Building a Cube with the Editor

If you prefer to bypass the Cube wizard, you can build your cube with the Cube editor. The advantages of using the Cube editor include choosing your own task order and variations. You can also see and modify object properties.

You can also use the Cube editor to update existing cubes.

To build a cube with the Cube editor

1. In the OLAP Manager tree view, expand a database.
2. Right-click the Cubes folder, point to New Cube, and then click Editor.
3. In the Choose a Fact Table dialog box, expand a data source, and then click the table to use as your cube’s fact table.

   The columns of the table you click appear under Details.

4. Click OK.

   The Cube editor appears, with your fact table showing in the Schema pane.

5. To select measures for your cube, in the Cube editor tree view, right-click the Measures folder, and then click New Measure. Use the Select Column dialog box to select columns in your fact table as measures.

   As you select each measure, it appears in the tree view under the Measures folder.

6. Define shared and/or private dimensions for your cube.
   • Shared dimensions: In the Cube editor tree view, right-click the Dimensions folder, and then click Dimension Manager. Select existing shared dimensions under Shared dimensions, and then click “>“ (Add) to add them to your cube. To create new dimensions, click New Dimension to start the Dimension wizard.
   • Private dimensions: On the Insert menu, click Tables. In the Select Table dialog box, add the dimension tables to your cube, and then close the Select Table dialog box. In the Cube editor tree view, right-click the Dimensions folder, and then click New Private Dimension. Use the Select Column dialog box to define columns from your tables as dimensions. To add levels, right-click a private dimension, and then click New Level. Use the Select Column dialog box to define columns as levels.

   After you define a dimension, its dimension table appears in the Cube editor Schema pane, with the joins between the dimension tables and the fact table illustrated by lines. Also, a dimension table can be joined to another dimension table to form a snowflake schema. Verify all desired joins are present. To add a join, drag a column to the joining column.

7. To save your cube, on the File menu click Save, type a name for your cube in the New Cube Name dialog box, and then click OK.

   The new name for your cube appears in the Cube editor tree view.

8. To design the aggregations for your cube, on the Tools menu, click Design Storage. The Storage Design wizard appears to help you design aggregations. For more information, see Designing Storage Options and Aggregations.

   The last step of the wizard gives you the option to process your cube now or later. You must process it before you and users can view its data. Depending on the size of your cube, processing can take considerable time. If you decide to process later, refer to Processing Cubes Using the OLAP Manager for more information.

For more information about cubes, see Defining Cubes.

Note Newly processed cubes are visible to client users only after they reconnect to the server computer.

See Also

Building a Cube with the Wizard