Building Scalable Analysis Services Applications - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 455

LISTING 25.2

DDL to Create a Linked Dimension

<Create xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine”>
<ParentObject>
<DatabaseID>FoodMart 2008 Linked</DatabaseID>
</ParentObject>
<ObjectDefinition>
<Dimension xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”
➥ xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”>
<ID>ProductStandard</ID>
<Name>ProductStandard</Name>
<Source xsi:type=”DimensionBinding”>
<DataSourceID>Food Mart 2008</DataSourceID>
<DimensionID>Product</DimensionID>
<RefreshInterval>PT1S</RefreshInterval>
<Persistence>NotPersisted</Persistence>
</Source>
</Dimension>
</ObjectDefinition>
</Create>

If the Persistence property is set to NotPersisted during the creation of the linked
dimension, Analysis Services connects to the source database and retrieves metadata from
it. It stores the metadata on the subscriber server. From this point on, you can't change
the metadata of the linked dimension (with the exception of changing the dimension
name).

Setting the Persistence property to Metadata (static linking) enables you to change some
of the properties of the linked dimension. For example, you can remove some of the hier-
archies from the linked dimension. If you set the Persistence property to Metadata , you
also have to include the entire dimension definition in the Create statement for the
linked dimension, including all the attributes and all the hierarchies.

NOTE
Business Intelligence Development Studio (BI Dev Studio) creates linked objects with
the Persistence property to set to Metadata . To retrieve the dimension definition, BI
Dev Studio connects to the source, obtains the metadata of the source object, and
then constructs the Create statement for the linked object.

When you create a linked dimension, it initially contains only the metadata definition.
While it is processing the linked dimension, Analysis Services verifies the metadata and