Dimensions in the Conceptual Model - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 50

In a typical sort order, you can use the key to define the order of the attribute members.
If the key is defined by the text names of the months, the typical sort order would begin
with August, which wouldn't make sense in most cases. To solve this problem, you
create another attribute, related to the original one that contains the numbers that indi-
cate the order the months appear in the year. Then, you order by the key value of that
related attribute.

The locale for the attribute member name defines the language of the member. When a
certain locale is specified, the attribute member name itself is in the language of that
locale. To specify that the name of the attribute member should be translated when it
appears in other locales, use the Translations property.

Everything we've said about the member attribute name is also true for the Translations
property, with one exception. Uniqueness of a translation is not defined in the model
because the translation is not used to identify the member, but only for displaying the
name of the member. When a user works on a client computer with a specific language,
the Language property enables the server to use the right translation to create a Member
Caption (used in the application model) in the language of the user.

Relationships Between Attributes

The Relationship between attributes in a dimension defines the possible associations that
one attribute can have with another. Relationship affects all the functions of Analysis
Services. It defines the properties of association that the current attribute has with other
attributes, including whether an attribute can be accessed through the current attribute.

If one attribute can be accessed through another, that other attribute is treated as a member
property of the current attribute. For example, Age and Marital Status are additional
properties for our Customer attribute. Table 5.3 describes the properties of Relationship
that can be used in the conceptual model.

TABLE 5.3

Properties of Relationship

Property Description

Defines the rules for modifying the key value of a member of
related attribute. This property can be set to one of the two
values:
Rigid : The key value of the related attribute and current attribute
are bound together and can't change without a full reprocessing of
the dimension. In our example, Gender can be defined as a depen-
dent attribute with a rigid relationship, because it won't change in
the dimension.

RelationshipType