Walkthrough: Creating a cube

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

In this walkthrough, you will create a cube that enables you to analyze data from Microsoft Dynamics AX. You will use the Business Intelligence (BI) properties in Microsoft Dynamics AX to specify measures and attributes for the cube, and then generate an Analysis Services project so that you can work with the cube in SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS).

In this walkthrough you will create an analysis cube called Sales analysis that will allow you to analyze the following data for the Contoso company:

• Sales revenue by quarter, months, and weeks

• Sales revenue by payment mode

• Average sales by customer group

Prerequisites Create a perspective for a cube Specify cube measure and attributes Generate and deploy the Analysis Services project Browse cube data

How to create a cube in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (video)

Prerequisites

Before you can complete the procedures in this topic, you must make sure that the following prerequisites are in place.

Create a perspective for a cube

A cube is defined by its measures and dimensions. A measure is quantifiable, like sales, receivables, or item quantities. Dimensions are used to slice measures. For example, sales by quarter, sales by payment group, or sales by customer group. You can specify measures and dimensions to model a cube in the Application Object Tree (AOT). A perspective is a container for the tables and views that contain the measures and dimensions for a cube. For this walkthrough, you will create a perspective, add Microsoft Dynamics AX tables and views to the perspective, and then define measures and dimensions by using the views and table in the perspective.

The following procedures explain how to create a perspective for the cube and how to add views and tables to the perspective.

Create a perspective for the cube

1. In the AOT, expand the Data Dictionary node. Right-click the Perspectives node, and then click New Perspective.

2. Select the node of the perspective. In the Properties sheet, specify the following property values:

   Property	Value
   Name	SalesAnalysis
   Label	Sales analysis
   Usage	OLAP

   Setting the Usage property to OLAP indicates that the perspective will be used to generate an Analysis Services project.

Add views to the perspective

1. In the AOT, right-click the Data Dictionary node, and then click Open New Window.

2. In the new window, expand the Views node. Drag the following views onto the Views node of the SalesAnalysis perspective:

   View	Description
   CustTransTotalSales	Contains sales invoice details.
   CustTableCube	Contains master customer data.

3. In the AOT, right-click the SalesAnalysis perspective, and then click Save.

Add a table to the perspective

1. In the second AOT, expand the Tables node. Drag the following table onto the Tables node of the SalesAnalysis perspective:

   View	Description
   CustPaymModeTable	Contains payment mode information.

2. In the AOT, right-click the SalesAnalysis perspective, and then click Save.

Specify cube measure and attributes

You must specify measures and attributes to analyze the desired sales information. To do this, you need to set properties on each view and table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

The following procedures explain how to set BI properties on the views and table.

Set properties on the CustTransTotalSales view

1. In the SalesAnalysis perspective, select the CustTransTotalSales view.

2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

   Property	Value
   AnalysisDimensionType	Transaction
   AnalysisDimensionLabel	Sales type

3. In the Properties sheet, set the following values for each field on the CustTransTotalSales view in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

   Field	AnalysisUsage	AnalysisDefaultTotal	ExchangeRateDateField
   AmountMST	Measure	Sum	TransDate Note The AmountMST value is in the accounting currency of the company. Microsoft Dynamics AX converts that amount to the analysis currency using Microsoft Dynamics AX exchange rates.
   TransType	Attribute	Auto
   TransDate	Attribute	Auto
   All other fields	Auto	Auto

Set properties on the CustTableCube view

1. In the SalesAnalysis perspective, select the CustTableCube view.

2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

   Property	Value
   AnalysisDimensionType	Auto
   AnalysisDimensionLabel	Customer information
   AnalysisMeasureGroupLabel	Customer details

3. In the Properties sheet, set the following values for each field on the CustTableCube view in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

   Tip

   You can select several fields and set their property values at the same time.

   Field	AnalysisUsage	AnalysisDefaultTotal
   AccountNum	Measure	Count
   Blocked	Attribute	Auto
   GroupName	Attribute	Auto
   City	Attribute	Auto
   County	Attribute	Auto
   Name	Attribute	Auto
   State	Attribute	Auto
   MainContactWorker	Attribute	Auto
   All other fields	Auto	Auto

Set properties on the CustPaymModeTable table

1. In the SalesAnalysis perspective, select the CustPaymModeTable table.

2. In the Properties sheet, specify the following values.

   Property	Value
   IsLookup	No
   AnalysisDimensionType	Auto

3. In the Properties sheet, set the following values for each field on the CustPaymModeTable table in the SalesAnalysis perspective.

