Building OLAP Services Applications

Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services version 7.0 provides support for you to create and integrate custom applications that enhance your OLAP installation.

You can create applications that:

Manage the OLAP server and create and maintain OLAP objects such as cubes, dimensions, and security roles.
Extend the user interface by adding new objects to the object tree view, and by adding and responding to new menu choices.
Connect to the OLAP server, query data in cubes, and create local cubes.
Combine any or all of these functions.

Building OLAP Services Applications contains the following topics.

Topic	Contains
Introducing OLAP Services Applications	An overview of the system architecture, programming environment, and the available component tools.
SQL in OLAP Services	Details of the implementation of SQL in OLAP Services.
MDX	Details of multidimensional expressions (MDX), an expression syntax for manipulating multidimensional information.
Decision Support Objects	Information about the OLAP Services server object model, the component tool for managing OLAP objects.
Add-in Programs	Information about the IOlapAddIn interface you can use in your applications to interact with the OLAP Manager’s user interface.
PivotTable Service	Information about the client application service you can use with applications that query OLAP data and create local cubes.

You can also find sample applications on the SQL Server CD-ROM in the folder ..\MSOLAP\Samples that illustrate some of the techniques for developing your own applications that use Decision Support Objects (DSO) or PivotTable Service. The Readme.txt file in the folder provides descriptions of the individual samples and instructions on installing them to your computer. Examples include displaying metadata and data over the Web, creating and processing cubes with DSO, creating a write-enabled cube, and more.