Mastering Enterprise BI: Extend the Data Source with Named Calculations, Pt. II - Page 3April 10, 2006 Create a Basic Cube We will create a basic cube, to house our Named Calculations, and to see how we put them to work in the dimensional structure. We will focus on other areas within the overall design and creation process in other articles of the series – our primary objective here is to see how we use the Named Calculations we have created – not to concern ourselves with the myriad other topics contained within general cube design. 1. Right-click the Cubes folder within the Solution Explorer. 2. Select New Cube from the context menu that appears, as shown in Illustration 4.
Click for larger image The Welcome to the Cube Wizard dialog appears, as depicted in Illustration 5.
Click for larger image 3. Click Next. 4. Ensure that Build the cube using a data source checkbox is selected on the Select Build Method dialog that appears next, along with the Auto build checkbox, and with Create attributes and hierarchies selected in the drop-down selector underneath the Auto build setting. These default settings are shown in Illustration 6.
Click for larger image These settings will allow the Wizard to leverage the IntelliCube technology built into Analysis Services 2005, and to detect the relationships between attributes, dimensions, and facts within the data source we have defined. While we will not accept all the judgments that the wizard makes, we can still take advantage of the actions it performs, and modify or eliminate those that are inappropriate or of no use to us. 5. Click Next. 6. Ascertain that the Data Source View we have created, Adventure Works DW, is selected within the Available data source views list on the left side of the Select Data Source View dialog, which appears next. (The tables contained within the Data Source View are displayed on the right side of the dialog). The Select Data Source View dialog appears, as depicted in Illustration 7.
7. Click Next. The Cube Wizard begins scanning the relational schema, identifying fact and dimensional tables, as indicated on the Detecting Fact and Dimension Tables page that appears next. We quickly receive a message indicating that the Wizard has completed its analysis of the relationships between tables in the Data Source View, and that it proposes its suggestions on the following page, as shown in Illustration 8.
8. Click Next. The Identify Fact and Dimension Tables dialog next appears. Let’s select a Time dimension table, and narrow the table selection somewhat, for the purposes of our rudimentary cube. 9. Select the DimTime table in the drop-down Time dimension table selector. 10. Uncheck the following checkboxes: Fact Column: DimReseller (leave checked within Dimension column) Dimension Column: DimCurrency NOTE: We can also make table selections graphically via the Diagram tab of the Identify Fact and Dimension Tables dialog. The Identify Fact and Dimension Tables dialog appears, as depicted in Illustration 9.
11. Click Next. The Select Time Periods dialog appears. 12. Leaving any unspecified columns blank, select the Time Table Columns values shown in Table 1 for each of the listed Time Property Names.
Table 1: Selections within Respective Time Table Columns in Select Time Periods Dialog The Select Time Periods dialog appears, with our selections, as shown in Illustration 10.
13. Click Next. The Select Measures dialog appears next. 14. Uncheck the following checkboxes:
The Select Measures dialog appears, as depicted in Illustration 11.
15. Click Next. The Detecting Hierarchies page appears next, as hierarchy detection begins. We receive rapid indication that dimension tables have been scanned and hierarchies detected, as shown in Illustration 12.
16. Click Next. We move to the Review New Dimensions page, which appears as depicted in Illustration 13.
17. Click Next. The Completing the Wizard page appears next. 18. Change the default Cube name to the following: ANSYS045 - Named Calculations The Completing the Wizard page appears as shown in Illustration 14.
19. Click Finish. The Wizard concludes, and the Cube Designer opens, as depicted in Illustration 15.
Here, within the multi-tabbed Cube Designer component of the Business Intelligence Development Studio, we can perform myriad enhancements and extensions to, and operations surrounding, the existing cube. We will be examining these new features in prospective articles, where we define business needs and then meet them with the appropriate functionality(ies). For the purposes of this article, let’s put our new Named Calculations to work, and verify their effectiveness in our basic cube. |
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