Skip to main content
Cross model tabs are currently in beta and enabled on request. To try them, contact Omni support through your usual support channel, or email support@omni.co.
A cross model tab is a workbook tab that queries a different shared model than the rest of the workbook. Add one when the answer you need lives in another model — often on another database connection — and you want it alongside the work you’re already doing. Because each tab carries its own model, a single dashboard can present tiles from several models and connections at once.

​
Requirements

To create a cross model tab, you’ll need:
  • Cross model tabs enabled for your organization
  • Permission to edit the workbook
  • Restricted Querier, Querier, Modeler, or Connection Admin permissions on the connection of the model you want to query

​
Create a cross model tab

You can create a cross model tab two ways. Both open the same list of models, grouped by connection when more than one is available.

​
Switch model from a new workbook tab

1
Click + to add a tab.
2
Click Switch model, then select the model you want to query.
3
Choose a starting point — a topic or view from that model — the same way you would on any new tab.
While the tab is still empty, Switch model stays available. Use it to try a different model, or to return the tab to your workbook’s own model by selecting the entry marked (default). Choosing a starting point makes the tab a cross model tab, and Switch model no longer applies.

​
Add a new tab from the Edit menu

When you’re already working in a tab and want data from another model alongside it, add a cross model tab without leaving what you’re doing.
1
In your workbook, click Edit > New cross model tab.
2
Select the model you want to query. Omni adds a new tab pointed at that model.
3
Choose a starting point from that model.
Once a tab is pointed at another model, the field browser shows a Cross model label naming that model, and the starting points, topics, views, and fields all come from it.

​
Work in a cross model tab

A cross model tab behaves like any other query tab. You can:
  • Build queries point-and-click, run them, and visualize the results
  • Save the tab to a dashboard alongside tiles from your workbook’s own model
  • Duplicate, rename, and reorder the tab
  • Create a linked tab from it
  • Preview a view from the model it queries
  • Ask the workbook agent questions — it answers from the model the tab queries
Cross model tabs support point-and-click queries. SQL, blank table, and spreadsheet tabs use your workbook’s own model, so create those on a regular tab.

​
Add fields

You can create fields on a cross model tab: These land in the tab as Tab-only fields, and you can edit them in place. The fields that come from the model itself stay as that model defines them. Select View field definition on any of them to see how it’s built, or Go to definition to open it in that model’s IDE, where it can be edited and shared with everyone using it.

​
Use cross model tiles on a dashboard

Save the workbook as usual. Each tab becomes a dashboard tile, regardless of which model it queries.

​
Filters

A dashboard filter applies to a cross model tile once you map it. Open the filter’s settings and choose the field on that tile to map to — see mapping filters to tiles. Explicit mapping keeps a filter built for one model from landing on a field it wasn’t meant for.

​
Dashboard agent

The dashboard agent works across a mixed dashboard, querying each tile against that tile’s own model.

​
Scheduled deliveries and downloads

Deliveries and downloads include cross model tiles. Each tile is checked against its own model for the person the delivery runs as, so a delivery sends the tiles that person can query.

​
Preview branch changes from another model

A cross model tab follows your own branch on the model it queries, so you can preview in-progress changes to that model from inside your workbook. The branch picker follows whichever tab you have open, and switching branches there leaves your workbook’s own branch untouched. Your branch selection is part of your session rather than part of the saved document. Two people opening the same dashboard see it through their own branch selections, so publish model changes to the shared model when everyone should see the same result. See Branch Mode.

​
Limitations

  • Embedded Omni. Cross model tabs aren’t supported in embedded workbooks, which continue to use a single model.
  • Cross model analysis. Filtering one tab by another tab’s query and XLOOKUP aren’t available on a cross model tab.
  • Promoting fields. Fields you add stay in the tab. To share a field with other users, add it in that model’s IDE.
Tell us which of these matters most for your use case — through your usual support channel, or at support@omni.co. That feedback shapes what we build next.

​
Troubleshooting

The list shows models you can build workbooks on, minus the one your workbook already uses. If a model is missing, ask your admin for access to it — see permissions.
Access is checked per tile against the model that tile queries. Someone viewing the dashboard needs access to every model on it to see every tile; the tiles they can access still load.
Access is checked per tile for the person the delivery runs as. If that person can’t query one of the models, the rest of the dashboard still delivers.
Map the filter to a field on that tile. See mapping filters to tiles.
The list is loaded once per session. Refresh the page after your model access changes.

​
Next steps