-
SQL Server 2012 RC is Here
November 18, 2011 / No Comments »
The public release of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 RC0 is now available.
-
PowerPivot for Excel SQL Server 2012 RC0 is Here
November 17, 2011 / No Comments »
Microsoft just published the RC0 (release candidate) bits of PowerPivot for Excel SQL Server 2012. Kudos for Microsoft for making the RC bits public this time. Stay tuned for an announcement for the arrival of the SQL Server 2012 RC bits soon. The RC build is a feature-complete and stable build. This will be the last pre-release build until SQL Server 2012 officially ships next year. Here are all SQL Server 2012 RC0 links pulished so far: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express RC0 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Semantic Language Statistics RC0 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Master Data Service Add-in for Microsoft Excel 2010 Microsoft SQL server 2012 Manageability Tool Kit RC0
-
Report Server Settings in SQL Server 2012 SharePoint Integration Mode
November 16, 2011 / No Comments »
Well, rules have changed. As Jaime Tarquino from the SSRS team explained in his blog, "SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services SharePoint Integrated Mode", there is no rsreportserver.config file anymore moving to Reporting Services 2012 in SharePoint integration mode (there are no configuration changes with native mode). Instead, the configurations sections are now saved in the SharePoint configuration database. Problem: A customer plans to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint integration mode. They had the following custom renderer registered in the rsreportserver.config file that uses device information settings to customize the Excel renderer to suppress report headers and use Excel headers instead: <Extension Name="EXCELNOHEADER" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.Rendering.ExcelRenderer.ExcelRenderer,Microsoft.ReportingServices.ExcelRendering"> <OverrideNames> <Name Language="en-US">Excel (no Header)</Name> </OverrideNames> <Configuration> <DeviceInfo> <SimplePageHeaders>true</SimplePageHeaders> <RemoveSpace>0.012in</RemoveSpace> </DeviceInfo> </Configuration> </Extension> The customer claimed that this configuration is so important that there is no way they could upgrade if this doesn't work in SQL Server 2012. And after ensuring them that this is...
-
MDXParameter Sample
November 11, 2011 / No Comments »
MDXParameter is a nice little utility that captures MDX queries sent from SSRS reports and replaces parameter placeholders with the actual values. I've been using the excellent Darren Gosbell's Query Capture sample which is one of the first utilities I install when starting a new project. MDXParameter has a few more features that you might find appealing, including saving the queries in a database and showing the parameters separately. Installing MDXParameter is simple: Download MDXParameter from Codeplex and unzip it. MDX Parameter requires a SQL Server database to capture the queries. It could have been nice to include an option to write the queries to a file or just the screen but currently you must create an empty SQL Server database. You can name the database anything you want. Double-click MDXParameter.exe to start it. You will be prompted to specify the connection details. Note that MDXParameter will automatically create the...
-
Stopping SSRS Parameter Refresh
November 8, 2011 / No Comments »
[View:https://prologika.com/CS/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/blog/5736.Product-Sales.rdl:550:0] Problem: How do we stop the maddening parameter refresh for reports that use SSAS cubes? As you've probably found, nothing seems to stop it and the Never Refresh option on the Advanced parameter properties is useless. Solution: Use the OLE DB provider for Analysis Services for the parameter queries, as shown in the attached report.
-
Business Intelligence Edition in SQL 2012
November 4, 2011 / No Comments »
To expand on my announcement about SQL Server 2012 editions, I welcome the new BI edition for the following reasons: The BI edition will include all BI features, including features that would previously require an enterprise edition, such as SSAS partitioning and semi-additive functions, as well as SSRS data-driven subscriptions. Therefore, from a functionality perspective, there will be no difference between BI and Enterprise editions as far as BI is concerned. That's said, the Enterprise edition includes a set of database engine features not found in the BI edition, such as partitioning, ColumnStore indexes, AlwaysOn, etc. The BI edition could be a cost-effective alternative for ISVs and smaller deployments. For example, the Enterprise edition will cost you over 50K with a two-socket 4-core server. However, the BI edition will cost you $8,592 + Nx$209, where N is the number of users. So, for 20 users, it will be less than 13K....
-
SQL Server 2012 Licensing and Editions
November 3, 2011 / No Comments »
Microsoft has spoken about SQL Server 2012 editions and licensing. We now have a brand new BI edition. http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/future-editions/sql2012-editions.aspx
-
Handling Dates in BISM Tabular
October 30, 2011 / 2 Comments »
[View:https://prologika.com/CS/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/blog/2308.AdventureWorks.zip:550:0]If you have experience with multidimensional cubes, you know that most cubes have a Date dimension grained at a day level. If the fact table has multiple date keys, you can join the Date dimension multiple times to the measure group so the Date dimension can play multiple roles (a role-playing dimension), such as OrderDate, ShipDate, and DueDate. If you use Excel pivot reports connected to the cube, to get support for dates you need to make the following changes as explained in Designing SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Cubes for Excel 2007 PivotTables: Set the Type property of the Date dimension to Time. This is also required for MDX time-related functions, such as YTD. Set the ValueColumn column of the Date key to a column of date data type. Once this is done, Excel "understands" the date semantics and treats dates as dates when you sort and filter on...
-
Reporting Services Data Alerts
October 30, 2011 / No Comments »
SQL Server 2012 introduces a Reporting Services feature called Data Alerts. Data alerts notify a selected list of recipients about data changes on the report. Behind the scenes, data alerts use the report data feeds feature which was introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2. Consequently, similar to subscriptions, data alerts run in the background and poll the reports for changes. For more information about the data alerts architecture, read the Data Alerts (SSRS) topic in BOL. The steps to create a data alert for the Company Sales 2008 report follow (note that creating alerts require View Items and Create Alerts SharePoint permissions): Open the report in SharePoint. Expand the Actions menu and click New Data Alert. Reporting Services opens the New Data Alert dialog box. The Report Data Name drop-down list shows all data regions defined on the report. In the case of the Company Sales report, there is only...
-
Partition Generator for Multidimensional Cubes
October 24, 2011 / No Comments »
Today happens to be my birthday. To reverse the tradition, how about I give you a gift? If you find yourself spending hours creating partitions in BIDS, you might find the Partition Generator sample (requires registration at the Prologika website) useful. Often, I partition larger cubes by month which may require creating quite a few partitions. Not only is this time-consuming and tedious, but is also error-prone as you can easily get the partition slice query wrong. Written as a C# console application, Partition Generator has the following design goals: Keep it simple on purpose and due to time constraints. So, no GUI yet and you need to have basic .NET coding skills. You will need Visual Studio 2008 or later with C# to configure it. Auto-generate a partition definition file in an offline mode without making changes to the server by default. You can use this file to replace...
Training
We offer onsite and online Business Intelligence classes! Contact us about in-person training for groups of five or more students.For more information or to register click here!
Books
Learn Power BI at your own pace with our latest book Applied Microsoft Power BI. Targeting information workers, data analysts, pros, and developers, It is designed as an easy-to-follow guide for learning how to implement BI solutions spanning the entire personal-team-organizational BI spectrum.
