Another gotcha in Sql Server Analysis Services (SSAS) 2005 related to nullable foreign keys...

Let's say you have DimensionA which contains a foreign key to the related dimension DimensionB and that relationship is optional (nullable foreign key).  DimensionB is represented as AttributeB within DimensionA.

When I first created DimensionA and related it to my fact table, everything worked nicely.  I then decided to have the name column for AttributeB show the text value for DImensionB's key rather than they key itself.  I figured this would make things go more quickly when building reports. I used object binding on the NameColumn and set the source table and source column.  Suddenly I started getting the error "The attribute key cannot be found" when I tried to process the cube.  Huh?

I checked my source tables and of course the key did exist.&a ...

On a recent project using Sql Server Analysis Server (SSAS) 2005, I ran into some challenges with fact tables that had optional relationships (nullable foreign keys) to related dimension tables.

I used a design were FactTableA had a regular relationship to DimensionA and DimensionB, however, these were both optional relationships.  The cube functioned correctly until I added a referenced relationship to DimensionC via DimensionA.  When I did this, the count of records in FactTableA suddenly dropped to a value corresponding to the count of non-null values for the foreign key referencing DimensionA.  The cube was forming an inner join between FactTableA and DimensionC via DimensionA; not what I wanted at all.

The fix was simple, in the "Define Relationship" screen for DimensionC, I unchecked the "Materialize" checkbox. The documentation doesn't mention this impact on the dat ...

Here's how to make hanging indents for radiobuttonlists in ASP.Net!

You must choose RepeatLayout="Table" and then create styles to apply to that table.

[Test in IE7 and Firefox 2]

<style type="text/css">
    .rbChoice input { margin-left: -20px; }
    .rbChoice td { padding-left: 20px; }
</style> 

<asp:RadioButtonList
ID="RadioButtonListSessionChoice"
runat="server"
CssClass="rbChoice"
RepeatLayout="Table"
RepeatColumns="1"
/>

I love my iMac, I hate my iMac.

I've owned my iMac for about 2 years.  I use it for music and photos, mostly, and when it's not in use it makes a great picture frame for displaying my photos.

BUT

My LCD screen suddenly started devloping vertical lines just like these.

So, while I love my iMac - don't buy one unless you get the extended AppleCare warranty!

Here's an online petition to get Apple to correct this problem. (yeah right)