OLAP Cube Actions
An action provides information to a client application to allow an action to occur based on the property of a clicked dimensional member. Actions can be of different types, and they have to be created accordingly.
To view the definition of an Action, right-click the Action and select Properties. The OLAP Cube Action window is displayed:

Fields

Description

Cube Name

A Read Only field that indicates against which OLAP Cube the Calculation is defined.

Action Type

Actions can be of the following types:

  • Drill through actions which return the set of rows that represents the underlying data of the selected cells of the cube where the action occurs. When this option is chosen an additional tab is enabled that allows drill through columns to be chosen.
  • Reporting actions which return a report from Reporting Services that is associated with the selected section of the cube where the action occurs.
  • Standard actions (Action), which return the action element (URL, HTML, DataSet, RowSet, and other elements) that is associated with the selected section of the cube where the action occurs.

The action type chosen determines which action specific fields are enabled within the dialog.

Action Name

Defines the name of the Action in the Cube.

Update Buttons

The Update Buttons: Update <- and Update -> are used to move from the current Action to the previous and next Action respectively for the current OLAP Cube. The alternative is to exit the Action and choose the next Action Properties screen.

Target Type

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

Target Object

The cube object of the designated target type against which the action is defined.

Condition

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.

Report Action: Server

The name of the computer running report server.

Report Action: Report Path

The path exposed by report server.

Format/Content Type

Select the type of action. The following table summarizes the available types:
· 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 page in an Internet Browser.

Expression

Specifies 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. MDX expressions are evaluated before the parameters are passed.

Default

An additional true/false drop-down list is enabled for Drill through actions. This gets or sets the current Drillthrough Action as the default action, when multiple drill through actions are defined. This is important for users of MS Excel 2007 to browse the Olap Cube because MS Excel only invokes the Drill through Action marked as the default.

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.

Caption is MDX

If the caption is MDX, specify True, if not specify False.

To View Actions

To view the list of Actions, right-click on an OLAP Cube in the left pane and select Display Actions.

To Add an Action

  1. To add an Action, right-click on an OLAP Cube in the left pane and select Add Action. This can also be achieved by displaying Actions in the middle pane, right-clicking and selecting Add Action. Fill out the dialog box with the relevant details.
  2. To create an Action that is similar to an existing Action, display the Actions in the middle pane and select Copy Action. The same dialog box appears as for Add Action with most of the fields filled in. Notice that the Action name has the suffix "- Copy". Change the name in the Action Name field and make any other alterations and click OK.

To Delete an Action

Display the Actions in the middle pane, right-click the Action and then select Delete.


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