ADSS OLAP HELP

Basics of Multidimensional Data

This topic provides an overview of the basic structural elements of multidimensional data. It also explains how ADSS OLAP uses this multidimensional data schema to retrieve and represent meta-data on a chart.

Understanding the Multidimensional Data Schema

Multidimensional data uses multiple, hierarchically-structured dimensions to classify information. By using multiple levels, we can introduce a powerful degree of interactivity into our data analysis.The following terms are commonly used to describe multidimensional data.

CUBE
A cube is the primary structure used to store and retrieve data within an OLAP database. You must have a cube of data in order to work with any OLAP database management system.
DIMENSION
A dimension provides a way to organize data according to independent logical groups. This is the highest structure within the multidimensional data model. It is helpful to think of a dimension as a "category of information". For example, a dimension may include the logical groups Time, Geography, or Variety.
HIERARCHY
The hierarchy defines the overall structure, and relationships between, the members of a dimension. It can be thought of as a type of logical "tree" that defines how different branches of members are organized within a dimension.
 
LEVEL
A level is a step of aggregation within a hierarchy.You can move up and down into the hierarchy of data by using its levels. The first level represents the highest step in the hierarchy; the second level is the child of this first level, and the third level is the child of the second level, and so on.
MEMBER
A member is an element of a dimension. The member element may represent one, or more, occurrences of data within a dimension. A member is the lowest form of reference used to access cell data. 

ADSS-OLAP CLIENT

The OLAP Client is a ready-to-use control that allows you to immediately browse multidimensional data from your data source with no code-behind needed

Elements of ADSS OLAP Client

REPORT LIST
A report list is a collection of individual reports that allows the user to organize and manage a "view" of the OLAP data. A report contains information about drill down and filter states, the requested data, the chart appearance and the accompanying OLAP parameters.

SERIES AXIS
The series axis can define one or more dimensions that will be displayed as a data series. If more than one dimension is present on the series axis, each data point will be defined by a unique combination of the dimensions' members.
CUBE SELECTOR
The Cube Selector web control provides the end-user with the ability to browse all available cubes on their server, and change the current cube that they are using for their analysis. The end-user can select a cube from the Cube Selector to analyze as their current cube, and then easily change cubes to continue analyzing different cubes of data.

The cube selector is a drop-down list which is populated with the names of cubes that are available on the current data source.

OLAP CHART
The chart is the main visualization medium used to display OLAP data. The chart generates its data based on the dimensions present on all three axes. As part of its User Interface elements, the OLAP Chart gives you the ability to use a context menu on the chart.  This can be accomplished by right-clicking anywhere on the chart.



CUBE DIMENSION BROWSER

The Cube Dimension Browser (or Dimension Browser) is a tree-list control, used to perform two basic functions:

Identify the parent-child relationships between levels of a dimension.

Select the dimension(s) to be added to a report. 

CATAGORIAL AXIS
The categorical axis defines one or more dimensions that are displayed as labels along the chart's x-axis. Expand the dimension to bring up the Edit Categorical Axis Item window. Select the desired members to display on the chart by placing a check mark in their respective boxes. If more than one dimension is on the categorical axis, the chart will stack each dimension. The order in which the dimensions are stacked on the chart is based on the order that they appear on the categorical axis.