Analysis Services DMX Query Designer User Interface

New: 14 April 2006

Reporting Services provides graphical query designers for building Data Mining Expressions (DMX) queries and Multidimensional Expression (MDX) queries for an Analysis Services data source. When you create a dataset with an Analysis Services data source, Report Designer defaults to the MDX query designer in Design mode. To switch to the DMX query designer, click the DMX (Change to DMX query language view) button. This topic describes the DMX query designer. For more information about the MDX query designer, see Analysis Services MDX Query Designer User Interface.

The DMX graphical query designer has three modes: Design, Query, and Result. To switch modes, right-click on the Query Design pane, and select the mode. Each mode provides a Metadata pane from which you can drag members from the selected cubes to build a DMX query that retrieves data for a dataset when the report is processed.

Graphical DMX Query Designer Toolbar

The query designer toolbar provides buttons to help you design DMX queries using the graphical interface. The following toolbar shows the buttons and describes their functions for all modes of the DMX query designer.

Analysis Services DMX query designer toolbar

The following table shows the buttons and describes their functions.

Button Description

Dataset

Use to select an existing dataset from the drop-down list, or choose <New Dataset>.

Ellipsis (3 dots) to edit selected dataset

Edit the selected dataset.

Delete selected dataset

Delete the selected dataset.

Refresh dataset fields

Refresh fields for the selected dataset.

Icon of the Generic Query Designer button

Generic Query Designer. Not enabled for DMX queries.

Change to MDX query view

Switch to the MDX query designer mode.

Change to DMX query language view

Switch to the DMX query designer mode.

Refresh result data

Refresh metadata from the data source.

Delete

Delete the selected column in the Data pane from the query.

Icon for the Query Parameters dialog box

Display the Query Parameters dialog box. When you assign a default value to a variable, a corresponding report parameter is created when you switch to the Layout view in Report Designer.

Run the query

Prepare the query.

Switch to Design mode

Toggle between Design mode and Query mode. To change to result view, right-click on the Design pane and choose Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Design Mode

When you view a report server project in Report Designer in Data view for a dataset that uses an Analysis Services data source, the default view for the graphical query designer is Design mode.

The following figure labels the panes for Design mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, design view

The following table describes the function of each pane.

Pane Function

Query Design pane

Use the Mining Model and Select Input Table dialog boxes to build the DMX query.

Grid pane

For each row in the grid, use the Source drop-down list to select a function or expression, and choose fields, groups, and criteria or arguments to use in your DMX query. To see the DMX query text generated by your selections, click the Design Mode button on the toolbar.

To run the DMX query and show results in the Result pane, right-click on the Query Design pane and select Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Query Mode

To change the graphical query designer to Query mode, click the Design Mode button on the toolbar or right-click on the query design surface, and choose Query from the shortcut menu. Use this mode to enter DMX text directly into the Query pane. The following figure labels the panes for Query mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, query view

The following table describes the function of each pane.

Pane Function

Query Design pane

Use the Mining Model and Select Input Table dialog boxes to build the DMX query.

Query pane

View or edit DMX query text directly in the pane. Changes to the DMX query text do not persist if you change back to Design mode.

To run the DMX query and show results in the Result pane, right-click on the Query Design pane and select Result.

Graphical DMX Query Designer in Result Mode

To display the Result mode, right-click the query design surface and choose Result from the shortcut menu. When you switch to Result mode, the DMX query runs automatically.

The following figure shows the query designer in Result mode.

Analysis Services DMX query designer, result view

To switch back to Design mode or Query mode, right-click on the Result pane and select Design or Query.

See Also

Other Resources

Using Analysis Services MDX Query Designer in Design Mode
Using Analysis Services MDX Query Designer in Query Mode
How to: Define Parameters in MDX and DMX Query Designer for Analysis Services (Report Designer)
How to: Create a Dataset (Report Designer)
Using Analysis Services DMX Query Designer

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance