Defining Translations in Dimensions


If your data warehouse is to be used globally, you want to show the hierarchies, levels, and members in different languages so that customers in those countries can read the cube in their own language. Analysis Services 2005 provides you with a feature called Translation (not a super-imaginative name) that helps you create and view dimension members in various languages. The benefit of this feature is that you do not have to build a new cube in every language. For implementation you need to only have a column in the relational data source that will have the translated names for all the members of a a specific attribute in the dimension.

In the Dim Geography table you have two attributes: Spanish Country Region Name and French Country Region Name. These columns have the translated names of the country names which are members of the attributes English Country Region Name. The following steps describe how to create a new translation:

  1. Switch to the Translations tab in the Dimension Designer.

  2. Click the New Translation icon shown in Figure 5-25 or choose New Translation from the Dimension menu item to create a new translation and choose a language. The Selection language dialog now pops up.

    image from book
    Figure 5-25

  3. Select the language French (France) and click OK.

  4. A new column with the title French (France) is added as shown in Figure 5-26. Click the row English Country Region Name on the column French (France). You now see the Attribute Data Translation dialog. Select the French Country Region Name column and click OK.

    image from book
    Figure 5-26

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the language Spanish (Spain).

You have now created two translations in French and Spanish languages. In addition to specifying the columns for member names, you can also change the metadata information of each level. For example, if you want to change the level Country in the Geography hierarchy in French and Spanish languages, you can do that by entering the names in the row that show the Country level. Type Pays and Pais as shown in Figure 5-26 for French and Spanish translations respectively. You have defined translations for the Country attribute in two languages making use of the columns in the relational data source. To see how this metadata information is shown in the dimension browser, first deploy the project to your Analysis Services instance.

To see the effect of the translations you have created, select language French (France) from within the Dimension Browser as shown in Figure 5-27. Select the Geography hierarchy and expand the All level. Now you can see all the members in French. If you click any of the countries, the metadata shown for the level is "Pays" (French for country) as shown in Figure 5-27. There is a negligible amount of overhead associated with viewing dimension hierarchies, levels, and members in different languages from your UDM.

image from book
Figure 5-27



Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX
Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer)
ISBN: 0764579185
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 176

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