What Analysis Services client tools support filtering or slicing
across multiple, independent views based on the same cube(s)?

For example, say of I have 8 dimensions in my cube and 5 measures. I
create eight different views; one for each dimension, and dispaying
all five measures in each view.

Now I want to "link" the 8 views together so when I filter or slice in
one view, it applies this filter to all linked views.

What OLAP client tool supports this type of reporting or analysis?

Thanks

Kory

As for all tools they have some pro's and con's - but the feature you're
describing is available in this:

www.targit.com

And I'm just testing it for a client - not selling it...

But is has these abilities:

a) On a view you can place objects and these objects depend on what you do
in the other objects
b) A view can be linked to another view and use the selections to filter
this other view

However....why would you want to see all 8 dimensions at once ? Is this an
requirement ... if it's not the
pivottable would quickly be able to show what the user wants by drag and
drop - but if it's because you
want to avoid drag and drop the above product is a possibility.

\Michael Vardinghus

"Kory Skistad" <kskistad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:c27ce0e1.0405180619.2cb2424f (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...

Mike,

I just downloaded a trial of this product and it seems very
comprehensive. I especially like the fact it can go against
relational and multidimensional sources, as we have a mix of both in
our organization.

Several other features caught my eye, and the interface seems very
intuitive and user-friendly. It even has a built-in report writer and
exports to a variety of formats.

If Nigel Pendse is out there... I noticed you haven't reviewed Targit
for a few years. I would be interested in knowing what he thinks of
the latest version of this product.

I think I've narrowed my OLAP client choices down to these:

1) Proclarity

V5.3 interface seems clean and intuitive. It offers all of the most
necessary functionality of an OLAP client, and allows automation with
VBA and integrates with Office well. It is also the client I hear the
most about in case studies, etc. There is also an Excel AddIn and
integration with Reporting Services.

2) Novaview from Panorama

v5 has a lot of nice features, although I found the interface somewhat
non-conventional (non-Microsoft?) But you could customize almost
every setting imaginable. It's drill-through ability seems more
mature than other products I've reviewed, but I couldn't get it to
work exactly. It was mostly intuitive, but I had some trouble finding
some features. I also had some screen-redrawing problems where things
would disappear until I resized them. This could be my video drivers,
etc. but I haven't noticed this effect in any other applications. It
also has integration with Reporting Services

3) Targit 2K3

I liked this product because it is very intuitive and has a lot of
features I didn't find in any other products. It emphasizes graphical
representation more than other tools as well, so it is highly visually
appealing. It has integrated report writing and uses both relational
and Analysis Services data sources. It has an Office 2003-type
interface, further creating a common look-and-feel that users are
familiar with.

4) Temtec

This tool is very simple and intuitive, and installation was easy, but
seems to lack power features that the other tools distinguish
themselves with. I would be afraid the first time a user asks me to
"customize" something that I wouldn't be able to do it with this tool.

My criteria in selecting a tool is:

1) Intuitive (based on standard Windows applications E.g. Office)
2) Ability to quickly create views of multidimensional data and save
them to a central location
3) Advanced features like charting or other graphical analysis tools
4) Ability to connect to possibly multiple data sources, including
relational.
5) Ability to link multiple views together so filtering will adjust
them accordingly.
6) Integration with Excel and other office apps
7) Automation support (VBA)
8) Web deployment options

Nice to haves:

1) Data Mining viewers
2) Integration with Reporting Services

If you know of any tools other than the ones I've mentioned above that
meet these criteria, let me know!

Thanks

Kory



"Michael Vardinghus" <michaelvardinghus (AT) notexisting (DOT) com> wrote

But be aware that they are at this particular moment rebuilding there
reporting engine to go against rep services - that could mean building a
totally new one from scratch - my impression is however that they are pretty
far in this development process.

As I said in my previous post there a pro's and con's....example:

a) performance in xp is betting when throwing several flat dimension with
lots of members into one cross table - targit prefers that you put these in
different objects
b) doesn't support default member from as (error report - but they will
propably develop it and in many cases you can do these when defining the
reports - some automation regarding time would be nice to put in as)
c) both a thick and a thin client (web browser)
d) in thin client the headlines cannot be locked when scrolling down...
e) lack some layout possibilities ... with a web component you have
frontpage - with targit you cannot do that much in the tool itself - they
have produced another tool for making your own intranet environment (pdk)
but that also has some limitations - at the current moment they are doing a
lot on layout on the latest builds
f) they have something in a cross table called compact hierachies in grid
which actually is pretty fancy....instead of a whole column for each level
it just tabs the level member name 2 characters - this leaves place for
drilling down more levels (we want to go down 4-5 levels with 5 measures in
one cross tab - for solving this we had to make a conjoint dimension in the
cube - however)
g) whether you like drag and drop (xp) or a program that ask you what you
want (wizards) are a matter of taste ...
h) colouring and visibility agents
i) drill through native (not really native in xp)
j) calculations - however i would put most of these in as

Hope it helps....

\Michael V.


"Kory Skistad" <kskistad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:c27ce0e1.0405190811.7899bff2 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...

In your opinion, do you prefer Targit over Proclarity?

Can't answer that - got an evalutation edition from Proclarity but never got
to look at it (not an issue on the current case as they've already bought
targit).

\Michael V.

"Kory Skistad" <kskistad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:c27ce0e1.0405200624.61627eeb (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...

"Michael Vardinghus" <michaelvardinghus (AT) notexisting (DOT) com> wrote

Just a thought --

You also need to consider support when you select a front end vendor.
I know ProClarity and Panorama re support. They are good. I do not
know what Targit's level of support is.

Pete Hohenhaus
Portland, Oregon

Hi,

Panorama NovaView is supporting this. You can switche on the feature
to take over choosen slicers with all views in the same reporting
book. On our website you can test this live over the internet with one
of our Panorama Novaview BI/OLAP solutions. Also in the Dashboard you
can have all views changed base on one slicer.

Also Report Portal is supporting this in a way of Dashboard view.
Where you can change all views on one webpage based on 1 or more
slicer selection.

For more info, free trials, ordering products, please visit our
website:
www.gmsbv.nl

Regards,
Marco


kskistad (AT) hotmail (DOT) com (Kory Skistad) wrote in message news:<c27ce0e1.0405180619.2cb2424f (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...

I'm actually a bit unsure of this.....

However due to being in the same country as targit and having a case with a
large public organization naturally
gives me some reaction at targit when contacting them.

They have a customer portal where I can ask questions and I get reply fast.

However...it depends on what you mean by support ... not that much logic
lies in the front end .. it lies in the
as environment and for that I dont want support.

I want support to inform me of the limitations in the front end regard to as
og extra features ... but I doesn't take
that long to find that out for myself.

So my contact to Targit are actually improvement suggestions, errors ... and
for this you would think they would
be glad to get the info.

Of course there have been some problems where I was unsure of Targits
functionality but in several of these cases
we chose to put the logic into as instead.

\Michael V.


"Pete Hohenhaus" <cam_pete (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> skrev i en meddelelse
news:3b5c906d.0405201358.165f169c (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...