What Are the Data Warehouse OLAP Cubes?

Online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes are data structures that the Data Warehouse uses to contain the data that you import. The cubes divide the data into subsets that are defined by dimensions.

A dimension is the descriptive attribute of a measure. For example, a dimension might describe the number of transactions on your site. The number of transactions is a measure. The transaction and the products purchased are dimensions. The following illustration shows the relationship between cubes, dimensions and measures.

Dd328413.csmn_DWA_OlapCubess(en-US,CS.90).gif

The OLAP cubes used by Commerce Server 2009 are created during the unpacking process. These cubes are populated and processed for data retrieval when the Report preparation data transformation services (DTS) task is run. Storing data in cubes increases the speed of data retrieval when you run analysis reports using the SQL Server Reporting Services. The following table lists the Commerce Server 2009 cubes and dimensions.

Cube

Dimensions

Measures

mscsCampaign

Advertiser

DateHour

Events

Page Group

Site

UserType

Count EventsDistinct Users

OrdImpLeaf

mscsCampaignEvents

Advertiser

DateHour

Events

Page Group

Site

UserType

Count EventsDistinct Users

mscsOrderedImpressions

Advertiser

Site

OrdImpLeaf

mscsSales

Date

ProductCategory

Site

UserType

Address

Currency

QuantityRevenue

Basket Events

DateHour

Events

Site

UserType

Product Category

Events

OrderEvents

DateHour

Day of Week

Events

Hour of Day

Site

UserType

Week of Year

Count Events

Buyer Visits

BuyerType

Site

UserType

Visit CountCount SalesUser Count

Bandwidth

DateHour

Day of Week

Hour of Day

Site

Hits CountTotal Bytes ReceivedTotal Bytes Sent

Entry Pages

Date

Site

URI

Visit Count

Exit Pages

Date

Site

URI

Visit Count

mscsDateIntersect

Day

Day of Week

Hour of Day

Week of Year

IntersectCount

mscsWebUsage

BrowserOs

BrowserType

Date

DateHour

Day of Week

Hour by Day

Referrer

Site

UserType

VisitType

Week of Year

VisitsDurationRequestsDistinctUsers

IntersectCount

mscsVisitInfo

BrowserOs

BrowserType

Date

DateHour

Day of Week

Hour by Day

Referrer

Site

UserType

VisitType

Week of Year

VisitsDurationRequestsDistinctUsers

Page Usage

Date

HTTP Status

Is Request

Level Directory

Site

URI

Win32Status

Hits Count

For more information about OLAP cubes, see SQL Server Books Online.

See Also

Other Resources

What Are the Data Warehouse Analytics Components?