Defining dimensions

Dimensions are data categories used to organize and select data for retrieval, monitoring, and analysis. Dimensions are composed of one or more hierarchical levels. For example, Location could be a dimension with levels of City, Region, and Country.

1. Click the Dimensional Model tab of the editor and right-click the cube in the model tree. Click New Dimension to add a dimension to the Dimensions table.
2. In the Create New Dimension window, type a name into the Name field and click OK. The name is limited to 256 characters, which cannot include backslash (\), forward slash (/), colon (:), asterisk (*), question mark (?), single quotation mark ('), open angle bracket (<), close angle bracket (>), or pipe (|). These unsupported characters will be removed.

   As you type the name, a default ID is created for you, although you can change it if you prefer. The ID is required and must be unique within the cube. The ID must be an XML NCName (non-colonized name), which means that it must start with a letter or underscore, and can contain only letters, digits, underscores, hyphens, and periods.

   The dimension is added to the Dimensions table and is also added under the cube in the model tree.
3. To add a dimension level, click the dimension and click New Level.
   1. In the Create New Level window, type a name into the Name field and click OK. The name is limited to 256 characters, which cannot include backslash (\), forward slash (/), colon (:), asterisk (*), question mark (?), single quotation mark ('), open angle bracket (<), close angle bracket (>), or pipe (|). These unsupported characters will be removed.

      As you type the name, a default ID is created for you, although you can change it if you prefer. The ID is required and must be unique within the cube. The ID must be an XML NCName (non-colonized name), which means that it must start with a letter or underscore, and can contain only letters, digits, underscores, hyphens, and periods.

   2. To select the source of the level, click Browse. In the Select Level Source window, select a metric, key, or counter that is defined in the monitoring context associated with the cube, or click New to create a new one. For example, you could have a metric of Country.
      Important: For any metric that is used as a dimension level, you must select A value is required for this metric and provide a default value. Requiring a value ensures that every instance falls into a specific dimension level when you look at dimensions or reports in the dashboards. It also ensures that database sorts can be performed efficiently. The only exception is for dimensions based on a Date or DateTime value, where a null value is permitted and is automatically mapped to the special value '9999-01-01', which indicates that the date has not been set.
   The new dimension level is created directly beneath the selected dimension in the Dimensions table.
   Note: If a dimension level has a source metric of type Date or DateTime, the dimension can have only one level. When the model is displayed, additional levels of Year, Month, and Day are automatically created.
4. Optional: Use Move Up and Move Down to reorder the hierarchical levels as necessary. Each level enables you to aggregate the levels that are underneath it. For example, at the Region level, you might have the subtotal of all data for all of the Cities. Below that, at the City level, you might have the subtotal of all data for all of the Streets. The topmost attribute represents the highest level, that is, level 1.