Preparation
Access
the Analysis Services Database in Business Intelligence Development Studio
We will
access the new Analysis Services database we have created within the Business
Intelligence Development Studio, where we can best accomplish design and
development work in general. While we certainly might begin within the BI
Development Studio by creating an Analysis Services project, building
all the components from scratch, we will take a few shortcuts here to more
rapidly get to the subject matter of our session, KPIs.
1.
Click the Start
button, once again.
2.
Select Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 within the Program group of the menu.
3.
Click SQL
Server Business Intelligence Development Studio, as depicted in Illustration
10.
Illustration 10: Opening
SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
The Microsoft Visual
Studio 2005 development environment opens, beginning with the Start page,
as shown in Illustration 11.
Illustration 11: The
Start Page, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Development Environment (Compressed
View)
4.
Close the Start
Page tab.
5.
Select File
-> Open on the Visual Studio main
menu.
6.
Select Analysis
Services Database from the cascading menu, as depicted in Illustration
12.
Illustration 12: Opening
an Analysis Services Database ...
The Connect to
Database dialog appears.
7.
Ensure that
the radio button to the immediate left of Connect to existing database
is selected.
8.
Type the name
of the server / server with instance into the Server box. (Mine is MOTHER1\MSSQL2K5
as seen in various illustrations throughout my articles)
9.
Select the ANSYS047
Adventure Works DW database in the Database selector underneath the Server
box.
10. Click the Browse button to
the right of the box labeled New Solution at the bottom of the Connect
to Database dialog.
The Browse for
directory ... dialog opens.
11. Navigate to a convenient place to
store the objects created within our solution.
12. Within the Browse for directory
... dialog, once it rests at a convenient place, right-click the white space
within the dialog.
13. Select New from the context
menu that appears.
14. Select Folder from the
cascading menu that branches off the New selection, as shown in Illustration
13.
Illustration 13: Select
New -> Folder
A folder, with edit-ready
title New Folder, appears.
15. Name the new folder as follows:
ANSYS047 KPIs
The new folder appears as
depicted in Illustration 14.
Illustration 14: New
Folder to House Our Solution Files ...
16. With the folder selected, click
the Open button.
The Browse for
directory ... dialog closes, and we return to the Connect to Database dialog,
which appears, with our input, similar to that shown in Illustration 15.
Illustration 15: The
Connect to Database Dialog with our Input
17. Click OK to accept our
input, and to connect to the Analysis Services database.
The Connect to
Database dialog closes, and we see our clone Analysis Services
database open, complete with all member objects, in Solution Explorer (which
appears, by default, in the upper right corner of the BI Development Studio),
as partially depicted in Illustration 16.
Illustration 16: The
Analysis Services Database Appears in Solution Explorer (Partial View)
We are now positioned to
get some practice with defining a KPI within a cube. In the next
section, we will work within the Adventure Works cube to create a
calculated measure, upon which we will partially base our KPI.
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