Decision Support Objects (DSO) exposes the object model for the OLAP server. Your applications can use DSO to control the server, create and maintain OLAP objects, and establish data source connections. You can automate all functionality available through the user interface - the OLAP Manager uses DSO to implement the user interface.
The DSO object model consists of interfaces, objects, collections, methods, and properties. You create and manipulate DSO objects to manage the metadata for OLAP data. This metadata is stored in a repository in a relational database and is accessed by the OLAP server and DSO.
DSO uses hierarchically arranged groups of objects to define basic elements of OLAP data. These basic elements include databases, dimensions, cubes, partitions, aggregations, and virtual cubes. DSO addresses these basic elements in a hierarchical structure where elements contain other elements in a tree, with the server at the root of the tree. You can observe the hierarchy of this structure in the OLAP Manager tree view.
Your application can use DSO in combination with other component tools of Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services version 7.0 to enhance, augment, and automate your OLAP installation.
You can develop your DSO applications in Microsoft Visual Basic® and other languages that support the Component Object Model (COM). The Decision Support Objects (DSO) object model was developed in Visual Basic and is easiest to use with that language.
For more information, see Decision Support Objects.
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