Database Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
in the Select Table and Views dialog window, highlight all the dimension and fact
tables from the Available objects list box and click the arrow button to insert them
into the included objects list box, as shown in Figure
9-22
.
4.
Click next to proceed to the wizard's final dialog window and name your data source
view
DWPubsSalesTables
.
5.
Review all the tables on the Data Source View Designer surface. Verify that each of
the relationships between tables have been correctly indicated. (in the unlikely event
that a relationship is missing, drag and drop columns between tables to create any
missing relationships.)
add a Friendly Name
1.
Right-click the Date column in the DimDates table, and select Properties from the
context menu.
2.
When the Properties window appears, change the Friendlyname property to FullDate.
At this point, your SSAS project should look similar to the one shown in Figure
9-33
.
3.
Save your work by selecting File ➤ Save All from the Visual Studio main menu.
4.
Leave the Visual Studio solution open for the next exercise.
in this exercise, you added a new SSAS project to your current Bi solution. You then created a data source
and a data source view within the project. in the next exercise, you will create dimensions that use both of
these items.
Dimensions
As discussed in earlier chapters, dimensions describe attributes of measured values. For example, a customer's
dimension might describe the customer's name associated with a given sales quantity—as in “Bob Smith
bought 15 items.” Of course, this leads to questions like “What items?” and “When did he buy them?” From these
questions, you might decide to create both a date dimension and a products dimension, which in turn may
suggest new dimensions.
In the PubsBICubes project, we currently have a single measure we need to describe: SalesQuantity. The
SalesQuantity attributes are an order number, order date, title, and store. Accordingly, we create a dimension for
each of these descriptors.
At a minimum, each dimension should include a unique identifier and name. This typically is a dimension
key and a column that contains a human-friendly name. SSAS only forces you to include the dimensional key
column, but configuring a name column is recommended.
In addition to the key and name columns, you can include other columns that provide a way of aggregating
measured values or clarifying their meaning. For example, in the PubsBICube project, we use title types for both
purposes—clarifying a book's type and aggregating the sales quantity for a given type of book.
he Dimension Wizard
To create a dimension, launch the Dimension Wizard by right-clicking the Dimensions folder in Solution
Explorer and selecting New Dimension from the context menu (Figure
9-34
).
