1.1 Glossary
This document uses the following terms:
action: An OLAP object, such as a cube, dimension, and cell, that has an action associated with it, so that a user can perform that action when browsing OLAP data. For example, a user can jump to a URL, execute a command, or drill through to data.
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): A block cipher that supersedes the Data Encryption Standard (DES). AES can be used to protect electronic data. The AES algorithm can be used to encrypt (encipher) and decrypt (decipher) information. Encryption converts data to an unintelligible form called ciphertext; decrypting the ciphertext converts the data back into its original form, called plaintext. AES is used in symmetric-key cryptography, meaning that the same key is used for the encryption and decryption operations. It is also a block cipher, meaning that it operates on fixed-size blocks of plaintext and ciphertext, and requires the size of the plaintext as well as the ciphertext to be an exact multiple of this block size. AES is also known as the Rijndael symmetric encryption algorithm [FIPS197].
analysis server: A server that supports high performance and complex analytics for business intelligence applications.
assembly: A managed application module that contains class metadata and managed code as an object in Microsoft SQL Server, against which common language runtime (CLR) functions, stored procedures, triggers, user-defined aggregates, and user-defined types can be created in SQL Server.
attribute hierarchy: An implied single-level hierarchy, based on a single attribute, that consists of all the members of the attribute. An all-level member can optionally be enabled for an attribute hierarchy.
balanced hierarchy: A dimension hierarchy in which all leaf nodes are the same distance from the root node.
complex type: An element that can contain other elements or attributes and appears as <complexType> in an XML document. See also simple type.
Component Object Model (COM): An object-oriented programming model that defines how objects interact within a single process or between processes. In COM, clients have access to an object through interfaces implemented on the object. For more information, see [MS-DCOM].
conceptual schema definition language (CSDL): A language that is based on XML and that can be used to define conceptual models that are based on the Entity Data Model (EDM).
cube: A set of data that is organized and summarized into a multidimensional structure that is defined by a set of dimensions and measures.
Data Analysis Expressions (DAX): A library of functions and operators that can be combined to build formulas and expressions in a data model.
data block: A unit of data that is transferred at one time between an application and an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. The term is also applied to the units of storage for these data types.
data definition language (DDL): A subset of SQL or XMLA statements that defines all the attributes and properties of a database and its objects. DDL statements typically begin with CREATE, ALTER, or DROP.
data manipulation language (DML): The subset of SQL statements that is used to retrieve and manipulate data.
data mining dimension: A dimension that is specified when the MiningModel ID element for a dimension is non-empty. Certain other restrictions apply to the dimension's definition beyond what can be expressed in XSD.
Data Mining Extensions (DMX): A syntax that is used to create data mining model objects and to query and manipulate data mining data.
Decision Support Objects (DSO): A programming language provided to define OLAP objects, such as cubes and dimensions.
dimension: A structural attribute of a cube, which is an organized hierarchy of categories (levels) that describe data in the fact table.
hierarchy: A logical tree structure that organizes the members of a dimension such that each member has one parent member and zero or more child members.
in-memory: A memory model in which multidimensional aggregates are precomputed and stored but not written out on disk. Instead, they are stored in computer memory.
key attribute: The attribute of a dimension that links the non-key attributes in the dimension to related measures.
K-Means algorithm: An algorithm that places each value in the cluster with the nearest mean, and in which clusters are formed by minimizing the within-cluster deviation from the mean.
language code identifier (LCID): A 32-bit number that identifies the user interface human language dialect or variation that is supported by an application or a client computer.
lazy aggregation: An aggregation that is rebuilt by the server in the background after the processing step has been completed, instead of during the processing step. This is the process that underlies expressions, such as partitions that are "lazily processed," and aggregations and indexes that are "built lazily."
level: The name of a set of members in a dimension hierarchy, such that all members of the set are at the same distance from the root of the hierarchy.
locale ID: See language code identifier (LCID).
measure: In a cube, a set of values that are typically numeric and are based on a column in the fact table of the cube. Measures are the central values that are aggregated and analyzed.
measure group: A collection of related measures in a cube that derive from a single fact table, typically in a data source view.
