Manual versus auto-generated dimension values

To configure multiple synonyms, collapsibility, or inertness, or to create a hierarchy for dimension values, you must manually populate a dimension. Otherwise, set a dimension to auto-generate its values.

Every dimension must be populated with dimension values. There are two ways to do this:

Manually create the dimension values, and any dimension value hierarchy, using the Dimension Values editor.
Configure the dimension to have its dimension values automatically generated from the source data. Unlike manually created dimension values, which are defined during the dimension editing process, auto-generated dimensions must be configured when you create your source property-to-dimension mappings in your property mapper component.

You must populate a dimension manually if any of the following is true:

You want to create a hierarchy for the dimension values (auto-generated dimensions are always flat).
You want to configure specific dimension value behavior such as multiple synonyms, collapsibility, or inertness.

If a dimension does not have either of these requirements, you can set it to auto-generate and avoid the labor involved in manually entering dimension values.

The following section, "Working with manually created dimension values," describes how to create, edit, and configure manually created dimension values. See Choosing a match mode for details on automatically generating dimension values.