Part V in Visual C#.NET

Making EAN13 in Visual C#.NET Part V

Dimension Wizard automatically creates this user hierarchy based on the relationships between the three tables selected for this dimension.

You can review the members in each attribute and each user hierarchy on the Browser tab of the dimension designer. However, before you browse the dimension, you must process the dimension, which requires you first to deploy the dimension definition to the Analysis Services server and then process the entire Analysis Services database. Details about deployment and processing are explained later in this chapter. To deploy and browse a dimension, follow these steps: 1. To follow this example, you must complete the steps described in the previous sections of this chapter. Click the Browser tab. Because the dimension in this case has not yet been deployed to the Analysis Server, an error message displays to indicate the dimension is unavailable for browsing. 2. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer window, and then click Deploy. Note

The default target server for deployment is the local server. To deploy to a different server, right-click the project in the Solution Explorer

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window, click Properties, click Deployment in the Configuration Properties tree, and then change the Server property to the correct server.

3. When deployment is complete, click the Reconnect button in the Browser toolbar. Any change to an object in an Analysis Services project requires a deployment of those changes to the server. Afterwards, you always use the Reconnect button in the Browser tab of a designer to reestablish the client-server connection. 4. Notice Category is automatically selected in the Hierarchy drop-down list. .Click the plus sign to the left of the All member in the Category hierarchy tree to view the members of this user hierarchy, as shown in Figure 22-7. You can also view each attribute hierarchy, which consists of an All member on the top level and distinct attribute members on the leaf level.

If your source database is not a standard data warehouse and if the fact table also contains a datetime column, you can create a Server Time Dimension to facilitate analysis by time. To create a Server Time Dimension, follow these steps: 1. To follow this example, you must complete the steps described in the previous sections of this chapter. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Dimensions folder, click

New Dimension, and then click Next three times (or twice if you have disabled the Welcome page of the wizard). These steps might seem counterintuitive because you really don t have a data source, but your goal is to get to the Select The Dimension Type page of the wizard. Here you select Server Time Dimension, and then click Next. Note

If you do, in fact, have a time dimension table available in a data warehouse, it s considered best practice to build an Analysis Services dimension from that table. Instead of selecting Server Time Dimension on the Select the Dimension Type page of the wizard, you select Time Dimension and choose the specific table in the available drop-down list. Whether you create a Server Time Dimension or a Time Dimension, it s important to note that these dimension types are different from any other dimension because they relate to time. Analysis Services has several features that depend on the existence of a correctly typed Time dimension, such as special calculation functions and aggregation behaviors.

2. Set values for First Calendar Day and Last Calendar Day on the Define Time Periods page of the wizard. The date range you specify here must include all dates found in the fact table, or an error will be raised during processing. In the AdventureWorks SalesOrderHeader table, the earliest OrderDate is July 1, 2001, and the latest OrderDate is July 31, 2004, so set First Calendar Day and Last Calendar Day to these dates, respectively. Click the arrow in the drop-down list to set specific dates using a calendar control. 3. In the Time Periods list, select Year, Quarter, and Month. Date is automatically selected because it s required to create the dimension. Click Next. 4. The Select Calendars page of the wizard gives you an opportunity to choose other calendars for alternate reporting purposes, such as Fiscal Calendar or Manufacturing Calendar. For more information about these calendar types, refer to the topic Time (SSAS) in SQL Server Books Online. To continue this example, you won t select any additional calendars. Click Finish twice to complete the wizard. Take a moment to review the new dimension, as shown in Figure 22-8.