Understanding the languages

When working with Analysis Services, you will frequently be using code that is not MDX or DAX. XML for Analysis, or XMLA, has been around since the early days of Analysis Services and is used for many maintenance operations for both modes – multidimensional and tabular. As the name clearly states, this is an XML-based language. Multidimensional models are actually defined using XMLA as well.

If you right-click an object in SSMS and choose the script option, it will generate a Create script in XMLA. For example, scripting the City dimension as a Create script generates the following XMLA (only the first few lines are displayed for brevity):

<Create xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine">
    <ParentObject>
        <DatabaseID>WideWorldImportersMD</DatabaseID>
    </ParentObject>
   ...