An OLAP Requirements Example: CompSales International (part 6) - Creating the Cube

Creating the Cube

Most of the hard work in the CompSales International example is done. All that is left to do now is to create a cube that is based on your fact tables in your data source, use the dimensions and hierarchies you just defined, and then process it (that is, populate the cube with data). In the Solution Explorer, you right-click the Cubes object and select New Cube. This invokes the Cube Wizard, as shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25. Selecting the build method for the cube in the Cube Wizard.

Next, you identify the measure group tables from the data source view that will be used to provide data to the cube. Available data source views are listed in this dialog. Because you have already defined a data source view (Comp Sales2008 DSV), you simply highlight it and check the primary fact table (use CompSalesFactoid as your Measure group table) that will provide your data, as shown in Figure 26, and click Next.

Figure 26. Selecting the data source view and measure group table to use for the cube.

The wizard detects the possible data measures (facts) from the measure group table you just 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 27.

Figure 27. Selecting the measures (facts) that will be in the cube.

If you have dimensions defined already (as you chose to do earlier), you want the new cube to use these definitions. The next wizard dialog lists any shared dimensions that have been created already. Your dimensions are listed there, and you need to check all the ones to be used for your cube (Time_Dimension, Product_Dimension, and Geography_Dimension), as shown in Figure 28. Then you click Next.

Figure 28. Selecting the existing dimensions for your cube.

As you can see in Figure 29, the last dialog in this wizard shows a preview of your complete cube definition and provides a place to name the cube (for this example, name it Comp Sales). Now you click Finish.

Figure 29. Naming the cube and previewing the cube definition in the Cube Wizard.

You are now put in the cube designer, which shows the completed cube design for Comp Sales. The cube designer provides all related cube information within the single IDE (Visual Studio). Figure 30 shows the cube designer and all related tabs that can be invoked from here (Dimension Usage, Calculations, KPIs, Actions, Partitions, Aggregations, Perspectives, Translations, and the Cube Data Browser).

Figure 30. The Comp Sales cube definition in the cube designer.