4.4 hide and disable attribute hierarchies

Hide and disable attribute hierarchies:
By default, an Attribute Hierarchy is created for each attribute in the dimension in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAs), and each hierarchy can be used to determine the dimension of the fact data. This hierarchy consists of the "all" level and the detailed level that contains all members in the hierarchy. As you have learned, attributes can be organized into user-defined hierarchies to provide navigation paths in cubes. In some environments, you may need to disable or hide certain attributes and their hierarchies. For example, some attributes (such as social security number or ID card number, payment rate, birth date, and login information) are not the attributes that the user will use to dimension Multidimensional Dataset information. This information is usually displayed only as the details of a specific property member. You may need to hide these attribute hierarchies so that these attributes are only visible when they are members of a specific attribute. You may also need to make the members of other attributes (such as the customer name or zip code) visible only when they are viewed through the user hierarchy rather than separately through the attribute hierarchy. One reason for doing so is that the number of different members in the Attribute Hierarchy varies greatly. Finally, to improve processing performance, you should disable the attribute hierarchies that are not used for browsing.

AttributehierarchyenabledDetermines whether to create an Attribute Hierarchy. If you set this attributeFalseYou do not need to create an Attribute Hierarchy and cannot use this attribute as a level in the user hierarchy. This Attribute Hierarchy only exists as a member attribute. However, the disabled Attribute Hierarchy can still be used to sort members of another attribute. IfAttributehierarchyenabledSet the attribute valueTrue, ThenAttributehierarchyvisibleThe attribute value determines whether the Attribute Hierarchy is visible (not related to whether it is used in the User-Defined hierarchy ).

When enabling attribute hierarchies, you may need to specify the values of the following three attributes:

• Isaggregatable

  By default, a "(all)" level is defined for all attribute hierarchies. To disable the "(all)" level of an enabled Attribute Hierarchy, set this attribute valueFalse.

IsaggregatableIf the attribute is set to false, it can only be used as the root of the User-Defined hierarchy, and a default member should be specified (otherwise, the Analysis Services engine selects a member for you ).

 

• Attributehierarchyordered

  By default, analysis services sorts the members of The enabled Attribute Hierarchy during processing, and thenOrderbyAttribute Value (for example, by name or button) to store members. If you do not care about sorting, you can set the value of this attributeFalseTo improve processing performance.

• Attributehierarchyoptimizedstate

  By default, analysis services creates an index for each enabled Attribute Hierarchy during processing to improve query performance. If you do not want to use the Attribute Hierarchy for browsing, you can set the attribute valueNotoptimizedTo improve processing performance. However, if hidden hierarchies are used as the key attribute of a dimension, you can still improve the performance by creating an index for Attribute members.

If the Attribute Hierarchy is disabled, these attributes are not applied.

In tasks within this topic, the Social Security numbers and other attributes in the "employees" dimension that are not used for browsing are disabled. The customer name and zip code attribute hierarchies in the customer dimension are hidden. A large number of attribute members in these hierarchies will make browsing these hierarchies very slow, regardless of the user hierarchies.

Set the Attribute Hierarchy attribute in the "employee" dimension
Set the Attribute Hierarchy attribute in the "employee" dimension

2. Switch to the "employee" dimension designer, and then click"Browser"Tab.

4. Confirm in"Hierarchy"The following attribute hierarchies are displayed in the list:

   • Basic Compensation

   • Date of birth
   • Logon ID
   • Manager SSN
   • SSN

6. Switch"Dimension Structure"Tab, and then use the ctrl key to select multiple attributes at the same time."Attribute"Select the following attributes in the pane:

   • Basic Compensation

   • Date of birth
   • Logon ID
   • Manager SSN
   • SSN

8. In the Properties windowAttributehierarchyenabledSet the property valueFalse.

   Note that"Attribute"The icon of each attribute in the pane is changed to indicate that the attribute is not enabled.

   DisplaysAttributehierarchyenabledSet property to false.

10. In"Generate"Click"Deployment Analysis Services tutorial".

12. Switch"Browser"Tab, click"Reconnect"And then try to browse each modified Attribute Hierarchy.

    Note that the modified attribute member will not"Hierarchy"The Attribute Hierarchy in the list is available for browsing. If you try to add a disabled Attribute Hierarchy as a level of the user hierarchy, you will receive an error message notifying you that you must enable this attribute hierarchy to participate in the User-Defined hierarchy.

Set the Attribute Hierarchy attribute in the "customer" dimension
Set the Attribute Hierarchy attribute in the "customer" dimension

2. Switch to the "customer" dimension designer, and then click"Browser"Tab.

4. Confirm in"Hierarchy"The following attribute hierarchies are displayed in the list:

   • Full name

   • Zip code

6. Switch"Dimension Structure"Tab, and then use the ctrl key to select multiple attributes at the same time."Features"Select the following features in the pane:

   • Full name

   • Zip code

8. In the Properties windowAttributehierarchyvisibleSet the property valueFalse.

   As the members of these attribute hierarchies are used to determine the dimension of the fact data, sorting and optimizing the members of these attribute hierarchies improves performance. Therefore, the attributes of these features should not be modified.

   Set the display to falseAttributehierarchyvisibleAttribute.

10. Set"Zip code"Attribute from"Attribute"Drag pane"Hierarchy and level"In the pane"Customer region"User hierarchy (directly stored in"City/county"Level ).

    Note that hidden attributes can still be the level in the user hierarchy.

12. In"Generate"Click"Deployment Analysis Services tutorial".

14. After the deployment is completed, switch to"Browser"Tab, and then click"Reconnect".

16. Try to use any modified Attribute Hierarchy for browsing.

    Note that any modified attribute hierarchies will not appear in"Hierarchy"List.

18. In"Hierarchy"List, select"Customer region"In the browser pane.

    Please note that the hidden level"Zip code"And"Full name"It is visible in the User-Defined hierarchy.