Generating Cube Data

You can map physical tables (including those of type dimension or fact) to cube dimensions or cube measures in OLAP databases, and use these mappings to generate cube data in text files to be loaded by OLAP engines. When you use the Rebuild Cubes command to create cubes and dimensions from fact and dimension tables, mappings between source tables and OLAP objects are automatically created.

In a PDM multidimensional diagram, each fact is associated with a query. There is one fact per mapping and per data source. The query defined on a fact is used to extract data from a data warehouse or operational database to populate the cubes in the OLAP database. The link between the data warehouse database and the OLAP database is a relational to multidimensional mapping.

  1. In the multidimensional diagram, select Tools > Generate Cube Data.


  2. Specify a destination directory for the generated file, and select any appropriate options in the Options tab:

    Option

    Description

    Header

    Specifies to include the name of the attribute at the beginning of the generated text file

    Extension

    Specifies the extension of the generated text file.You can choose either .txt and .csv.

    Separator

    Specifies the separator to use between columns. The default is , (comma).

    Delimiter

    Specifies the character to delimit string values. The default is " (double-quote).

    Encoding

    Specifies the encoding format. You should select the format that supports the language used in your model and the database encoding format.

    Character Case

    Specifies the case to use in the generated file.

    No Accent

    Specifies to remove any accents from generated characters.
  3. Select the facts and data sources for which you want to generate a file from the sub- tabs in the Selection tab.
  4. Click OK.

    The generated files are stored in the destination directory you have defined. PowerDesigner produces one file for each selected fact and each selected data source, named by concatenating the names of the fact and the data source, and containing the following fields:

    Field

    Details

    Dimension

    Lists the attributes of the cube

    Member

    Lists the attribute values

    Data fields

    Contains the values stored in the fact measures
Parent topic: Multidimensional Diagrams