99-02-FM-Defining a Data Source View
- Via a Project
Introduction
Labs 99-02 and 99-03 are intended to introduce you to methods of developing data warehouses and
cubes to an organization with business intelligence. Business intelligence (BI) is information that has
been derived from the data that is already in your organization and from data in external sources.
Business intelligence is designed to help you make better and faster decisions.
A BI system should be able to capture data from many sources, transforming the data into a
consistent and usable form and storing that data in a single location. From that single location the
software should present the information for easy analysis and decision making. For this subject the
source is a single location.
The BI system can have up to five layers:
A data source layer
A data transformation layer
A Data Storage and retrieval layer
An analytical layer
A presentation layer
Objective: To design a data warehouse then import the data after.
In the following task, you open Business Intelligence Development Studio and create a new Microsoft
SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) project. The name used throughout these Labs may be
different to how you name decide to name them. You can choose to name it something else as long
as you remember what you called it.
A project is a collection of related objects. Projects exist within a solution, which includes one or more
projects.
Tasks in this tutorial are

Starting a New Analysis Services project

Define a Data Source View

Define a Data Source View

Modifying the Default Table Names to more friendly names for management
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TASK 1: How to start a new (AS) Analysis Services project
Go back to a previous lab and see how to find the server name.
There may be alternatives to get to
1 Click Start  All Programs
Business Intelligence Development Studio
 Microsoft Software
 Microsoft SQL Server 2008
 SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio
The Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 development environment opens.
There may be recent projects that
appear in the top left box already,
particularly if you are working on
your own computer.
2 Select File New  Project.
You can use Business Intelligence Development Studio to create several different types of projects,
either from templates that are installed with Visual Studio or from templates that you define. The
templates that are installed depend on which Microsoft SQL Server components you install.
3 In the New Project dialog box, in the Project types on the left side of the pane select Business
Intelligence Projects. In the Templates pane (right side) select Analysis Services Project.
Notice the default project name, the default solution name, and the default project location in the
bottom of the dialog box. The default is called Analysis Services Project1. By default, a new directory
will be created for the solution as your will enter a different name.
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4 Change the project name to a name you will remember. In the example  FM-##, where ## is your
initials – mine would be FM-RT. Note the solution name changed also
Click OK.
You have successfully created the FM-RT project. It will appear in the top left pane. The pane is
called Recent Projects. The following shows a screen similar to yours.
Your project name
appears in projects
These 2 panes are visible and can be
located anywhere within the window.
They are usually found on the right side.
The panes are docked, but can be
moved. --- See next notes about some
hidden panes
Business Intelligence Development Studio Components
When a new Analysis Services project opens, Solution Explorer and the Properties window on the
right side are visible and docked. There are several hidden windows. They appear as tabs around the
edges depending on where they are docked. In the above screenshot Toolbox is barely visible near
the top left side. The other windows are The Server Explorer, Toolbox, Task List, Error List, and
Output windows. To view a hidden window, position your pointer in the hidden window and it will
reappear. To hide or unhide a window, click the Auto Hide button (looks like a cork board pin). If you
accidentally close an open window, you can reopen it from the View menu.
The following table describes the open windows when you open a new Analysis Services project.
Solution
Explorer
Properties
This window contains a tree few of the objects found in the solution. A solution can contain multiple projects
As you build the solution subtitles will appear under data sources, data source views, and cubes etc.
This window contains the properties for the items selected.
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TASK 2: Define a Data Source
After you create a Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) project (FM-##), you generally
start working with the project by defining one or more data sources that the project will use. When you
define a data source, you are actually defining the connection string information that will be used to
connect to the data source. You do not need to keep a record of the connection string.
In the following task, you will be connecting to the FMXXX sample database provided as the data
source for the FM-## project. A database that you are going to use is located on your local computer.
Normal practice is that the databases are frequently hosted on one or more computers separate from
where you’re working. ASIDE: As in the lecture portion it is better to keep the DW separate from the
OLTP to avoid slowing performance of the OLTP system that is essential to normal day-to-day
business. For these labs and the assignment keeping it on the same system is simpler.
To define a new data source
1 In Solution Explorer (right side at top), right-click Data Sources, and then click New Data Source
and the Data Source Wizard window will open.
2 On the Welcome to the Data Source Wizard page click Next.
You can check the box that will prevent the welcome screen from appearing in the future.
