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The On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) Connector allows SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) to query multidimensional data sources that support the XML for Analysis (XMLA) specification.

 

To connect to a database using unique credentials and not a connection pool, add ServerUserName and ServerUserPassword parameters to your applet code or to name-value pairs in the URL command line. You can access the user name from the session through the {IllumLoginName} session variable in your applet code. You can also add script to prompt the user for their user name and password.

To use the XMLA interface to Microsoft SQL Server, you must install the Microsoft XML for Analysis SDK on the database server, in addition to the SQL Server Analysis Services components. This SDK install creates the web service interface within IIS.

For the SAP BW XMLA interface, you need to enable the XMLA Web service, which wraps the OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) and native interface, on the BW server. The Web service allows access to metadata (cubes, dimensions, measures) and data. You can access BW cubes as well as operational data store (ODS) tables.

Structure

OLAP Connector modes are based on Multi-Dimensional Expressions (MDX) query construction. MDX is used to query OLAP data sources through cubes, dimensions, and measures.

Cubes are subsets of data from the OLAP store, which are organized into multidimensional structures. Cubes allow better response times to complex queries. Dimensions and measures are attributes of a cube. Dimensions provide category descriptions into which measures are separated for analysis. Measures identify the numerical values for analysis, such as price, cost, or quantity sold.

The following namespace modes are supported:

  • CubeList

    The CubeList mode allows you to find the list of cubes in a catalog. A catalog is similar to a database instance in a relational database storage environment. The catalog is part of the SAP MII server configuration.

  • DimensionList

    The DimensionList mode returns the dimensions for a given cube (Cube=<cubename>).

  • MeasureList

    The MeasureList mode returns the measures for a given cube (Cube=<cubename>).

The Query mode executes an MDX through the XMLA service provided by the data store to retrieve data.

The following table describes some of the required server parameters for the OLAP Connector:

Parameter

Description

Catalog

Name of the server instance to which you want to connect.

ColumnNameAttribute

String name used by the XMLA server implementation to retrieve the returned column label.

DataSourceInfo

Microsoft® parameter for connecting to a data store.

DataTypeAttribute

XMLA server ID used to return column data types with the response document.

IP

IP address or server name of the machine that is hosting the OLAP services.

Port

Listening port for the XMLA services on the OLAP server.

ResultInNamespace

Indicator for returning SOAP responses from the XMLA server.

If the response element is referenced in a namespace, set the indicator.

WebService

Entry point to the XMLA services on the OLAP server.