Creating Analysis Services Cubes - SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development - page 89

Dimension usage with measure group
Earlier in this chapter, you built your first cube and experienced how quickly you can
build business applications using Analysis Services and Excel. The sample cube was
very simplistic in a sense that it only exposed two dimensions, each of which had a
direct relationship with the fact table. The Cube Wizard automatically detected such
relationships and required minimal developer interaction. There are many real-world
applications that have a model very similar to your sample cube. However, other re-
quirements necessitate the usage of more complex fact-to-dimension relationships,
which you will learn next.
To define how dimensions relate to various measure groups in your cube, switch
over to the tab called Dimension Usage. Instead of creating all the dimensions from
scratch, you will use the Adventure Works 2012 sample database. Keep in mind that
the sample database exposes every possible dimension relationship type because
the database is a learning tool, not necessarily a recommended design.
How to do it...
Let's get started. Perform the following steps to learn about dimension usage using a
measure group:
1. Open the Adventure Works 2012 sample database project in SSDT, and
double click on the Adventure Works cube. On the cube structure tab, notice
that the cube contains multiple measure groups.
2. Switch over to the Dimension Usage tab and notice that each measure group
is associated with some, but not all, cube dimensions. If you click on the inter-
section of any dimension with a measure group, SSDT will enable an ellipsis
button next to the intersection, as shown in the following screenshot: