Browsing the Deployed Cube

Browsing a deployed cube helps you understand the modifications that you should make to improve the functionality of the cube. For example, you may have to define dimension member sort orders, delete unnecessary dimension attributes, define new user hierarchies, modify existing user hierarchies, or configure measure properties. After you deploy a cube, cube data is viewable on the Browser tab in Cube Designer, and dimension data is viewable on the Browser tab in Dimension Designer.

In the following task, you browse the Analysis Services Tutorial cube and each of its dimensions to determine the types of changes that need to be made to improve the functionality of the cube.

To browse the deployed cube

1. Switch to Dimension Designer for the Customer dimension by clicking the Customer tab in Business Intelligence Development Studio or by double-clicking Customer in the Dimensions node in Solution Explorer and then click the Browser tab.

   The State Province Name – Geography user hierarchy appears in the Hierarchy list on the toolbar of the Browser tab; the name of the current level, (All), appears immediately underneath the toolbar; and the sole member of the (All) level appears in the browser pane. By default, the name of the only member of the (All) level is All and is visible. You can change the name of this level or hide it, such as for a scenario dimension. In Lesson 3, you will change the name of the member of the (All) level for several of the dimensions in the Analysis Services Tutorial cube.

2. In the Level and Members pane, expand the All member of the (All) level to display the members of the State Province Name level. Expand the Alabama member of this level to display the Geography level. Expand the 280 member of the Geography level to view the member at the Customer level.

   The Level and Members pane of Dimension Designer makes it easy to view the members of each level within the user hierarchy that the Cube Wizard designs so that you can determine the functionality changes that you need to make. Notice that this hierarchy does not have a city level defined, that the members of the Geography level are the DimGeography table key values, and that the Customer level displays the customer's e-mail address instead of the customer's name. You will modify this hierarchy in Lesson 3.

   The following image shows the expanded hierarchy in the Level and Members pane.

   

3. On the toolbar of Dimension Designer for the Customer dimension, select English Country Region Name in the Hierarchy list, and then expand the All member in the Level and Members pane.

   The attribute hierarchy of the English Country Region Name attribute appears. By default, each attribute of a dimension has a hierarchy of two levels: an (All) level, and a level that contains each attribute member. The name of the second level is the attribute name itself. In Lesson 3, you will learn how to define user-defined hierarchies based on attribute hierarchies.

   The following image shows the hierarchy of the English Country Region Name attribute.

   

4. In Solution Explorer, double-click Time in the Dimensions folder.

   The Time dimension opens in Dimension Designer in BI Development Studio.

5. In Dimension Designer for the Time dimension, click the Browser tab.

   The user hierarchy CalendarYear - CalendarSemester - CalendarQuarter - EnglishMonthName - FullDateAlternateKey appears in the Hierarchy list.

6. Expand the All member to display the members of the Calendar Year level. Expand the 2003 member to display the members of the Calendar Semester level. Expand the 1 member to display the members of the Calendar Quarter level. Expand the 2 member to display the members of the English Month Name level. Expand the June member to display the members of the FullDateAlternateKey level.

   In Lesson 3, you will modify this user hierarchy to increase its user-friendliness, by defining friendly names for semesters and quarters, and by defining simple dates instead of dates that include time values.

   The following image shows the hierarchy expanded to display the FullDateAlternateKey attributes.

   

7. Switch to Cube Designer in BI Development Studio by clicking the designer tab for the Analysis Services Tutorial cube. Select the Browser tab, and then click Reconnect on the toolbar of the designer. Alternatively, click the Click here to try loading the browser again link that appears in the middle of the browser pane.

   The left pane of the designer shows the metadata for the Analysis Services Tutorial cube. Notice that Perspective and Language options are available on the toolbar of the Browser tab. Notice also that the Browser tab includes two panes to the right of the Metadata pane: the upper pane is the Filter pane, and the lower pane is the Data pane.

   The following image highlights the individual panes in Cube Designer.

   

8. In the Metadata pane, expand Measures, expand Internet Sales, and then drag the Sales Amount measure to the Drop Totals or Detail Fields Here area of the Data pane.

   Notice that the measure does not display in a standard currency format. In Lesson 3, you will learn how to modify the formatting of cube measures. For more information, see Defining and Configuring a Measure.

   Note

   The sales amount values for each country in the Adventure Works DW database are entered in the local currency for each country. In Lesson 9, you will learn how to convert the sales amount values to a common currency.

9. In the Metadata pane, expand Customer.

   Notice that all the attribute hierarchies in the Customer dimension appear in the Metadata pane. The Customer dimension list also includes the State Province Name – Geography user hierarchy. You can use any one or more of the attribute hierarchies to dimension the cube. However, having so many hierarchies visible for each dimension at the same level can be overwhelming to a business user. In Lesson 3 you will learn how to group these hierarchies into display folders so that you can navigate them more easily.

10. Drag the English Country Region Name attribute hierarchy to the Drop Row Fields Here area of the Data pane.

    You are now viewing Internet Sales dimensioned by the country of each customer. The following image shows this dimensioning.

    

11. In the Metadata pane, collapse Customer, collapse Measures, expand Product, right-click Product Line, and then click Add to Column Area.

    You are now viewing Internet Sales dimensioned by the country and by the product line. However, notice that each product line is represented by a single letter instead of by the full name of the product line. In Lesson 3, you will learn how to add a named calculation in the data source view and modify the properties of this dimension attribute to increase the user-friendliness of product line names.

    The following image shows Internet Sales dimensioned by country and product line.

    

12. In the Metadata pane, collapse Product, expand Order Date, and then drag Order Date.Calendar Quarter to the Drop Filter Fields Here area of the Data pane.

13. In the filter fields area of the Data pane, click the down arrow next to Order Date.Calendar Quarter, clear the check box next to (All), select the check box next to 1, and then click OK.

    You are now viewing Internet Sales dimensioned by country and by product line for the first calendar quarter. However, you are actually viewing the values for the first calendar quarter of every calendar year, not for any particular calendar year. In Lesson 3, you will learn how to use composite keys to uniquely identify each calendar quarter so that you can differentiate calendar quarters by year.

    The following image shows Internet Sales dimensioned by country and product line for the first calendar quarter of every year.

    

14. In the Metadata pane, expand Order Date.Calendar Year, and then expand CalendarYear.

15. Right-click the 2002 member of the Calendar Year attribute hierarchy, and then click Add to Subcube Area.

    The 2002 member of the Order Date dimension appears in the Filter pane, above the Data pane, and limits the values that are displayed in the Data pane. This is effectively equal to the WHERE clause in a Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) query statement. For more information, see MDX Query Fundamentals (MDX).

    The values for calendar quarter 1 for sales of each product line over the Internet, dimensioned by country, are now limited to the year 2002, as shown in the following image.

    

You have successfully browsed the cube created for you by the Cube Wizard, and are now familiar with certain elements of the Analysis Services Tutorial project that you may want to change to improve user-friendliness and functionality.

Next Lesson

Lesson 3: Modifying Measures, Attributes and Hierarchies

See Also

Other Resources

Browsing Cube Data

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance