Cubes and Multidimensional Analysis - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - page 68

Perspectives

Analysis Services introduces perspectives to simplify data models that can be used in appli-
cations. A cube can contain hundreds of hierarchies and tens of different measures, which
are available for analysis by hierarchies. Analysis Services perspectives enable you to define
a subset of the objects of the application's model into an independent model. The
perspective acts like a window into one area of the cube, one that the application can
handle.

A perspective is defined by a name (that you specify) and the objects (that you select) it
inherits from a cube. Any object that you don't select are hidden. The objects that are
available in the perspective are the following:

. Dimensions (hierarchies and attributes)

. Measure groups (measures)

. KPIs

. Calculated members

. Actions

Perspectives don't slow down the system and don't require additional resources. All their
use does is create an additional layer of metadata, which specifies the part of the cube that
is visible to the user. No real data is stored in the perspective; the data is retrieved from
the original cube.

You use perspectives to control the scope of a cube exposed to users. To the user, a
perspective looks like any other cube available for the application. With perspectives, you
can reduce clutter and make it possible for different types of users to see different parts
of the cube.

You can't use perspectives as a security tool to limit access to cube information. Even
though the data the user sees is limited by the perspective, if he knows how, he can access
any information in the cube.

A perspective is a major object and has all the properties of major objects: ID , Name ,
Description , Translations , and Annotations . A perspective doesn't have its own
Language or Collation properties. It uses these properties of the cube.

To define a perspective, you specify five collections with names similar to the collections
in a cube:

.

Dimensions specifies the list of dimensions that are visible in the perspective.

.

MeasureGroups specifies the list of measure groups that are visible in the perspective.

.

Calculations specifies the list of calculations that are visible in the perspective.

.

KPIs specifies the list of key performance indicators available through the perspective.

.

Actions specifies the list of actions available through the perspective.