Hierarchies define the organizational structure of a group of member levels or a group of members. Use standard hierarchies to define consolidation and navigation for your business objects, such as products or markets.
Use measure hierarchies to create hierarchies with dimension elements that represent your data values. If your data contains more than one measure (data value), define a measure hierarchy and add all measures to that hierarchy.
The procedure for using key bindings as columns in hierarchies is discussed in Using Delayed Key Bindings in Hierarchies.
Illustrations of different types of hierarchies are presented in Hierarchy Examples.
To create calendar hierarchies, see Creating Calendar Hierarchies.
To create a standard or measure hierarchy:
Right-click the appropriate folder in the Metadata Navigator and select New, then Hierarchy or New, then Measure Hierarchy to launch the hierarchy editor.
Enter a Name for the hierarchy.
The default name is NewHierarchy for standard hierarchies, and NewMeasureHierarchy for measure hierarchies.
Use any of the following methods, or combination of methods, to add elements to the hierarchy.
Note:
In the same hierarchy, combinations of logical elements, physical elements, and user-defined elements are possible. You may add logical elements from the Metadata Navigator and physical elements from the Source Navigator. You may also add a user-defined parent to the hierarchy and add logical or physical elements as its children.
Drag-and-drop from the Metadata Navigator:
In the Metadata Navigator, navigate to the first metadata element that you want to add to the hierarchy.
Select the metadata element to add, drag it to the Edit Hierarchy dialog box, and drop it under the Hierarchy column in the Data group.
Select the next metadata element to add to the hierarchy, drag and drop it directly on the previous element that you added.
Dropping the metadata element directly atop the previous element provides the hierarchical structure.
Dropping the metadata element in the row below the previous element begins a new chain in the hierarchy.
Note:
You may also drag a physical element from the Source Navigator and drop it on top of or below the parent element. Alternatively, you can click the Add button and select “Add as child” to add a logical element to the parent element, or select “Add as sibling” to begin a new chain in the hierarchy.
Optional: Repeat step 4.c as necessary for the hierarchy that you want to build.
Drag-and-drop from the Source Navigator:
In the Source Navigator, navigate to the first physical element that you want to add to the hierarchy.
Select the physical element to add, drag it to the Edit Hierarchy dialog box, and drop it under the Hierarchy column in the Data group.
For each physical element that you add to the hierarchy, a corresponding metadata element is added to the Metadata Navigator in the same location.
Select the next physical element to add to the hierarchy, drag and drop it directly on the previous element that you added.
Dropping the physical element directly atop the previous element provides the hierarchical structure.
Dropping the physical element in the row below the previous element begins a new chain in the hierarchy.
Note:
You may also drag a logical element from the Metadata Navigator and drop it on top of or below the parent element. Alternatively, you can click the Add button and select “Add as child” to add a logical element to the parent element, or select “Add as sibling” to begin a new chain in the hierarchy.
Optional: Repeat step 4.c as necessary for the hierarchy you want to build.
Use the Add button:
Click the Add button and perform an action:
Select Add child or Add sibling.
The Select Entity dialog box is displayed. Navigate to the dimension element that you want to add as a child or sibling, select it, and click OK.
Note that for the first element in the hierarchy, you can choose either “Add child” or Add sibling.
Select Add user-defined child or Add user-defined sibling.
Under Hierarchy, in the editable field in the grid, enter the name of the user-defined member. The default name is “NewMemberN.”
For the first element in the hierarchy, you can choose either Add user-defined child or Add user-defined sibling.
Note:
A user-defined element cannot be added as a child for a column-based (relational) element.
Note:
The Key Binding column will display the text, “Unspecified.” When you save the hierarchy, the Key Binding column will be updated to show the name of the child or sibling element.
Click the Add button again and make another selection, as described in step 4.a.
Note:
If you selected the Add child or Add sibling option to create the top level of the hierarchy, then the Add user-defined child option is not available. Valid selections are Add child, Add sibling, or Add user-defined sibling.
Optional: Repeat step 4.b as necessary for the hierarchy that you want to build.
Optionally, click Preview to launch the Sample Data dialog box and view the hierarchy structure, as described in Previewing Hierarchies. Click OK when finished previewing the hierarchy.
Note:
Hierarchy preview is not available for measure hierarchies. The members are displayed in the hierarchy itself.