PowerOLAP® records the properties of the created Cube, enabling you to obtain an overview of the Cube—the Dimensions; some of the options you selected when creating the Cube; and, critically, the underlying relational database as well as the driver you used to access this database. This is especially useful later, when you open a database and want to determine these particulars about a Cube.
We will now take a look at the properties of the example Cube:
1. From the PowerOLAP ribbon, go to Data tab and in the OLAPExchange control group select the Cube Properties command.
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Note that the Incremental Updating part of the dialog box, at the bottom right, is grayed out—because you did not select the feature Support Incremental Updating. Going forward, you can enable Multi-Dimensional Editing Allowed checkbox, so that the Fact Data is no longer "read-only"—i.e., you will be able to enter data in the Cube through the PowerOLAP interface. (Note: Only enable the Multi-Dimensional Editing Allowed checkbox if you want the values pulled from the relational database to be changed or updated in PowerOLAP.)
2. Click OK in the Cube Properties dialog box.
3. Select File icon then Save Database command in PowerOLAP to save the database with all current information.
We can take a closer look at the Cube through the PowerOLAP interface. Directly, you can create a Slice, to verify that the actual figures have been loaded into the Cube.
4. From the PowerOLAP ribbon, select Slice tab and New Slice command.
5. With the Order Information
cube selected in the New Slice dialog box,
click OK. The slice grid will appear blank.
6. Press F9 to update the grid with actual figures.
The Page or Filter Dimension, Measures, shows the Page Member UnitPrice for all Customers (rows) by all Products (columns). The Page or Filter list box is shown below:
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In order to see how many of each product each customer ordered, change the Page Member to Quantity:
7. Double-click on Measures: UnitPrice in the Page/Filter list box.
8. In the Edit Slice dialog box, double-click on Quantity in the Slice Content list box, on the right.
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9. Then click OK (green check mark) to return to the Slice.
10. Press F9 to update the Slice so that
it shows Quantity data—
i.e., the units ordered of Total Products (shown in columns) by
All Customers
(shown in rows). The Slice will appear as in the following figure:
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Notes
In considering these figures, you might have asked yourself the natural
question When did the customers place their orders? You
are already, therefore, "thinking multidimensionally" because
you are curious about comparing across a "Time" dimension—e.g., by Period, by Month,
by Year—how
many products were ordered by a particular customer. In this 3-dimensional
Cube we did not add a Time dimension, whereas in typical implementations
there will often be a Time dimension. This might be accomplished
by using a Field that includes Months for each transaction. Relatedly,
refer to Create a Time Dimension under Administrator Topics.
At this point, we can check other characteristics of the Dimensions we built via OLAP Exchange—namely, the Alias Groups we created; the Properties we assigned; and the Hierarchies we built.