Tag Archive for: Reporting Services

Documenting the UDM schema is a common requirement but to the best of my knowledge neither Microsoft nor third-party vendors provide schema generators. While you are waiting for a commercial tool to fill in the gap, you can roll out your own schema generators. Thanks to the Analysis Management Objects (AMO) library, this task is remarkably simple to implement. For example, here is a .NET code snippet that builds upon the DisplayObjectNames sample (included in the SSAS samples). The code loops through all SSAS databases on the server, traverses the dimension attribute hierarchies and measures and displays their names and source columns.

foreach (Database db in server.Databases) {

Console.WriteLine(“{0}”, db.Name);

// Display Dimensions

Console.WriteLine(“\tDimensions:”);

foreach (Dimension dimension in db.Dimensions)

{

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t{0}”, dimension.Name);

// Display attributes

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t\tAttributes:”);

foreach (DimensionAttribute a in dimension.Attributes)

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t\t\t Name: {0}Source: {1}”, a.Name.PadRight(50), GetKeyCollection(a.KeyColumns));

}

// Display Cubes

Console.WriteLine(“\tCubes:”);

foreach (Cube cube in db.Cubes) {

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t{0}”, cube.Name);

// Display Measure Groups

Console.WriteLine(“\tMeasure groups:”);

foreach (MeasureGroup mg in cube.MeasureGroups)

{

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t{0}”, mg.Name);

// Display attributes

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t\tMeasures:”);

foreach (Measure m in mg.Measures)

Console.WriteLine(“\t\t\t\t Name: {0}Source: {1}”, m.Name.PadRight(50), m.Source.ToString());

}

}

}

An unfortunate bug that was discovered late in the SQL Server 2005 SP2 design cycle may cause a black report preview in the ReportViewer Windows Form control (see attached file) with some video cards. The RS team is aware of this and they are working on a hotfix. I am partly to blame for this issue ([:S]) because I’ve noticed it since the early builds of SP2 but it never occurred to me that it could be a bug. I thought that it could be cause by remoting it to my desktop (sometimes after logging in locally to your desktop after a remote session the colors tend to appear funny).

It is important to note that this issue only happens in Print Preview mode (normal preview and Report Host (F5) are unaffected). If you don’t like the new black preview look and feel please contact Microsoft Product Support for a hotfix when it becomes available. Meanwhile, as a workaround, you should be able to avoid the black preview by setting the background to any other color than trasparent (default background color).