Mastering OLAP Reports: Parameters for Analysis Services Reporting, Pt. II - Page 2

Practice

Our first objective is to create a copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons sample report, within which we can implement cascading parameters. The focus of our efforts will be the addition of cascading parameterization into an OLAP report containing a Matrix data region (the mechanics behind adding the capability, not the design of the report itself). Because of time limitations, we will be working with a simple, pre-existing sample report – in reality, the business environment will typically require more sophistication. The process of setting up basic parameterization is the same in real world scenarios, with perhaps a more complex set of underlying considerations. (I virtually never encounter a client reporting requirement that does not involve at least basic parameterization.)

We will perform our practice session from inside the MSSQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio. For more exposure to the Business Intelligence Development Studio itself, and the myriad design, development and other evolutions we can perform within this powerful interface, see other articles in this series, as well as within my Database Journal series Introduction to MSSQL Server Analysis Services. In this article, we will be commenting only on the features relevant to our immediate practice exercise, to allow us to keep to the focus of the article more efficiently.

Preparation: Create a Clone Report within the Reporting Services Development Environment

For purposes of our practice session, we will create a copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons report, one of several samples that are available with (and installable separately from) the MSSQL Server 2005 integrated business intelligence suite. Making preparatory modifications, and then making the enhancements to the report to add the functionality that forms the subject of our lesson, can be done easily within the Business Intelligence Development Studio environment. Working with a copy of the report will allow us the luxury of freely exploring our options, and will leave us with a working example of the specific approach we took, to which we can refer in our individual business environments.

Open the Sample Report Server Project

For purposes of our practice session, we will open the AdventureWorks Sample Reports project, which contains the sample reports that ship with the Reporting Services component of the MSSQL Server 2005 suite. We will complete our practice session within the sample project so as to save the time required to set up a development environment from scratch within the Business Intelligence Development Studio.

To open the AdventureWorks Sample Reports project, please see the following procedure in the References section of my articles index:

Ascertain Connectivity of the Shared Data Source

Let’s ensure we have a working data source. Many of us will be running “side-by-side” installations of MSSQL Server 2000 and MSSQL Server 2005. This means that our installation of the latter will need to be referenced as a server / instance combination, versus a server name alone. (The default for the Adventure Works DW project sample’s connection is localhost, which will not work correctly in such a side-by-side installation, as MSSQL Server 2000 will have assumed the identity of the local PC by default.)

If you do not know how to ascertain or modify connectivity of the Analysis Services data source, please perform the steps of the following procedure in the References section of my articles index:

Create a Copy of the Sales Reason Comparisons Report

We will begin with a copy of the Reporting Services 2005 Sales Reason Comparisons OLAP report, which we will use for our practice exercise. Creating a “clone” of the project means we can make changes to select contents (perhaps as a part of later exploration with our independent solution), while retaining the original sample in a pristine state for other purposes, such as using it to accompany relevant sections of the Books Online, and other documentation, as a part of learning more about Reporting Services (particularly an OLAP report using an Analysis Services data source), and other components of the Microsoft integrated business intelligence solution in general.

If you do not know how to create a copy of an existing report, please perform the steps of the following procedure in the References section of my articles index:

We now have a clone OLAP report file within our Reporting Services 2005 Project, with which we can proceed in the next section to make modifications for our subsequent practice session.

Preparation: Modify the OLAP Report for Use within Our Practice Session

We will next make a few modifications to prepare the report for our practice session. Our objective will be to begin the session with a simple OLAP report that contains no parameters or filters. Let’s open the report in Layout view (for those of us not already there) and make the necessary settings to place it into a state from which we can commence our “from scratch” practice steps.

DBJ_OLAP_Report.rdl opens in Layout view.

We will start with the Data tab.

We enter the Data view, where we will remove a handful of components that we do not need for our practice session. We will accomplish this from the perspective of the MDX Query Builder, the main components of which are labeled in Illustration 2 below.

The primary (and sole remaining) dataset, ProductData opens.