Book Image

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development

Book Image

Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development

Overview of this book

Analysis Services have been the number one OLAP engine for years. With the increased focus on business intelligence solutions, there is a shortage of professionals in this area. Start your journey into becoming a BI developer using the popular tools included in every SQL Server installation. Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development teaches you through clear step-by-step exercises to create business intelligence solutions using Analysis Services. The knowledge gained through these practical examples can immediately be applied to your real-world problems. Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development begins with an introduction to business intelligence and Analysis Services, the world's most-used cube engine. Guiding you through easy-to-understand examples to become a cube developer. Learn how to create a cube including all the advanced features such as KPIs, calculated measures, and time intelligence. Security and performance tuning will also be explored. You will learn how to perform and automate core tasks like deployment and processing. The main focus is on multidimensional cubes, but the creation of in-memory models will also be covered. You will learn everything you need to get started with cube development using SQL Server 2012.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Extending the cube with custom actions


A common requirement when building BI solutions is that you should be able to invoke an external command from within the analysis program. This is something that you can do by using actions. You define the action as part of your cube; as an example, you can invoke a web page or report from your action.

The most common action is a drillthrough action that allows the users to go from an aggregated level in the cube directly down to the lowest level of the cube. To create an action in your cube, perform the following steps:

  1. Double-click on the Adventure Works DW2012.cube cube in the Solution Explorer.

  2. Click on the Actions tab in the designer and then click on the New Drillthrough Action button.

  3. Name the action as My Custom Drillthrough Action.

  4. Set the value of Action Target as Fact Internet Sales.

  5. Then add the following drillthrough columns:

    Dimension

    Return Columns

    Measures

    Sales Amount

    Order Date

    Date

    Product

    Product, Product Subcategory, Product Category...