One last level remains
in building our diagram. We will next present the Customers that are
associated with each City. (Our having merged the Cities
with no Customers will, as we shall see, help to present a tidier
picture within this context, as well.)
38.
Placing the
mouse just to the left and above the Birmingham sub node, click
and drag, to capture all City sub nodes within in a “lasso,” as depicted
in Illustration 28.
Let’s say we have been
asked to present Customer Addresses, versus Customer Names (the
actual Customer member names within the cube). The Customer Address
is one of several member properties for each Customer member. Member
properties are now exposed as Categories that are available for
selection, based upon the fact that we enabled their import from the PivotDiagram
Options dialog earlier.
39.
In the PivotDiagram
task pane, within the Add Category selection list, once again, click Customer:
Address.
The PivotDiagram updates
once again, this time reflecting the addition of the Address level.
The Addresses associated
with the Cities with Customers are useful to the expressly
requested presentation. Those that appear underneath the merged,
customer-free Cities simply reflect member properties that exist
for all Cities within the respective State’s City level, and are
hence not useful within the context of our present objectives. For this
reason, we will suppress the sub nodes that have appeared for the merged
Cities.
40.
Click the merged
Alabama City sub node to select it.
41.
Holding down
the CTRL key, click the merged Georgia City
sub node to
simultaneously select it.
42.
Select Other
Actions within the PivotDiagram task pane, once again.
43.
Select Collapse
from the items that appear within the dropdown selector, as shown in Illustration
29.
Illustration 29: Merging
the Selected Group of Sub Nodes
The affected Cities
are collapsed into a single sub node, as depicted in Illustration 30.
Illustration 30: A
More Compact, Relevant Presentation, Courtesy of the Collapse Action
Next, we will perform an adjustment to make the diagram
easier to understand for, say, other members of the team that do not necessarily
grasp the concept of an “All” level – while taking a look at another action
we can employ for similar needs, perhaps, in our own environments.
44.
Click the United States node, once again.
45.
Select Other
Actions within the PivotDiagram task pane, as we have already done
several times.
46.
Select Promote
from the items that appear within the dropdown selector, as shown in Illustration
31.
Illustration 31:
Promoting United States to the Top Node
The United States (Customer Country member)
assumes the top node position. Because our title specifies “SE
United States,” readers can assume that the top node represents the Country
level (recall that we filtered same to United States earlier). The
newly compacted layout appears as depicted in Illustration 32.
Illustration 32: A
More Intuitive Top Node Appears ...
We
will conclude with a few minor “cleanup” details, to demonstrate more ways to
enhance the presentation of our new PivotDiagram. First, we will compact
spacing a bit.
47.
Select Shape
-> Configure Layout from the main menu.
The Configure Layout
dialog opens.
48.
Set the Spacing
to 0.3 in.
The Configure Layout
dialog appears as shown in Illustration 33.
Illustration 33: Configure
Layout Dialog with New Spacing Setting
49.
Click OK
to apply modifications and to dismiss the dialog.
Finally,
now that design of the PivotDiagram is complete, we can remove the level
names (some might prefer to leave them in place), simply as another space
conserving measure.
50.
Select the top
node.
51.
Select PivotDiagram
-> Options..., once again.
52.
Uncheck the
setting Show breakdown shapes.
The
PivotDiagrams Options dialog appears as depicted in Illustration
34.
Illustration 34: PivotDiagram
Options Dialog with New Spacing Setting
53.
Click OK
to accept the modification and to dismiss the dialog.
The
adjusted layout appears as depicted in Illustration 35.
Illustration 35: Levels
(Breakdown Shapes) Removed ...
And so, we see that the new PivotDiagram has much
to offer us in a way of design and documentation. I have attempted to cover many
of the capabilities in the steps of this practice session. There are many
other potential uses for PivotDiagrams, as well as numerous alternate
ways to arrange and present the shapes involved and the information that they
convey. As I put the PivotDiagram to work, together with other Visio
features, I will expose relevant settings and methods in other articles of
my series’.
54.
Experiment
further, as desired, with other settings among the dialogs we have covered
together, as well as with the various actions that are available for use with
the PivotDiagram.
55.
Select File
-> Save As ..., and navigate to a convenient
location to save a copy of recent work, if desired.
56.
Select File
-> Exit, when ready, to leave the Visio.
Conclusion
In
this article, we introduced and explored the PivotDiagram, which debuts
in Microsoft Office Visio 2007,
setting our sights upon examining its use within the context of design and
documentation from the perspective of the Analysis Services environment. Our focus upon the PivotDiagram included a
brief introduction to its possible uses, its components, and the data it can present. We then began a hands-on practice exercise,
wherein we set up a working PivotDiagram, with a live data connection based upon the sample Adventure
Works Analysis Services database.
We
modified the PivotDiagram to illustrate various setting and layout options. We provided a running
discussion, throughout the practice session, surrounding our work with Categories,
Levels, and Nodes in the PivotDiagram, mapping each object to its peer object within the Analysis
Services environment. We performed steps to add Analysis Services
member properties into the new PivotDiagram, exposing them as supplementary Categories therein. Finally,
we obtained some practical experience with the application of the Merge,
Collapse and Promote Actions to nodes at various levels
of the diagram. At relevant junctures within our construction of the PivotDiagram, we provided examples of filtering,
together with suppression of objects not useful to a given presentation.
»
See All Articles by Columnist William E. Pearson, III
Discuss this article in the MSSQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and MDX Topics Forum.
» 
Comment and Contribute
