Best practices for supporting dynamic sourcing

For a report to successfully retrieve its information from an Intelligent Cube, various conditions must be met. The considerations and steps required to fully support dynamic sourcing are listed below:

• While many MicroStrategy features can be used with dynamic sourcing, some features may prevent the use of dynamic sourcing between reports and Intelligent Cubes. Refer to the following sections for a list of features that can and cannot be used with dynamic sourcing:
  • Features that can be used with dynamic sourcing
  • Features that prevent the use of dynamic sourcing
• You can use Cube Advisor to create Intelligent Cubes that will allow as many reports as possible to use dynamic sourcing. For steps to use Cube Advisor to support dynamic sourcing, see Using Cube Advisor to support dynamic sourcing.
• For an Intelligent Cube to satisfy the data requirements of a report, the Intelligent Cube and report must have matching settings for VLDB properties that can affect the data that is returned.
• If you use dynamic sourcing, you must keep your Intelligent Cubes up to date with any changes to the data in your data warehouse, otherwise reports can return outdated data. You can use schedules and subscriptions to update the data of Intelligent Cubes. For information on these techniques, see Updating Intelligent Cubes using schedules and Publishing Intelligent Cubes using a schedule.
• In general, you should not create restrictive filter qualifications on Intelligent Cubes. The more restrictive the filter, the less likely it is that the Intelligent Cube can satisfy the data requirements of reports. Restrictive filters can be applied to the reports that access Intelligent Cubes.
• Reports cannot combine the data from multiple Intelligent Cubes to use dynamic sourcing. All the data requirements of a report must be satisfied by a single Intelligent Cube.
• Dynamic sourcing must be enabled for projects, reports, and Intelligent Cubes; this is described in the sections listed below:
  • Enabling or disabling dynamic sourcing for projects
  • Enabling or disabling dynamic sourcing for reports
  • Enabling or disabling dynamic sourcing for Intelligent Cubes
• To ensure that correct data is available in an Intelligent Cube for a report, you must verify that the following objects can support dynamic sourcing:
  • Attributes are available for dynamic sourcing by default. You should disable dynamic sourcing for attributes if:
    • Attribute data in fact and lookup tables contains NULL values.

    • The attribute elements in fact and lookup tables are not identical.

      For steps to disable dynamic sourcing for attributes, see Disabling dynamic sourcing for attributes.

  • Metrics are available for dynamic sourcing by default. You should disable dynamic sourcing for metrics if metric data in fact tables contains NULL values. For steps to disable dynamic sourcing for metrics, see Disabling dynamic sourcing for metrics.
  • Aggregate tables are available for dynamic sourcing by default. You should disable dynamic sourcing for aggregate tables if:
    • Aggregation functions other than Sum are used.

    • The aggregate table includes different data than is available in lookup and fact tables. For example, an aggregate table with years 2006, 2007, and 2008 should not be used for dynamic sourcing if your lookup and fact tables only include the years 2007 and 2008.

      For steps to disable dynamic sourcing for aggregate tables, see Disabling dynamic sourcing for aggregate tables.

• If the report is based on an MDX data source, such as an SAP BW Cube, it can also use dynamic sourcing, and retrieve data from an Intelligent Cube that is also based on an MDX data source.

  In such a scenario, the following additional conditions apply:

  • The report and Intelligent Cube must be based on the same source MDX cube.
  • Filters on the report must meet the following criteria:
    • Attributes used in the filter should also be on the Intelligent Cube's definition.
    • The report filter must include at least the same restrictions as the Intelligent Cube's filter, if present. For example, if the Intelligent Cube restricts data to only the year 2010, the report must include the same restriction.

For additional information on creating reports that access MDX sources, refer to the MDX Cube Reporting Help.