Ella Maschiach's BI Blog - All Comments

re: Panorama now integrates with PowerPivot and SharePoint 2010

Siddharth Mehta — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:12:48 GMT

I feel that the first point for considering Panorama against upgrading to Office 2010 would be cost of enterprise wide licenses. Office 2010 also comes with Web Apps, which increases collabration to an complete new level.

Sharepoint BDC can probably serve most of what Panorama offers specially in counter to its UDC. Do you have the same views ?

Panorama Business Intelligence » Panorama now integrates with PowerPivot and SharePoint 2010

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:23:46 GMT

Pingback from Panorama Business Intelligence » Panorama now integrates with PowerPivot and SharePoint 2010

re: Free SQL Server and BI webinars from PASS

Ella Maschiach — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:30:52 GMT

Hi Anbu,

You can find a great resource from Microsoft on the subject of SQL Server here:

www.microsoft.com/.../sql-server.aspx

All the best,

Ella

re: Free SQL Server and BI webinars from PASS

Anbu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:29:21 GMT

I want to learn Microsoft BI

ElegantJ BI – Business Intelligence Suite and CPM (blog directory … | Business Intelligence Wisdom

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:28:46 GMT

Pingback from ElegantJ BI – Business Intelligence Suite and CPM (blog directory … | Business Intelligence Wisdom

OLAP BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CALCULATED MEMBERS OR FORMULAS SQL Server | Business Intelligence Wisdom

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:36:37 GMT

Pingback from OLAP BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CALCULATED MEMBERS OR FORMULAS SQL Server | Business Intelligence Wisdom

re: Visual Totals in MDX and Role Security

Ella Maschiach — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:13:13 GMT

Hi Abed,

Just choose the two relevant attribute in the two relevant dimensions in the Cube’s Dimension Data tab (as shown in the first picture of this post).

Hope that helped,

Ella

re: Visual Totals in MDX and Role Security

Abed — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:20:24 GMT

Need help please.

I try to use two cube dimension but different attribute:

Product Brand

and

Product Principal,

how do I mix these two attributes?

thanks.

abed.

re: Slowly Changing Dimension type 2 in SSAS

Ella Maschiach — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:32:06 GMT

Hi,

In my cube, I had a monthly fact with keys of employees and positions and percent of salary for that employee in that month for that job. The amount of people working during a month in the company would be a distinct count on the amount of employee business keys (in case an employee can work in more than one unit in the company). The business key may be kept on the fact table as well as on the dimension (though that is specific to each case).

For the amount of people that were added that month, you can create a calculated measure taking the amount of employees of this month and subtracting from it the amount of the previous month. Thing is, you can’t drillthrough on a calculated measure. If you want to see the people who started or finished that month, you have to create 2 new fact tables (one for new employees and one for the leaving) and connect the relevant members from the employee scd dimension to it.

Basically employee attributes are kept in the employee and facts are kept in the fact table.

To learn more I would suggest reading Kimball on the matter and looking at the Adventure Works Cube on what they did for the Employee and Promotion.

HTH,

Ella

re: Updating your Report Model

Ella Maschiach — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:03:20 GMT

Hi,

Please try clicking the "Regenerate Model" button on the properties page of the model in Report Manager or click "Update Model" in the Management Studio.

All the best,

Ella

re: Slowly Changing Dimension type 2 in SSAS

Erik M. — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:14:07 GMT

Hi Ella,

I’ve read this article with much interest! I am in the process of designing an SSAS cube and dimensions for employee data that has to keep historical changes, therefore I created it with the Type 2 SCDs. What I am struggling with, is how I would achieve the design in such a way, that I can answer questions like how many employees there were in the company at a random given date, or how many employees started or left the company in a random given month.

From your reply to Scott’s question, I am not really sure what to put in the dimension table and what to put in the fact table. For example all the changes of employee location, department, job title etc, I would put that in the dimension table. Do you know of any tutorial that describes this, or can you give me some tips?

Thanks, Erik

re: Recursive Sum in a Matrix in SSRS 2008

Ella Maschiach — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:40:07 GMT

Hi Ricardo,

Before I begin, I have to say a few things:
I haven’t got SSRS 2008. My VPC crashed again on my laptop and I haven’t worked with it since… :(
My report in the blog is against relational DB and not a cube, so just make the needed adjustments of putting in uniquename and parentuniquename as you should.

Looking at this post (blogs.microsoft.co.il/.../recursive-sum-in-a-matrix-in-ssrs-2008.aspx)

And at the webcast I created way back when for creating a basic report in tablix:

blogs.microsoft.co.il/.../webcast-first-steps-in-reporting-services-2008-en.aspx

From what I remember, and what I have in SSRS 2005, this is what I would suggest:
I put the account on the details row and edit it as I would for employee in the first post. I would then click the little arrow on the Row: Details Group and choose to add a Parent Group to it. I would put Cost Center after that. I would add that to the tablix and give it a total after. The scope of the sum for cost center should be automatic in SSRS 2008.

Hope that helped,

Ella

re: Recursive Sum in a Matrix in SSRS 2008

Ricardo — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:45:05 GMT

Hello Ella, just wondering, how would you do this in a table instead of a matrix? I can't add a total because of some scope issues. I'm using a parent-child hierarchy where I use the unique name and parentuniquename properties to make the recursive relationship.

re: Updating your Report Model

gonzague — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:47:52 GMT

hi,

I am new in reporting services (use budsiness objects before)...

I created a model and some reports based on it..

now, that I added some new fields in my model, I would like to modify some reports to use the new fields...

unfortunatelys each reports keep the model structure of when it has been created...

does that mean that ones a report is created, you cannot add a field in the model and then use this field in the report?

re: Creating a Report Model based on an Analysis Cube

Ella Maschiach — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:05:00 GMT

Hi Amby,

In general, you cannot use a calculated measure that references a dimension. I have discussed this in my post: Creating a Report Model based on an Analysis Cube – Pros and Cons under point 5 which states that: "it does not allow you to define a calculated member based on a dimension attribute. You can only define calculated members based on your measures."
I still tried to think of something to help you pass your problem. Give this a go:
Define a regular measure you would like to use.
Let's say you define:

CREATE MEMBER CURRENTCUBE.[MEASURES].[X]

AS 1

Link that measure to a measure group. Now, for the specific member of your dimension you can define the following:

Scope

(

[VW OR Metric DI].[Formula - Metric Desc].Properties("Metric Formula") = "A/B", [MEASURES].[X]

);

This = [MEASURES].[A/B];

End Scope ;

I haven't tested this on my own cube + report model so you'll have to check for yourself if it works. Basically, as you want the same calculation of measure A/B for that particular dimension member, I'll change my regular measure with that calculation when I reach that member. There is also more to read on Scope in MDX if you'd like.
Come back to tell us if it worked.

All the best,

Ella