Working with Translations
Overview and Discussion
We
will create an Analysis Services Project within the Business Intelligence Development
Studio, to provide the environment and the
tools that we need to design and develop business intelligence solutions based
upon Analysis Services 2005. As we have noted in other articles
of this series, the Analysis Services Project that we create within the Studio
will assist us in organizing and managing the numerous objects that we will
need to support our efforts to create our Analysis Services database.
We
will leverage the Cube Wizard in this article to quickly design and
create a cube, allowing us to focus on the subject matter of the article with
minimal peripheral distraction. The Cube Wizard helps us simplify the
design and creation of our cubes, as it did within Analysis Services 2000,
although the Analysis Services 2005 Cube Wizard is more powerful,
leveraging IntelliCube technology to examine and classify many of the
attributes of our data. Regardless of whether we make a habit of using the
wizard in our cube development efforts, it certainly provides a way to rapidly
generate a cube, if only to eliminate part of the repetitive work involved to
create a "starting point" model, which we can then "prune and groom" to more
precisely meet the business requirements of our employers and customers.
Considerations and Comments
For purposes of the practice
exercises within this series, we will be working with samples that are provided
with MSSQL Server 2005 Analysis Services. The samples with which we are
concerned include, predominantly, the Adventure Works DW Analysis Services
database (with member objects). The Adventure Works DW database and companion
samples are not installed by default in MSSQL Server 2005. The samples can
be installed during Setup, or at any time after MSSQL Server has
been installed.
The topics "Running
Setup to Install AdventureWorks Sample Databases and Samples" in SQL
Server Setup Help or "Installing AdventureWorks Sample Databases and Samples" in the Books Online (both of which are included on
the installation CD(s), and are available from www.Microsoft.com and other sources), provide
guidance on samples installation. Important information regarding the rights /
privileges required to accomplish samples installation, as well as to access
the samples once installed, is included in these references.
Hands-On Procedure
We will get started by
creating a new project within the Business Intelligence Development Studio,
wherein we will create a Data Source pointed to a database sample
provided with MSSQL Server 2005. This way, anyone with access to the
installed application set and its samples can complete the steps in the
practice session.
Preparation
Create a New Analysis Services Project
We begin our preparation
within Business Intelligence Development Studio, where we will create a
new Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) Project.
As we have noted in other articles, those of us who have worked within earlier
versions of Reporting Services, or within the Visual Studio
development environment under other circumstances, will recognize the general
look and feel of the Studio. Under this new style of development for Analysis
Services, to which much of the documentation refers as "project mode,"
we create an Analysis Services Project, which houses a set of Analysis
Services objects. The object set typically includes Data Sources, Data
Source Views, Dimensions, Cubes, and other components.
As we have noted in other articles,
using an Analysis Services Project template affords us many
benefits, such as helping us to
organize
and manage the items that are required to build, debug, and deploy an Analysis Services database. The development
of an Analysis Services cube, a
preparatory step to support our primary objectives within this session, as well
as one of the most common tasks in Analysis Services, can be accelerated though the use of the
Analysis Services 2005
Cube Wizard, which both guides and simplifies the process (as is the way of
wizards), as we noted earlier.
In an
effort to remain focused on the essentials of working with Translations,
we will not go into the myriad processes and structures that surround and
underlie the UDM / cube in general. As we have noted previously,
however, it is useful to make a mental note that all the objects that we create
and store within an Analysis Services project are defined as files
(using an XML representation) that eventually are deployed to an Analysis
Services database. We will discuss how this transpires at the appropriate
point within our practice session.
1.
Click the Start
button.
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
1.
Illustration 1: Opening
SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
The Microsoft Visual
Studio 2005 development environment opens, beginning with the Start page,
as shown in Illustration 2.
Illustration 2: The
Start Page, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Development Environment (Compressed
View)
4.
Close the Start
Page.
5.
Select File
-> New on the Visual Studio main
menu.
6.
Select Project
from the cascading menu, as depicted in Illustration 3.
Illustration 3:
Beginning a New Project ...
The New
Project dialog appears.
7.
Select Business
Intelligence Projects in the Project types pane of the dialog.
8.
Select Analysis
Services Project in the Templates pane, as shown in Illustration
4.
Illustration 4: Select
Analysis Services Project
NOTE: The
templates that appear in your template pane may differ, depending upon which SQL
Server 2005 components are installed in your environment, as well as upon whether
additional templates (for Business Intelligence Projects or other types
of projects that can be created) have been defined in Visual Studio.
9.
Change the
project Name (currently displaying a default) to the following:
ANSYS051 Translations
The Solution Name
changes to match the project Name by default.
10. Navigate to a convenient location
to store the Project and Solution files, modifying the Location
box accordingly (Visual Studio will create a directory based upon our
input here).
The relevant section of
the New Project dialog appears similar to that depicted in Illustration
5.
Illustration 5: The New
Project Dialog (Relevant Section), with our Input
11. Click OK to accept our input and to create
the new Analysis Services Project.
The New Project dialog
closes. Visual Studio creates the project, which appears underneath solution
ANSYS051_Translations, within the Solution Explorer as shown in Illustration
6.
Illustration 6: The New
Analysis Services Project Appears
Having created a new Analysis
Services Project, we are ready to define a Data Source and Data
Source View.
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