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Lesson 2: Adding a Description to a Model

In the previous lesson, you created and deployed a report model, and then tested the model in Report Builder1 or Report Builder 3.0. In this lesson, you will add a description to the report model. A description is a brief explanation of the contents of the model, which appears in the Getting Started pane of Report Builder. When users select your model, the description appears below it and lets users determine whether they want to use this model to build their reports.

In addition, you can create descriptions for entities, attributes (fields in Report Builder), and roles that provide interesting information that the user might want to know. Report Builder users see these descriptions as tool tips when they hover over an item in the Explorer pane.

Note

The following procedure assumes that you did not close the Business Intelligence Development Studio window that was open in the previous lesson. To open the AdventureWorks2008R2 project in BI Development Studio, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, click SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio. In the Recent Projects pane, click Open Project, select the AdventureWorks.sln file, and then click OK.

To add a description to a report model

  1. Return to the AdventureWorks2008R2 report model project that is open in the Business Intelligence Development Studio window.

  2. In the Tree view, select the Model node.

  3. In the Properties window, locate the Description property.

  4. In the Description box, enter the following: This report model is for the AdventureWorks2008R2 database.

  5. In the Tree view, select the Sales Person entity, and then enter the following in the Description box: All sales people are employees.

  6. In the List view, select the Sales Quota attribute, and then enter the following in the Description box: Sales quotas are updated quarterly.

  7. On the File menu, click Save All.

Next Steps

You have successfully added descriptions for the model and for an entity and attribute. In the next lesson, you will organize the model by adding a folder to the model. See Lesson 3: Organizing a Model Using a Folder.

Note

In Lesson 8, you will validate the changes you made to the model in Lessons 2 through 8.