August 2010 - Posts

• Using SSAS 2005/2008 as PowerPivot Data Source: Dimensionality Lost

  This topic is general and not related to a specific feature of PowerPivot. In the way it is designed today, when data are imported from a SSAS cube into PowerPivot, the dimensionality of the original cube is lost and a flat table is imported as the result Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 31, 2010 9:09 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 0 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Using SSAS 2005/2008 as PowerPivot Data Source: Measures Are Imported as Text Columns

  Every measure imported from a SSAS cube is imported as a Text column instead of as a Numeric column. This is very annoying because users are used to use SSAS data with rich metadata, and a measure is usually numeric. Moreover, the standard aggregation Read More... Posted Monday, August 30, 2010 9:05 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 1 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Using SSAS 2005/2008 as PowerPivot Data Source: Direct MDX

  If you write direct MDX queries using SSAS 2005/2008 as a PowerPivot data source, it is better if you prepare your MDX query by using another editor. For example, write and test your MDX query by using SQL Server Management Studio and then copy & Read More... Posted Thursday, August 26, 2010 8:53 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 1 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Using SSAS 2005/2008 as PowerPivot Data Source: Query Designer

  The query designer in PowerPivot has a few limitations that require the manual modification of the MDX query to get data that are often needed to create a PowerPivot model that compares data from cube with data from other sources (like Excel workbooks Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 24, 2010 8:44 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 3 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Using SSAS 2005/2008 as PowerPivot Data Source: Calculated Members

  A general problem of any cube is the way PowerPivot handles calculated members. From a technical point of view, it is absolutely correct that PowerPivot imports the result of a calculated member evaluated at the granularity of the query result. However, Read More... Posted Thursday, August 19, 2010 8:25 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 1 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Rough Cuts of the PowerPivot book available!

  If you are curious to look at the upcoming book Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010: Give Your Data Meaning that I wrote with Alberto , you can see the first 4 chapters in draft format through the “ Rough Cuts ” initiative by O’Reilly. I’d like to get Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 17, 2010 6:44 PM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 0 Comments

• Importing data from Analysis Services 2000 to PowerPivot

  Companies that have cubes on Analysis Services 2000 and still have not completed a migration to SSAS 2005/2008 might be interested in connecting to AS2000 from PowerPivot. Unfortunately, there are several limitations about using AS2000 as a data source Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 17, 2010 9:14 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 0 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• Importing data from Analysis Services 2000/2005/2008 to PowerPivot

  In the next 2 to 3 weeks I will publish a few blog posts about importing data to PowerPivot using Analysis Services as a data source. This is something I studied a lot during the beta test of PowerPivot and it is not a topic that has a place in the upcoming Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 17, 2010 2:59 AM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 0 Comments Filed under: Analysis Services, Excel, PowerPivot

• SQLBI Methodology at 24 Hours of PASS

  Did you missed our SQLBI Methodology session at PASS Summit 2009? Don’t worry. We will make the show again, live and directly on your PC – for free! On September 15 and 16 there will be a new edition of 24 Hours of PASS . I and Alberto will show SQLBI Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 11, 2010 5:53 PM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 1 Comments

• The Parallel Loop Task in SSIS

  I really don’t like to use the blog as an advertising tool, but sometimes I feel the need to mention third party products because I thing they are interesting enough. Today I discovered that CozyRoc implemented the Parallel Loop Task in SSIS . This is Read More... Posted Friday, August 06, 2010 12:52 PM by Marco Russo (SQLBI) | 8 Comments