MIME type: A method that is used by protocol clients to associate files of a certain type with applications that can open or access files of that type.
mining model: An object that contains the definition of a data mining process and the results of the training activity.
mining structure: A data mining object that defines the data domain from which the mining models are built.
MOLAP: A memory model in which multidimensional data aggregates are stored on disk (Multidimensional OLAP).
Multidimensional Expressions (MDX): A syntax that is used for defining multidimensional objects, and for querying and manipulating multidimensional data.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): A set of extensions that redefines and expands support for various types of content in email messages, as described in [RFC2045], [RFC2046], and [RFC2047].
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP): A technology that uses multidimensional structures to provide access to data for analysis. The source data for OLAP is stored in data warehouses in a relational database. See also cube.
partition: One of the storage containers for data and aggregations of a cube. Every cube contains one or more partitions. For a cube with multiple partitions, each partition can be stored separately in a different physical location. Each partition can be based on a different data source. Partitions are not visible to users; the cube appears to be a single object.
permission: A rule that is associated with an object and that regulates which users can gain access to the object and in what manner. See also rights.
proactive caching: A system that manages data obsolescence in a cube by which objects in MOLAP storage are automatically updated and processed in the cache, while queries are redirected to ROLAP storage.
remote partition: A partition whose data is stored on a server that is running an instance of Analysis Services other than the one used to store the metadata of the partition.
repeated base: A base column where the trace provider can reference previous data and therefore omit resending a column to SQL Server Profiler. The client tool keeps track of all repeatable columns for each new repeated-base column value.
ROLAP: A memory model in which no multidimensional aggregates are stored, and in which the server has to make a relational query to obtain an aggregate upon the request of an individual query (Relational OLAP).
role-playing dimension: A single database dimension joined to the fact table on a different foreign key to produce multiple cube dimensions.
security token: An opaque data packet that is provided to an authorized user of computer services to facilitate authentication.
simple type: An element that can contain only text and appears as <simpleType> in an XML document or any attribute of an element. Attributes are considered simple types because they contain only text. See also complex type.
slicer axis: A filter for the data that is returned by a multidimensional expression (MDX) SELECT statement. The slicer axis restricts the returned data so that only data that intersects with specified members is returned. It can be thought of as an invisible extra axis in a query. The slicer axis is defined in the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement.
SOAP action: The HTTP request header field used to indicate the intent of the SOAP request, using a URI value. See [SOAP1.1] section 6.1.1 for more information.
SOAP body: A container for the payload data being delivered by a SOAP message to its recipient. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.3 for more information.
SOAP fault: A container for error and status information within a SOAP message. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.4 for more information.
SOAP header: A mechanism for implementing extensions to a SOAP message in a decentralized manner without prior agreement between the communicating parties. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.2 for more information.
SOAP message: An XML document consisting of a mandatory SOAP envelope, an optional SOAP header, and a mandatory SOAP body. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5 for more information.
tuple: An ordered grouping of members from different dimensions or hierarchies. A single member is a special case of a tuple and can be used as an expression. Every hierarchy does not have to be represented in a tuple.
unbalanced hierarchy: A hierarchy in which one or more levels do not contain members in one or more branches of the hierarchy. This is also known as a ragged hierarchy.
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].
WSDL message: An abstract, typed definition of the data that is communicated during a WSDL operation [WSDL]. Also, an element that describes the data being exchanged between web service providers and clients.
XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].
XML schema: A description of a type of XML document that is typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, in addition to the basic syntax constraints that are imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of a document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.
XML schema definition (XSD): The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard language that is used in defining XML schemas. Schemas are useful for enforcing structure and constraining the types of data that can be used validly within other XML documents. XML schema definition refers to the fully specified and currently recommended standard for use in authoring XML schemas.
MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.