Create a perspective for a cube

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

A perspective is a collection of tables and views that is used to identify the tables and views that contain measures and dimension attributes for a cube. After you create a perspective, you can use it to generate an Analysis Services cube. The following procedure explains how to create a perspective for a cube and how to add or remove table and view fields to a perspective.

Tasks

Prerequisites

Create a perspective for a cube

Add or remove table fields in a perspective

Add or remove view fields in a perspective

Resources

How to create a cube in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (video)

Prerequisites

Before you can complete the procedures in this topic, you must make sure that the following prerequisites are in place.

Category

Prerequisite

For more information

Required software

Microsoft Dynamics AX with Analysis Services configured

Analytics in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Create a perspective for a cube

  1. In the AOT, expand the Data Dictionary node.

  2. Right-click the Perspectives node, and then click New Perspective.

  3. Select the node for the perspective.

  4. In the Properties window, type a name for the Name property, specify a label to use in the Label property, and select either OLAP or Both for the Usage property. Set other properties as appropriate.

    Note

    If you do not specify a label for the perspective, the cube name will not be available in the business overview web part in Enterprise Portal.

  5. Add tables that are used to define the cube to the perspective by dragging them from the Tables node in the AOT onto the Tables node that is in the perspective. Be sure to add the tables that already contain, or will contain, measures and dimensions for the cube.

    Note

    If you set the createdDateTime property in any of the tables that you add to a perspective to No, cube processing may fail. If that happens, run the SQL Server Analysis Services project wizard using the update option. Deploy and process the Analysis Services project to make sure the project is generated. If necessary, open the Data Source View (DSV) in Microsoft Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) and remove columns that are referenced in the error when the cube processing failed.

    Note

    Sub-type tables (non-base tables) are not supported in perspectives in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2. Do not add a table that has a non-empty value for its Extends property to a perspective. If you want to use fields from a sub-type table, create a view that contains the field and then add the view to the perspective.

    You can define measures and dimension attributes at different levels and on different objects in the Application Object Tree (AOT). For more information, see How to: Specify Measures for a Cube and How to: Specify Dimensions and Attributes for a Cube.

  6. Add views that are used to define the cube to the perspective by dragging them from the Views node in the AOT onto the Views node that is in the perspective. Be sure to add the views that already contain, or will contain, measures and dimensions for the cube.

Add or remove table fields in a perspective

  1. In the AOT, expand the node for the perspective, expand the Tables node, expand the node for the table, and then select the Fields node.

  2. In the Properties window, set the Dynamic property to No.

  3. Do one of the following:

Add or remove view fields in a perspective

  1. In the AOT, expand the node for the perspective, expand the Views node, expand the node for the view, and then select the Fields node.

  2. In the Properties window, set the Dynamic property to No.

  3. Do one of the following:

See also

Create a New SQL Server Analysis Services Project

How to: Specify Measures for a Cube

How to: Specify Dimensions and Attributes for a Cube

Business Intelligence Properties

Introduction to Cubes (SQL Server Books Online)