Summary

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Although the source code in this solution is quite long, it merely scratches the surface of what you can do in a sales analysis and reporting system. The combination of the Chart and PivotTable components provides a powerful analysis surface, and the ability to save and reload reports gives the user the power to create custom slices of data and recall them later.

You can implement a number of other ideas in this kind of system. For example, you can offer standard reports that are built on the server and returned as GIF images. You can also use more advanced MDX functions to filter for members with sales that were 10 percent greater than or less than they were during the same period the year before. And you can enable users to double-click an aggregate value and drill through to a transactional system, viewing the detailed invoices that comprise the aggregate.

This chapter focused on decision support systems and OLAP data sources. Chapter 8 will show you how to use the Office Web Components in a ubiquitous transactional system: timesheet tracking.