   Field	AnalysisUsage	AnalysisDefaultTotal
   Name	Attribute	Auto
   PaymMode	Attribute	Auto
   TypeOfDraft	Attribute	Auto
   AccountType	Attribute	Auto
   All other fields	Auto	Auto

Generate and deploy the Analysis Services project

Now that you have created a perspective and specified the measures and attributes for the cube, generate an Analysis Services project so that you can work with the analysis cube in BIDS (or SQL Server Data Tools).

1. Click Tools > Business Intelligence (BI) tools > SQL Server Analysis Services project wizard. The SQL Server Analysis Services project wizard form appears.

2. Click Next.

3. Select Create. In the Project name field, type Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis. Click Next.

4. Select Sales analysis from the Available list and move it to the Selected list and then click Next.

5. On the Select Microsoft Dynamics AX dimensions page, click Next.

6. Select Date from the Available list and move it to the Selected list and then click Next.

7. Select Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), and English (United States) from the Available list and move them to the Selected list and then click Next.

8. Select Add foreign currency support to the Analysis Services project and then click Next. After the project is generated, click Next again.

9. Select Save to AOT. Select [New] from the list to create a new AOT node. Select Save to disk, type the location to which to save the project, and then click Next.

10. On the Deployment options page, Select Deploy the project. Specify the server name. For example, localhost. Select Create new database. Type Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis. Select Process the project after it is successfully deployed and then click Next. Click Next and then click Finish.

    Note

    If you are using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, select the database to deploy, select Deploy, select Process the project after it is successfully deployed, and then click Next. After the project deploys, click Next and then Finish.

Browse cube data

Now that the SalesAnalysis cube has been deployed and processed, you can browse the cube data within the Analysis Services project. The following procedure explains how to browse the cube data.

Browse the analysis cube data

1. In BIDS, open the Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis Analysis Services project. If you are using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, the project is called Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis initial.

   Note

   You can open the project from the AOT. To open the project from the AOT, right-click Visual Studio Projects > Analysis Services Projects > Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis and then click Edit. You must deploy and process the project before you can browse the cube data.

2. In Solution Explorer, double-click SalesAnalysis.cube.

3. Click the Browser tab.

4. Expand the Measures node, expand the Total customer sales node, and then drag Amount onto the data area..

5. Expand the Customers node, and then drag State onto the row area.

6. Expand the Customers node, and then drag Customers – Name onto the row area.

7. Browse the data. You can modify the rows and columns that display in the table or add other dimensions to further slice the data.

View cube objects in the generated project

1. Expand the Data Sources node. A data source that connects to the Microsoft Dynamics AX OLTP database is displayed.

   A data source is used to source and refresh cube data.

2. Expand the Data Source Views node, and then double-click Dynamics AX SalesAnalysis.

   A data source view provides a unified view of the tables and their relationships.

3. In Solution Explorer, expand the Cubes node, and then double-click SalesAnalysis.cube to display Cube Designer.

   Cube Designer allows you to view and edit various properties of a cube. There are several tabs that display different views of the cube. For example, click the Dimension Usage tab to display the mappings between dimensions and measure groups.

   Note

   Notice that the relationships between the measures and dimensions have been inferred by using the relationships in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

   Click the Translations tab to view the translations that exist for the cube. The SalesAnalysis cube has three translations, Arabic (Saudi Arabia) English (United States) and Chinese (People’s Republic of China).

4. In Solution Explorer, expand the Dimensions node to view the dimensions for the cube.

Next steps

After you have defined an analysis cube and created an Analysis Services project, you can add features to the cube in BIDS. For more information, see Walkthrough: Defining KPIs for a Cube. You can also view the cube data in Microsoft Office Excel or Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. For more information, see Walkthrough: Analyzing Cube Data in Excel.

See also

How to: Specify Measures for a Cube

How to: Specify Dimensions and Attributes for a Cube

Create a perspective for a cube

Create a New SQL Server Analysis Services Project

Deploy an Existing SQL Server Analysis Services Project