1 ... Why MDX Matters ... 29
... 1.1 ... The Business Case for MDX ... 29
... 1.2 ... What Makes MDX Unique ... 30
... 1.3 ... How MDX Navigates External SAP NetWeaver BW Hierarchies ... 33
... 1.4 ... History of MDX with SAP ... 37
... 1.5 ... SAP Adopts ODBO Standard ... 38
... 1.6 ... MDX with BusinessObjects ... 39
... 1.7 ... Alternatives to SAP BEx and SAP BusinessObjects ... 41
... 1.8 ... Summary ... 42
2 ... Fundamentals of MDX OLAP Structures ... 43
... 2.1 ... Introduction to MDX Structures and Objects ... 43
... 2.2 ... MDX Objects and Definitions ... 45
... 2.3 ... DalSegno Company Reporting Cube ... 52
... 2.4 ... Flat InfoCube Dimensions ... 55
... 2.5 ... DalSegno Reporting Cube with MDX ... 57
... 2.6 ... Summary ... 59
3 ... Basic MDX Statement ... 61
... 3.1 ... MDX Test Editor ... 62
... 3.2 ... The MDX WHERE Clause -- Slicing the Cube ... 66
... 3.3 ... Calculated Members and Named Sets ... 69
... 3.4 ... Support for SAP NetWeaver BW Variables ... 74
... 3.5 ... Solve Order ... 75
... 3.6 ... Dimension Properties ... 76
... 3.7 ... Summary ... 78
4 ... MDX Set Functions ... 79
... 4.1 ... Set Functions ... 80
... 4.2 ... Summary ... 106
5 ... MDX Member and Tuple Functions ... 107
... 5.1 ... Member Functions ... 107
... 5.2 ... Combining Member Functions for Advanced Analytics ... 111
... 5.3 ... Member Functions for Time Analysis ... 114
... 5.4 ... Tuple Function .Item() ... 118
... 5.5 ... Conditional Function IIF ... 122
... 5.6 ... Summary ... 124
6 ... Numeric, Logical, and String Functions ... 125
... 6.1 ... Mathematic Operators ... 125
... 6.2 ... Basic Numeric Functions ... 126
... 6.3 ... Logical Functions ... 134
... 6.4 ... String Functions ... 139
... 6.5 ... Summary ... 140
7 ... MDX and Time Functions ... 141
... 7.1 ... Finding the Current Period ... 141
... 7.2 ... LastPeriods ... 143
... 7.3 ... Rolling Average ... 144
... 7.4 ... PeriodsToDate ... 144
... 7.5 ... ParallelPeriod ... 147
... 7.6 ... Putting It All Together ... 151
... 7.7 ... OpeningPeriod and ClosingPeriod ... 152
... 7.8 ... PrevMember ... 153
... 7.9 ... Min and Max Values Over Time ... 154
... 7.10 ... Summary ... 155
8 ... MDX Query Context ... 157
... 8.1 ... OLE DB for OLAP Specification ... 157
... 8.2 ... MDX Metadata in Schema Rowsets ... 158
... 8.3 ... MDX Query Resolution ... 164
... 8.4 ... Problems with Query Context ... 166
... 8.5 ... Summary ... 169
9 ... Advanced Topics in MDX ... 171
... 9.1 ... Generate Function ... 171
... 9.2 ... Infinite Recursion ... 173
... 9.3 ... Statistical Functions ... 176
... 9.4 ... Utility Time Series Dimension ... 184
... 9.5 ... Dimension Properties ... 188
... 9.6 ... Automatic Calculations Using Multiple Time Hierarchies ... 192
... 9.7 ... Calculations at Different Levels of a Hierarchy ... 193
... 9.8 ... MDX User Interface Functions ... 195
... 9.9 ... Summary ... 201
10 ... SAP NetWeaver BW: The Data Warehouse System ... 203
... 10.1 ... Why This Matters to You: Knowledge is Power ... 204
... 10.2 ... SAP NetWeaver Platform ... 205
... 10.3 ... SAP NetWeaver BW ... 206
... 10.4 ... ETL in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 208
... 10.5 ... Getting Data into SAP NetWeaver BW ... 210
... 10.6 ... Data Integration and Transformation ... 213
... 10.7 ... Overview of DalSegno ETL Process ... 217
... 10.8 ... Getting Data Out of SAP NetWeaver BW ... 222
... 10.9 ... Summary ... 225
11 ... Data Modeling in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 227
... 11.1 ... Why Data Modeling Matters to You ... 230
... 11.2 ... Multidimensional Data Model ... 231
... 11.3 ... InfoObjects ... 233
... 11.4 ... InfoCubes ... 240
... 11.5 ... MultiProviders ... 241
... 11.6 ... Slowly Changing Dimensions ... 242
... 11.7 ... Hierarchies ... 244
... 11.8 ... Balanced, Unbalanced, and Network Hierarchies ... 245
... 11.9 ... Virtual Time Hierarchies ... 247
... 11.10 ... External Hierarchy: Product Group/Product ... 249
... 11.11 ... Summary ... 259
12 ... Query Performance in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 261
... 12.1 ... Hardware Sizing ... 262
... 12.2 ... Database Tuning ... 265
... 12.3 ... Analytical Tools ... 267
... 12.4 ... Data Modeling ... 269
... 12.5 ... Analyzing Individual Queries ... 273
... 12.6 ... The OLAP Cache ... 278
... 12.7 ... SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator ... 279
... 12.8 ... Summary ... 281
13 ... Excel 2007 and SAP NetWeaver BW ... 283
... 13.1 ... Connecting to NetWeaver BW ... 286
... 13.2 ... Designing a Pivot Table ... 292
... 13.3 ... Pivot Charts ... 297
... 13.4 ... OLAP Formulas ... 299
... 13.5 ... Conditional Formatting ... 301
... 13.6 ... Excel Services ... 303
... 13.7 ... Summary ... 304
14 ... Panorama NovaView ... 305
... 14.1 ... A Brief History of Panorama and MDX ... 306
... 14.2 ... NovaView Web Client ... 307
... 14.3 ... NovaView MDX Editors ... 313
... 14.4 ... NovaView Smart Reports ... 321
... 14.5 ... Drill Through to Detail ... 324
... 14.6 ... NovaView Dashboard ... 326
... 14.7 ... Security and Caching ... 327
... 14.8 ... Summary ... 328
15 ... Cognos 8 BI with SAP NetWeaver BW ... 329
... 15.1 ... Cognos Server ... 332
... 15.2 ... Dimensional Functions in Cognos ... 335
... 15.3 ... Reporting and Analytics in Cognos 8 BI ... 340
... 15.4 ... Security and Caching ... 348
... 15.5 ... Summary ... 349
16 ... SAP BusinessObjects Roadmap and MDX ... 351
... 16.1 ... SAP BusinessObjects Frontend BI Tools ... 353
... 16.2 ... SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence (WebI ... 354
... 16.3 ... Semantic Layer (Universes ... 355
... 16.4 ... Xcelsius ... 357
... 16.5 ... Crystal Reports ... 359
... 16.6 ... Pioneer ... 360
... 16.7 ... SAP BusinessObjects Explorer (Polestar ... 361
... 16.8 ... Enhancements in Interoperability ... 362
... 16.9 ... Summary ... 364
A ... MDX Functions ... 365
... A.1 ... Arguments ... 365
... A.2 ... Functions ... 366
B ... The Author ... 377