The Select how to define the connection page appears.
On this page, you can define a data source
Based on a new connection
 Based on a connection that already exists
 Based on a previously defined data source object
A previously defined data source object is an existing data source definition within the current project
or within another project in the current solution. In this tutorial, you will define a new data source
based on a NEW connection or the first choice listed above.
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3 On the Select how to define the connection page select NEW
The Connection Manager box appears.
Provider List
In this dialog box you define connection properties for the data source. A connection manager is a
logical representation of the connection that will be used at run time. For example, a connection
manager includes a connection string property that you set at design time. At run time, a physical
connection is created by using the values in the connection string property.
4 In the Provider list, at the top of the window, use the drop down to select
Native OLE DB\SQL Server native Client 10.0
Analysis Services also supports other providers as you saw in the drop down list.
5 In the Server name text box,
For the Lab pick the server that appears in the drop box
Choose the computer name you found before that starts with SY-T2109-0\SQLEXPRESS …as an
example
After selecting the name, REMOVE the part that states any reference to INSTANCE or SQL
EXPRESS. Just keep the SY-T2109-01or the one based on your machine
For at home I have used DESK which is the name of my computer. In the past some have chosen
localhost (all 1 word).
When you deploy the project to a particular instance of Analysis Services, the Analysis Services
engine will connect to DW database in the default instance of Microsoft SQL Server on the computer
where the instance of Analysis Services resides. If you specify a particular computer name or IP
address when you define a data source, the project or the deployed application will make the
connection to the specified computer instead of to the local computer. The Analysis Services
Deployment Wizard lets you specify the actual server name for the source data at deployment time.
This next part is VERY important
6 Verify that Use Windows Authentication is selected.
In the Select or enter a database name list, select FM-##. At this point you may have problems if
you don’t remember the names.
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You can try the Test Connection at bottom left
7 Click OK, to get the Select How to define the Connection window.
You may see other variations
due to many test runs in
developing the labs.
Then click Next.
The Impersonation Information page appears.
On this page of the wizard, Analysis Services (AS) requires you to define the security to use to
connect to the data source. However, in this tutorial AS select the Analysis Services service account
because this account has the necessary permissions to access the DW database.
8 Very important to remember as different installations such as your laptop or the school lab may be
set differently by default.
Select Use the service account, and then click Next.
9 On the Completing the Wizard page,
Click Finish to create the new data source with the name FM-##. If you look at the Solution Explorer
window you will see that FM-##.ds appears under data sources.
NOTE: To modify the properties of an existing data source, double-click the data source in the Data
Source folder to display the data source in Data Source Designer
You have successfully defined the FM-## data source for the project.
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TASK 3: Define a Data Source View
After you define the data sources that you will use, the next step is generally to define a data source
view for the project.
What is a Data Source View?
A data source view is a single unified view of the metadata from specified tables and views that the
data source defines in the project. It is what data you are choosing to look at from the tables
available. Storing the metadata in the data source view enables you to work with the metadata during
development without an open connection to any underlying data source. To simplify we could build a
cube without any connection to the underlying data. (The lab that did that has been removed as it is
not the preferred choice for students on this course) In this lab you will build the cube using a
connection to an existing DW.
In the following task, you define a data source view that includes tables from the FM-## data source.
To define a new data source view
1 In Solution Explorer, right-click Data Source Views, and then click New Data Source View.
The Welcome to the Data Source View Wizard opens.
2 On the Welcome to the Data Source View Wizard page, click Next.
The Select a Data Source page appears. Under Relational data sources, highlight the one you
want.
3 Click Next.
The Select Tables and Views page appears.
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On this page, you select tables and views from the list of objects that are available from the selected
data source. You can filter this list to help you in selecting tables and views.
4 In the Available objects list, select all the tables but NOT the sysdiagram
5 Click > to add the selected tables to the Included objects list.
6 Click Next, and you see this box.
Now is the time
to change the
view name if you
wanted to.
Click Finish to define the FM-##.
The resulting screen appears like the following. It may be spread out. It may or may not contain the
connections between tables. The connections are usually there, but occasionally you may have to
rebuild them.
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To see the whole diagram in the case of a more complicated structure, click the magnifying glass on
the toolbar specific to this window.
