Extending and Customizing Cubes - SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development - page 130

a given dataset, launch a website, and generate a report. The actions are (usually)
seamlessly integrated with cube functionality. The recipes in this chapter will teach
you about the most commonly utilized action types: drillthrough, URL, and reporting.
Actions are defined within the SSDT cube designer's Actions tab. You must set cer-
tain properties for each action. If you would like to expose additional data, an ac-
tion's target can be measure-group members. And, if you'd like to expose more data
about dimension attributes, dimension-level, hierarchy-level, or attribute-level mem-
bers could be the target of the action.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) enhance the application by displaying the state
of your business using various visual indicators, such as gauges, smiley faces, and
speedometers. KPIs are calculations which business users would like to see on their
dashboard to get a very high-level overview of the data before they dive into more
detailed analysis.
Although seldom used, translations offer the useful functionality of displaying cube
data in different languages depending on the user's selection.
Perspectives are similar to relational database views in the sense that they expose
a subset of the entire database. Enterprise-level solutions can have multiple cubes,
many measure groups, and measures. Being exposed to dozens of dimensions and
measures could overwhelm the users; hence, you can create multiple perspectives,
tailoring each one to the needs of a particular group of users.
Measure expressions allow for either multiplying or dividing two measures from two
separate measure groups, which normally have many-to-many relationships you
learned about in Chapter 3 , Creating Analysis Services Cubes .
As in the previous chapters, all examples in this chapter will reference Adventure
Works DW sample database.