OWC: inaccurate reports from OLAP cubes

B

Bluetooth

Hi,

Looks like we've nailed a nasty bug in OWC (both version 10 an 11). Things
happen when we have a filter (page) based on a dimension with custom rollup.

Here is the scenario to reproduce (based on Foodmart 2000 database):

STEP 1. We need a custom rollup dimension, so CATEGORY dimension can be
slightly adapted for this purpose. Here is a script that will do the trick:
set oConn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
oConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _
"Data Source=" & _
"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis
Services\Samples\foodmart 2000.mdb"
oConn.Open
oConn.Execute "update `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis
Services\Samples\foodmart 2000`.`category` set category_rollup = '~'"
oConn.Execute "update `C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis
Services\Samples\foodmart 2000`.`category` set category_rollup='+' where
category_id='ADJUSTMENT'"
msgbox "Done"

STEP 2. Analysis manager, CATEGORY dimension, level "Category Description",
"Unary Operator" property should be set to "category_rollup"

STEP 3. Process the Foodmart 2000 database (or just the Budget cube, we will
use for our demonstration)

STEP 4. Connect to the Budget cube wit OWC. Below is a sample HTML code that
will do the trick:
<html><body>
<OBJECT class=ptexec classid="clsid:0002E552-0000-0000-C000-000000000046"
height=251
id=pt style="HEIGHT: 251px; LEFT: 0px; TOP: 0px; WIDTH: 502px" width=502>
<PARAM NAME="ConnectionString" VALUE='Data Source=localhost;Initial
Catalog="Foodmart 2000";Provider=MSOLAP.2;Client Cache Size=25;Log
File=C:\MDXOWC.Log"'>
<PARAM NAME="DataMember" VALUE="BUDGET">
</body></html>

STEP 5. Making a report:
a) drag AMOUNT measure to data area on OWC
b) drag CATEGORY dimension to a page/filter area and check only the "Current
Year's actuals"
c) drag STORE dimension to rows
d) drag TIME dimension to columns
You should have three rows of data (Canada, Mexico and USA) and two columns
(1997,1998). Values for (Canada,1997) and (Mexico,1997) are zero, the rest
are non-zero.

STEP 6 (WHERE WE ACTUALLY HIT THE BUG)
Drag the Time dimension from columns to rows, placing it between first and
second column). The result is a nested Store Country / Year report
BUT!!!!!!!!!!
We have now only one row - USA. Canada and Mexico are gone, as are the
years.
What is more interesting, the same report exported from OWC to Microsoft
Exel works fine (shows correctly all relevant rows and numbers).

My question is if this is a known behaviour / bug and if there is any
workaround or pending fix. Matter is rather serious, since our customers are
getting wrong numbers out of their OLAP/BI systems.

Best Regards
Szymon Slupik, CTO
CDN S.A., Krakow, Poland
 
K

Ken Laws [MS]

Hi Szymon,

Using the steps that you provided I was able to reproduce the behavior that
you described.

After moving the Time dimension from Columns to Rows, I found that I was
able to display the information in the OWC, as it appears when exported to
Microsoft Excel, by editing the following properties within the OWC:

1. I right mouse clicked on the OWC PivotTable and selected "Commands and
Options" and then selected the "Report" tab.

2. On the Report tab I checked the "Always Display Empty Rows" checkbox.
This then displayed the three countries.

3. I then right mouse clicked on the Store dimension and selected "Expand
Items". This then expanded the Store dimension to display the years.

I hope this helps!

If you have any questions please let me know via the posting.

Regards,

Ken Laws
Microsoft Support


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 
B

Bluetooth

Hi Ken,

I'm glad you were able to reproduce my problem. Solution you propose
(turning off empty rows filtering) may help in this sample scenario, but in
real life it is hardly acceptable. My customer has a resultset of tens of
thousands rows, where only a handfull are not empty. So by enabling empty
rows the report becomes almost completely useless... Empty rows filtering is
one of the advantages of using OWC... if it produces correct results.

Best,
Szymon Slupik
 
K

Ken Laws [MS]

Hi Szymon,

Thank you for the response.

I am looking into this further and will reply back once I have additional
information.

If you have any questions please let me know via the posting.

Regards,

Ken Laws
Microsoft Support


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 

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