Default Cube Action in Excel
When using Excel 2007 to connect to a SQL 2005\2008 SSAS cube, double-clicking a cell, or right clicking the cell and selecting Show Details, within a Pivot table brings up details about the specific sliced cell within the Pivot table. However, the default nature of the cube is to bring up the raw Fact table data for that slice, which displays all fields within the Fact table for the records that make up the cell. The fields within a Fact table are often surrogate keys that point to the Dimensions that join to the Fact table as well as all Measurements stored within the Fact table. This default nature is not the most helpful information to business analysts since the keys have no business meanings to the users.
The question then is how to change this default behavior to bring back information to supply meaningful details to a business analyst when using the cube. The answer is to create a Drillthrough Action with the SSAS cube and set the Default property to True. The Drillthrough Action will return the information that the business defines as meaningful when wanting to see the details within the cube.
Tags: excel, action, drillthrough