Defining and Configuring an Action

An action is an end user-initiated operation upon a selected cube or portion of a cube. The operation can start an application with the selected item as a parameter, or it can retrieve information about the selected item. For more information about actions, see Actions.

Use the Actions tab of Cube Designer to build actions for a cube. Specify the following:

• Name
  Select a name that identifies the action.

• Action Target
  Select the object to which the action is attached. Generally, in client applications, the action is displayed when end users select the target object; however, the client application determines which end-user operation displays actions. For Target type, select from the following objects:

  • Attribute members
  • Cells
  • Cube
  • Dimension members
  • Hierarchy
  • Hierarchy members
  • Level
  • Level members

  After you select the target object type, under Target object, select the cube object of the designated type.

• Condition (Optional)
  Specify an optional Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) expression that resolves to a Boolean value. If the value is True, the action is performed on the specified target. If the value is False, the action is not performed.

• Action Content
  Select the type of action. The following table summarizes the available types.

  Type	Description
  Data Set	Retrieves a dataset.
  Proprietary	Performs an operation by using an interface other than those listed in this table.
  Row Set	Retrieves a rowset.
  Statement	Runs an OLE DB command.
  URL	Displays a variable page in an Internet browser.

  For Action Expression, specify the parameters that are passed when the action is run. The syntax must evaluate to a string, and you must include an expression written in MDX. For example, your MDX expression can indicate a part of the cube that is included in the syntax. MDX expressions are evaluated before the parameters are passed. Also, MDX Builder is available to help you build MDX expressions.

• Additional Properties
  Select the property. The following table summarizes the available properties.

  Property	Description
  Invocation	Specifies how the action is run. Interactive, the default, specifies that the action is run when a user accesses an object. The possible settings are: Batch Interactive On Open
  Application	Describes the application of the action.
  Description	Describes the action.
  Caption	Provides a caption that is displayed for the action. If the caption is MDX, specify True for Caption is MDX.
  Caption is MDX	Specify True if the caption is MDX or False if it is not.

Note

You must use Analysis Services Scripting Language (ASSL) or Analysis Management Objects (AMO) to define HTML and Command Line action types. For more information, see Action Element (ASSL), Type Element (Action) (ASSL), and Programming AMO OLAP Advanced Objects.

Creating a Reporting Action

The report server responds to URL-based requests for reports. To create a reporting action, on the Cube menu, click New Reporting Action. The following options are specific to a reporting action.

• Report Server
  The properties described in the following table are specified for the report server.

  Property	Description
  Server name	The name of the computer running report server.
  Server path	The path exposed by report server.
  Report format	HTML5, HTML3, Excel, or PDF.

• Parameters (Optional)
  The parameters are sent to the server as part of the URL string when the action is created. They include Parameter Name and Parameter Value, which is an MDX expression.

The report server URL is constructed as follows:

        http://
        host
        /
        virtualdirectory
        /Path&
        parametername1
        =
        parametervalue1
        & ...

For example:

https://localhost/ReportServer/Sales/YearlySalesByCategory?rs:Command=Render&Region=West

Creating a Drillthrough Action

A drillthrough action is defined by a rowset action, which is returned to the client application as a drillthrough statement. The action target is a member of a measure group. To create a new drillthrough action, on the Cube menu, click New Drillthrough Action. The following options are specific to a drillthrough action:

• Drillthrough Columns
  Select one or more dimensions and, for each dimension, the drillthrough columns returned to the client application by the action.

See Also

Concepts

Defining and Configuring Cubes and Cube Properties

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance