The following guide provides an overview of CUBE-it Zero, what it is, and how to use it.
CUBE-it Zero
The first time you run CUBE-it Zero you will be prompted with a Configuration wizard, which will guide you through the process of getting CUBE-it Zero ready for normal use.
Define, Generate & Visualise
Once the configuration wizard has been completed you will be presented with the main CUBE-it Zero switchboard from where you can Define, Generate or Visualise your cubes. After completing the definition phase, you can save the cube definition to a file to be recalled later so that you can re-generate and visualise your cube based on the data available at that time.
Define
| During the definition phase of building your cube you will essentially describe three things - Where the data physically resides (Connecting to a Data Source)
- Exactly which bits of data to include in the cube (Designing a Data a Data Source Query)
- Of the data included which columns represent "Dimensions" and which represent "Measures/Facts" (Designing the cube structure)
This definition information can be saved to a file for later retrieval and re-use
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Generate
| This takes the definition specified in the first phase and physically builds the cube in Analysis Services. The data is essentially taken from your data source, and copied into an Analysis Services Cube, but re-jigged along the way according to how you specified it in the definition phase.
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Visualise
| Having built the cube, we would ideally like to see some reports or graphs. Visualisation allows you to view the cube contents, and slice and dice the data for analysis purposes. In short, ask the data some questions. Although provision has been made in CUBE-it Zero to open up the cubes generated in Excel, in actual fact you can report or visualise the cubes defined in CUBE-it Zero in any reporting tool that is capable of reporting on Analysis Services cubes.
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Define
Connecting To A Data Source
CUBE-it Zero can build a cube using data from
So the Connect to a Data Source screen simply asks you for this information.
Designing A Data Source Query
To produce a cube first you must create a query to use. This query will produce a flattened denormalised version of your data containing all of the dimensions and measures you wish to use. You can either use the GUI interface to drag and drop the tables to construct your query, or just type in the SQL. You can even check the query results to make sure they produce the data you were expecting.
Designing The Cube Structure
Use the Cube Design screen to define your cube. The basics of your cube include:
Dimensions - things you want to analyse by. Dimensions are usually objects in your data such as Product or Person. They can be hierarchical too, e.g. a Product can have a related Category.
Time Dimension - A special dimension relating to a date field in your query. A cube will then create a time hierarchy including year, quarter, month and day based on your data to use as a dimension in your cube.
Measures - the things you want to analyse. This is the data to analyse, such as Order Quantity or Order Value. And you'll need to know how you want to analyse it, e.g. Sum or Average.
Generate
Process The Cube
Or rather, let CUBE-it Zero process the cube for you. A progress splash screen will let you know about all the complicated stuff CUBE-it Zero is doing, when it's done it's over to you to browse your new cube.
Visualise
Open the Cube in Excel
Although provision has been made in CUBE-it Zero to open up the cubes generated in Excel, in actual fact you can report or visualise the cubes defined in CUBE-it Zero in any reporting tool that is capable of reporting on Analysis Services cubes. Clicking the "Open the Cube in Excel" button will activate Microsoft Excel, with the generated cube connected to a pivot table.
The dimensions can then be used as sources for the pivot table columns and rows, and the measures (or facts) used as the values to be calculated in the pivot table.
(*) Note that for Access and ORACLE data sources, additional connectivity packs are required which are purchased separately.