The data source view FM-## appears in the Data Source Views folder in Solution Explorer.
The contents of the data source view also displays in Data Source View Designer in Business
Intelligence Development Studio. This designer contains the following elements:
 Diagram pane -- The tables and their relationships are represented graphically
 Tables pane -- The tables and their schema elements are displayed in a tree view. (Left)
 Diagram Organizer pane – Where subdiagrams can be created so that you can view subsets of
the data source view
 A toolbar that is specific to Data Source View Designer.
7 Click the Maximize button to maximize the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment.
8 On the toolbar across the top of Data Source View Designer, use the Zoom icon (magnifying glass)
to view the tables in the Diagram pane at 50 percent. This will hide the column details of each table.
9 On the title bar of Solution Explorer, the top right box, click the Auto Hide button, which is the
pushpin icon.
Solution Explorer minimizes and changes to a tab along the right side of the development
environment. To view Solution Explorer again, position your pointer over the Solution Explorer tab. To
unhide Solution Explorer, click the Auto Hide button again.
10 Click Auto Hide on the title bar of the Properties window, if the window is not hidden by default.
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The following is a different example than what you see on your screen. What you see below is the
result of reducing or hiding the right hand panes to give a larger viewing area.
If all the dimension tables are directly connected to the Fact table as they are below then this would
be a Star schema example. The schema that you see on your screen is again Snowflake schema
because Product Subcategory and Product Category tables do not directly connect to the fact table,
but connect through Product.
In the example below, notice that there are three relationships between the FactInternetSales table
and the DimTime table. Each sale has three dates associated with the sale: an order date, a due
date, and a ship date. This is only showing you something different from what you will do later.
To view the details of any relationship, double-click the relationship arrow in the Diagram pane. Try it
on your diagram and see what appears.
You have successfully created the FM-##. Save it.
In the next lesson, you will gradually develop a cube.
.
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TASK 4: Modifying Default Table Names
The data you imported for FM-## had user friendly names such as Employee already. However,
having good names is not always the case. If you look at the example above you will find names such
as DimGeography and DimTime for table names. If you are an IT person you would understand it as
a dimension table for Geography or location and a dimension table for Time. The end-user of the
cube is an executive or business analyst and understands the name Geography or the name
Location.
The notes from the AdventureWorksDW are left here in this lab in case you want to quickly read how
it is done.
The metadata for the tables and views in a data source view are derived from the metadata for these
objects in the underlying data source. Business Intelligence Development Studio uses the metadata
for the objects in the data source view to define dimensions, attributes, and measure groups.
However, BI Development Studio uses the FriendlyName property of an object instead of its Name
property. You can change the value of the FriendlyName property for objects in the data source
view, to increase the user-friendliness of the names of the dimension and cube objects that are
created from the data source view. You can also change the names of these objects after you define
them.
In the following task, you will change the friendly name of a table in the FM-## DW data source view.
This will increase the user-friendliness of the cube and dimension objects that you will define in the
next lesson.
Note:
You can also change the friendly names of columns, define calculated columns, and join tables or
views in the data source view to increase their user-friendliness. You will learn about these options in
subsequent lessons in this tutorial.
To modify the default name of a table
1 In the Diagram pane (centre) of Data Source View Designer(dsv), right-click the SalesFact table,
and then click Properties.
If the properties pane appears as a tab, unhide it and pin it.
1 Click the Auto Hide button on the title bar of the Properties window so that this window will remain
unhidden.
It is easier to change the properties for each table in the data source view when the Properties
window remains open. If you do not pin the window open by using the Auto Hide button, the window
will close when you click a different object in the Diagram pane.
2 Change the FriendlyName property for the SalesFact object to FM SalesFact.
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In the File menu, or on the toolbar of BI Development Studio, click Save All.
This saves the changes you have made to this point in Labs, so that you can stop the labs here if you
want and resume it later.
NOTE: You may need to save to your own USB as the temp drive often gets wiped out on Seneca
machines
You have successfully changed the default table name. Had there been others such as EMP, it is a
good idea to change the names to something that is more meaningful to upper management. Try to
get away from IT short cut names or underscores. Names like LOCATION_DIM, meaning location
dimension table should be changed.
There are more things you can do and they are found Lab-991 to 993 which are available upon
request. These other labs deal with more issues than the simplified set of labs you are doing known
as FM labs.
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