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Creating and Setting Up Physical Tables

This topic is part of the Process of Creating the Physical Layer from Relational Data Sources and the Process of Creating the Physical Layer from Multidimensional Data Sources.

For all data sources, you can define general properties, columns, a primary key, and foreign keys.

Creating and Setting Up Physical Tables for Multidimensional Data Sources

Each cube from a multidimensional data source is set up as a physical cube table, a type of physical table. It has all the capabilities of a table such as columns (physical cube columns, not regular columns) and keys (optional) and foreign keys (optional). It also has cube-specific metadata such as hierarchies and levels.

In the Physical layer, a physical cube table looks like a regular table but will have a different icon. For more information about icons, see Icons and Symbols in the Administration Tool.

When you import the physical schema, Siebel Business Analytics imports the cube, including its metrics, hierarchies, and levels. Although the hierarchies are imported, they are not displayed as such in the physical layer. Double-clicking on the cube icon brings up the various properties of the cube and provides access to the hierarchies.

Each multidimensional catalog can contain multiple physical cubes. You can import one or more of these cubes into your analytics repository. You can create a cube table manually. However, it is recommended that you import cube tables and their components.

NOTE:  If creating a cube manually, it is strongly recommended that you build each cube one hierarchy at a time and test each one before building another. For example, create the time hierarchy and a measure, and then test it. When it is correct, create the geography hierarchy and test it. This will help make sure you have set up each cube correctly and make it easier to identify any setup errors.

Keys and foreign keys are not used for multidimensional data sources. When viewing the properties in the Physical Cube Table dialog box, the Hierarchies tab lists the various dimensional hierarchies in the cube. Users can drill down on any dimension to see the levels in that hierarchy.

To create a physical table or a physical cube table and any necessary properties, perform the following tasks:

• Creating and Administering General Properties for a Physical Table
• Creating and Administering Columns and Keys in a Physical Table
• Setting Up Hierarchies in the Physical Layer for a Multidimensional Data Source
• Setting Physical Table Properties for an XML Data Source