PROCESS THE DIMENSION AND BROWSE THE DIMENSION.CREATING THE CUBEMO...

11. Process the dimension and browse the dimension.Creating the CubeMost of the hard work in the CompSales International example is done. All that is left todo now is to create a cube that is based on your fact tables in your data source, use thedimensions and hierarchies you just defined, and then process it (that is, populate thecube with data). In the Solution Explorer, you right-click the Cubes object and select NewCube. This invokes the Cube Wizard, as shown in Figure 51.30.Next, you identify the measure group tables from the data source view that will be used toprovide data to the cube. Available data source views are listed in this dialog. Because youhave already defined a data source view (

Comp Sales2008 DSV

), you simply highlight itand check the primary fact table (use

CompSalesFactoid

as your Measure group table) that

51

will provide your data, as shown in Figure 51.31, and click Next.ptgFIGURE 51.30 Selecting the build method for the cube in the Cube Wizard.The wizard detects the possible data measures (facts) from the measure group table youjust identified. In this measure group table, there are Sales Units, Sales Prices, Sales Returns,and a Count measure to choose from. Select all of them, as shown in Figure 51.32.If you have dimensions defined already (as you chose to do earlier), you want the newcube to use these definitions. The next wizard dialog lists any shared dimensions thathave been created already. Your dimensions are listed there, and you need to check all theones to be used for your cube (

Time_Dimension

,

Product_Dimension

, and

Geography_Dimension

), as shown in Figure 51.33. Then you click Next.As you can see in Figure 51.34, the last dialog in this wizard shows a preview of yourcomplete cube definition and provides a place to name the cube (for this example, nameit

Comp Sales

). Now you click Finish.You are now put in the cube designer, which shows the completed cube design for CompSales. The cube designer provides all related cube information within the single IDE(Visual Studio). Figure 51.35 shows the cube designer and all related tabs that can beinvoked from here (Dimension Usage, Calculations, KPIs, Actions, Partitions,Aggregations, Perspectives, Translations, and the Cube Data Browser).

2062

CHAPTER 51 SQL Server 2008 Analysis ServicesFIGURE 51.31 Selecting the data source view and measure group table to use for the cube.FIGURE 51.32 Selecting the measures (facts) that will be in the cube.FIGURE 51.33 Selecting the existing dimensions for your cube.FIGURE 51.34 Naming the cube and previewing the cube definition in the Cube Wizard.