models, I frequently see relationships flagged as "Different Definitions" even though the actual relationship definition appears identical.

For example, the comparison below reports a difference for:

Image

However, the only difference shown in the definition is the relationship identifier, all other properties appear to be identical.

Why this is an issue

These relationship ID differences generate noise during comparisons and make it harder to identify meaningful schema changes.

In many cases, the relationship has not actually changed, but it is still reported as a difference because the relationship name/identifier was regenerated (we use tabular editor to deploy our models).

Expected behavior

Ideally, relationship comparisons should be based on the functional definition of the relationship, such as:

Source table/column
Target table/column
Cross-filter direction
Active/inactive state
Other relevant relationship properties
and ignore auto-generated relationship IDs/names when they are the only difference.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No file or test is named in the issue. Start by locating the model comparison logic that reports relationship "Different Definitions" and inspect how relationship identifiers are included in comparisons. Done means auto-generated IDs or names alone no longer create differences, while changes to the listed functional relationship properties still do.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
databases
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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