1206
Part IX: Business Intelligence
You can add additional attributes by dragging a column from the Data Source View pane
onto the Attributes pane. In the center pane, you can create user hierarchies to give users
the ability to drill-down through multiple attribute levels. Create these in the Hierarchies
pane with the least granular level at the top and most granular at the bottom.Hierarchies and Attribute Relationships
Each attribute not specifi cally disabled becomes an attribute hierarchy for browsing and que-
rying. The attribute hierarchy generally consists of two levels: the All level and a level that
individually lists each value. An important practice to optimize cube performance is to build
out dimension attribute relationships; this helps analysis services in aggregating the data.
Figure 53-6 shows an attribute relationship sample. Notice the more specifi c points to the
less specifi c. For instance, a product (very specifi c) belongs in a subcategory (less specifi c).FIGURE 53-6
Sample attribute relationships in a dimension.Best Practice
Although natural hierarchies are important for cube performance, user hierarchies provide drill-down
paths for users who interactively browse the contents of a cube, so you need to defi ne paths that make
sense to the user of the cube as well.c53.indd 1206c53.indd 1206 7/31/2012 10:30:23 AM7/31/2012 10:30:23 AM
http://www.it-ebooks.info