Preparing to Create Reports

You use the Report preparation task to populate the online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes with the data in the Data Warehouse. Commerce Server 2000 uses OLAP cubes to organize the summarized data in the Data Warehouse so that the reports run in the Analysis modules complete faster. The Report preparation task must be run every time data is imported into or deleted from the Data Warehouse. For information about OLAP cubes, see SQL Server Books Online.

Notes

• The first time you run the Report preparation task to populate the OLAP cubes in the Data Warehouse, you must select full cube processing. After you have run the Report preparation task, you can perform incremental cube processing to load only new data into the OLAP cubes.

• You must also select full cube processing after you delete all data from the Data Warehouse. For information about deleting data from the Data Warehouse, see Deleting Data from the Data Warehouse.

To populate OLAP cubes with data

1. Expand Microsoft SQL Server, expand SQL Server Group, and then expand the server on which your Data Warehouse is installed.

2. Right-click Data Transformation Services, and then click New Package.

   Alternatively, if you are changing an existing package, right-click Data Transformation Services, click All Tasks, and then select Open Package. Select the package you want to change, and then click Open.

3. On the Task menu, click Report preparation (Commerce Server).

4. In the Prepare Reports Properties dialog box, do the following:

   Use this	To do this
   Description	Type a description of the Report preparation task.
   Site name	Select the site for which you are populating the OLAP cubes.
   Incremental	Select to process the OLAP cubes incrementally.
   Full	Select to process the OLAP cubes in their entirety.

5. Click OK.

6. On the Package menu, click Execute.

   The Executing Package dialog box appears, showing the progress of your import. When the import process is complete, the Package Execution Results dialog box informs you it completed successfully.

7. Click OK, and then click Done.

The data is loaded into the OLAP cubes. You can now use the Commerce Server Business Analytics System, including Commerce Server reports, to analyze the data in the Data Warehouse. For more information about running reports, see Business Desk Analysis.

Note

• You can add multiple Data Transformation Services (DTS) tasks to the open package, add sequencing or workflow information, and then run all the tasks in the package at one time.

See Also

Data Warehouse Components

Synchronizing Site Configuration with the Data Warehouse

Importing Data into the Data Warehouse

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