Architecture
Analysis and reporting in Commerce Server 2000 is built on an open architecture designed to allow total content control by business managers. The business manager is free to add, delete, and modify report content. Multiple Data Warehouse and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) data sources may be used by changing connection strings in Commerce Server Manager. The system administrator performs this task.
Reports are implemented as static or dynamic, and are based on either SQL or multidimensional expresssion (MDX) queries of SQL or OLAP databases, respectively. Static reports are HTML-based; dynamic reports are based on Microsoft Office 2000 Web Components (OWC).
Static report definitions consist of a query and parameter definitions. When a static report is run, the parameters are presented to the operator and then passed to a rendering component. The rendering component generates an HTML document from the query results. Completed static reports are stored as HTML files on the computer that houses Commerce Server Business Desk. These reports can be opened through Business Desk and are displayed in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Dynamic report definitions are stored as queries, and the pivot table view is stored in Extensible Markup Language (XML) in the Data Warehouse. Query results are displayed in the OWC Pivot Table component.
Definitions for the pre-defined reports are contained in the file CSReports.sql found in the Commerce Server installation directory. The CSReports.sql file populates the Report tables in the Commerce Server Data Warehouse. A "Report preparation DTS" task is available to process OLAP cubes and execute stored procedures to prepare imported data for reporting.