An alias often provides an easily identifiable label, such as a product name or product description, for columns in relational data sources. For example, the 200-20 member could have the alias Root Beer.
You can create nine alias tables (including the Default alias table) for a given metaoutline to store nine aliases for dimensions, members, attribute dimensions, attribute members, and user-defined members.
If the source data contains information you need to create aliases in an Essbase outline, include the relevant data as columns in the associated OLAP model. Then, when you create a metaoutline, you can retrieve alias information from columns of the OLAP model.
One column of source data can be used to create multiple aliases. Multiple columns of source data can be used to create a single alias.
If alias information for a single alias is in multiple columns, complete one of these procedures:
In the source database, create a view or table to concatenate (and, if necessary, transform) alias information into a single column. Creating a view or table is preferred if alias information is stored in three or more columns.
In the OLAP model, concatenate (and, if necessary, transform) columns containing alias information. See the Integration Services Console online help.
In the OLAP model, use the pass-through feature to run a procedure that uses relational logic to retrieve alias information from the columns you specify. If a field in one column is empty, the procedure tells the source database to retrieve alias information for that field from a different column.
For information on pass-through transformations, see Integration Services Console online help.