Prereq

To install PerformancePoint Add-In for Excel, windows needs the following installed:

ADOMD.NET 9.0 SP2
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93296

Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider (SP2)
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93298


Or rather, in order to connect to a cube in asp.net, the above providers might be helpful.

AdventureWorks Database

Tips on installing AdventureWorksDW for the analysis tutorial for SQL 2005:
1) Download the file at: http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4004 (No longer at downloaded at Microsoft)
2) Select the AdventureWorksBI.msi (This is the database for the ssas tutorials).
3) Run the msi installer that you just downloaded, default installation is fine.
4) The msi installer for the sql 2005 Adventure Works database does not automatically attach the database files to a SQL Instance. There are multiple ways of accomplishing this:
a) Open Sql Managment Studio, New Query, Copy the text below (If you made any changes to the install location, or the drive is not on C, then make the appropriate changes in the file names. Just search for AdventureWorks if you're not sure of the file location)

exec sp_attach_db @dbname = N'AdventureWorks',
@filename1 = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\AdventureWorks_Data.mdf',
@filename2 = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\AdventureWorks_log.ldf'

[http://www.codeplex.com/SqlServerSamples/Wiki/View.aspx?title=SQLServerDatabasesandSamplesOverview&referringTitle=Home]

b) Connect to the SQL Server Instance that you would like to install the AdventureWorks database. Right click the database folder and select "Attach...". This will bring up a SQL Server Attach Databases Dialog. Click the Add button and locate the AdventureWorks_Data.mdf file.


Basically it's really easy, you need to know that the msi file does not automatically attach the database.

KHA(+)S

M()NSTER - KHA(+)S - energy + juice

The monster energy drink isn't as bad as I remember...although it's not helping with any motiviation for studying for exams.

Other cool stuff: Excel 2007, wow, it worked amazingly well pulling data from a cube, displaying the data, graphing, etc... It was really easy, and I was able to gather some detailed information from the graphs. Now I just need to work on building a better cube. I'm hooked on business intelligence and how easy Microsoft has made the development process.

Slowly Changing Dimensions

I learn something new every time I go to work. Today, the concept of slowly changing dimensions. Typically when I created a database and then a website application to go on top of the database, I had the typical select, update, and insert. The update function would overwrite the current values with the new values. So what about history of the data? It's gone obviously.

Let's say we are looking to analyze the data in our database. The database is tracking sales from users. One user buys items, then moves to another state (and updates their account information) and buys more items. If you want to know the sales by state, all the sales for that user will be linked to their current location. Maybe this is what you want, however if you want to compare sales in each state over time, history will keep changing. Solution? Slowly changing dimensions: keep a history of these dimensions that change over time (typically slowly, hence the name slowly changing dimensions).

Time to adjust my databases, as Yuri once said: "The less you know, the better you sleep".