Analysis Services DMX Query Designer User Interface

Reporting Services provides graphical query designers for building Data Mining Expressions (DMX) queries and Multidimensional Expression (MDX) queries for an Analysis Services data source. This topic describes the DMX query designer. For more information about the MDX query designer, see Analysis Services MDX Query Designer User Interface

The DMX graphical query designer has three modes: Design, Query, and Result. To switch modes, right-click on the Query Design pane, and select the mode. Each mode provides a Metadata pane from which you can drag members from the selected cubes to build a DMX query that retrieves data for a dataset when the report is processed.

For step by step instructions on how to open the query designer, see How to: Open a Query Designer for a Dataset Query.

Graphical DMX Query Designer Toolbar

The query designer toolbar provides buttons to help you design DMX queries using the graphical interface. The following table describes the buttons and their functions.

Button

Description

Edit As Text

Disabled for this data source type.

Import

Import an existing query from a report definition (.rdl) file on the file system. For more information, see Understanding Report Datasets.

Change to MDX query view

Switch to the MDX query designer mode.

Change to DMX query language view

Switch to the DMX query designer mode.

Refresh result data

Refresh metadata from the data source.

Delete

Delete the selected column in the Data pane from the query.

Icon for the Query Parameters dialog box

Display the Query Parameters dialog box. When you assign a default value to a variable, a corresponding report parameter is created when you switch to the Layout view in Report Designer.

Run the query

Prepare the query. For more information about query preparation, see Preparing SQL Statements.

Switch to Design mode

Toggle between Design mode and Query mode. To change to result view, right-click on the Design pane and choose Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Design Mode

When you edit a dataset that uses an Analysis Services data source that has no valid cubes but that does have valid mining models, the graphical query designer opens in Design mode. The following figure labels the panes for Design mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, design view

The following table describes the function of each pane.

Pane

Function

Query Design pane

Use the Mining Model and Select Input Table dialog boxes to build the DMX query.

Grid pane

For each row in the grid, use the Source drop-down list to select a function or expression, and choose fields, groups, and criteria or arguments to use in your DMX query. To see the DMX query text generated by your selections, click the Design Mode button on the toolbar.

To run the DMX query and show results in the Result pane, right-click on the Query Design pane and select Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Query Mode

To change the graphical query designer to Query mode, click the Design Mode button on the toolbar or right-click on the query design surface, and choose Query from the shortcut menu. Use this mode to enter DMX text directly into the Query pane.

The following figure labels the panes for Query mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, query view

The following table describes the function of each pane.

Pane

Function

Query Design pane

Use the Mining Model and Select Input Table dialog boxes to build the DMX query.

Query pane

View or edit DMX query text directly in the pane. Changes to the DMX query text do not persist if you change back to Design mode.

To run the DMX query and show results in the Result pane, right-click on the Query Design pane and select Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Result Mode

To display the Result mode, right-click the query design surface and choose Result from the shortcut menu. When you switch to Result mode, the DMX query runs automatically.

The following figure shows the query designer in Result mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, result view

To switch back to Design mode or Query mode, right-click on the Result pane and select Design or Query.