Strategy ONE
Preserving Attribute Element Orders from MDX Cube Sources
When data is integrated from your MDX cube source to Strategy, the order of data mapped to attribute elements in Strategy does not always reflect the same order of the data in your MDX cube source.
Preserving the order of data as it exists in your MDX cube source can be helpful for various reasons. For example, this can help support financial balance sheet analysis in which you always want to see your accounts receivable information above your accounts payable information.
To preserve the order of data as it exists in your MDX cube source, you must define dimensions within MDX cubes to return the order of data when integrated into Strategy.
Dimensions in MDX cube sources are not directly mapped to Strategy objects. However, the levels within a dimension in an MDX cube source are mapped to hierarchies and attributes in Strategy.
By default, the order of data is not integrated into Strategy. This is because the need to preserve the order of data is commonly unnecessary and only used on a case-by-case basis, and integrating this order information requires metadata space.
Before you can preserve the order of MDX cube source data in Strategy, you need to import MDX cubes from your MDX cube source into Strategy. For steps to import MDX cubes, see Importing MDX Cubes.
To preserve and retrieve attribute element orders for MDX cube sources
- In Developer, log in to a project that is connected to an MDX cube source. Only one user can edit a project at a time.
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Choose Schema > MDX Cube Catalog.
If the project connects to more than one MDX cube source, choose an MDX cube source database instance from the Select the Database Instance drop-down list, and then select an MDX cube source database instance and click OK to open the MDX Cube Catalog.
- Choose Cube Mapping > Catalog\Cube and then choose the MDX cube to integrate the order of data for into Strategy.
- You must save the MDX cube before you can modify the properties of a dimension. Choose File > Save.
- In the Physical view column, right-click a dimension to integrate the order for all data within the dimension into Strategy, and then choose Properties.
- On the Hierarchies tab, choose the The order of the hierarchy nodes should be preserved from the source check box. Choosing this check box marks this dimension to have the order of its data integrated into Strategy.
- To retrieve the order of data from the MDX cube source, click Retrieve hierarchy structure. If the order of data in your MDX cube source changes, you can update the order for all dimensions in an MDX cube that are defined to have the order of data integrated into Strategy.
- Click OK.
- Click Save and Close.
The order of data is now integrated into Strategy. However, MDX cube reports are not sorted using this order by default. A report designer must define an MDX cube report to sort using the order integrated from the MDX cube source, as described in Sorting on Attribute Element Orders from MDX Cube Sources.
Updating the order of attribute elements
You can choose to preserve the order of data that is mapped to attribute elements in Strategy for various MDX cubes. Once you have done so, you can update these orders for MDX cubes in Strategy when they are changed in your MDX cube source.
The order of data in an MDX cube source is only updated for dimensions that are defined to integrate the order of data into Strategy.
To update the order of attribute elements
- In Developer, log in to a project that is connected to an MDX cube source. Only one user can edit a project at a time.
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Choose Schema > MDX Cube Catalog.
If the project connects to more than one MDX cube source, choose an MDX cube source database instance from the Select the Database Instance drop-down list, and then select an MDX cube source database instance and click OK to open the MDX Cube Catalog.
- On the Cube Selection tab, in the Selected Cubes area, browse to and right-click an MDX cube to update the order of its data in Strategy, and then choose Update hierarchy structure. The order of data is updated in Strategy for all dimensions that are defined to integrate the order of data into Strategy.
- Click Save and Close.