Creating and Managing Cubes

You can create a child of a cube to keep its dataset before applying other transformations or combining it:

• Any cube can have a child: a query cube or a virtual cube.
• The resulting virtual cube has only one parent, with the same objects and dataset, but this cube and its objects have new identifiers.
• Transformations can be applied to this child cube: only this cube’s dataset is impacted.
• A cube can have multiple children.

To create a cube’s child, you can select a cube in the Graph Panel and:

• Select the Create Child command in its context menu.
• Or drag and drop it in an empty location in the canvas.
• Or click the Create Child button in the toolbar.

The new created cube is displayed in the Graph Panel and in the Main Side Panel → Objects tab and is identified with the Child icon.

In Data mode, you can combine cubes to synchronize your data.

You can combine more than two cubes at once:

• The first cube, the primary cube, is combined with a first secondary cube.
• The other secondary cubes are then successively combined with the result of the previous combination.
• When all cubes have been combined, the resulting cube defines the objects and dataset of the final combined cube.

Select the cubes to combine in the Graph Panel.

In the Graph Panel toolbar, select the Create Cube button.

The Create Cube dialog box opens. The first selected cube is displayed as the primary cube, whereas the second one is used as secondary cube for the first combination.

In the Operators drop-down menu, select the operator to apply (Left join by default).

Select the Add Keys button to open the Edit Keys dialog box. It displays the objects of the two cubes in two separate columns.

Select an object in each column to map them and create a key. These objects are moved up, in the Selected Keys section. Repeat this step to create as many keys as needed.

Click OK to validate the selected keys.

Click Create to finalize the combined cube creation.

The new created cube is displayed in the Graph Panel and in the Main Side Panel → Objects tab. It is linked to its parent cubes and is identified with the operator icon if it has only two parents or the Combined Cube icon if it has more than two parents.

Watch this video to learn how to create and manage cubes:

When you edit a child or combined cube, the Edit Cube dialog box opens where you can rename it, change its description, modify its combinations, or add a new combination. When you edit a virtual cube in the Edit Cube dialog box, you can also click the Add Cube button to add a new combination: a new line appears where you must select the operator, the cube to combine and the keys.

Adding a new combination to a cube does not modify the identifiers of this cube’s objects. If these objects are already used in the report, the lists of values they return take into consideration the new added combination. If you create a new cube, its objects have new identifiers, and you must replace these objects in the report to take into consideration the new added combination.

To add a combination to an existing virtual cube, you can also:

• Select a cube in the Graph Panel and drag and drop it while pressing the [Ctrl] key on a virtual cube to add the first cube as a combination of the second one.
• Or select two cubes in the Graph Panel and click the Add Combination button in the toolbar. The second selected cube is added as a combination to the first selected cube, that must be a virtual cube.

This opens the Edit Cube dialog box to edit this virtual cube. A new combination with the other cube is added and you may change its operator and the default keys.

If some transformations are applied to the virtual cube, if a new combination is added, then these transformations apply after this new combination. If this is not the expected behavior, it remains possible to create explicitly a new combined cube who uses this cube as parent. But in this case, the new cube has new objects with new identifiers. To take advantage of its new dataset would require replacing the previous objects with the new objects in the report in Design mode.

You usually combine cubes to focus on their resulting dataset. Their parent cubes can be seen as temporary cubes that you do not necessarily need to have in Design mode to create your document. In Data mode, you can hide cubes, so they do not appear anymore in Design mode.

In the Graph Panel or the Main Side Panel → Objects tab, use the Hide (or Show) command in the context menu of a cube to hide (or show) it. The Hidden icon appears beside hidden cube.

Combined cubes inherit all objects from their parent cubes. But these objects may turn out to be useless to design the document. Identically, in Data mode, you can hide objects, so they do not appear in Design mode.

In the Main Side Panel → Objects tab, you can use the Hide in Children Cubes (or Show in Children Cubes) command in the context menu of an object to hide (or show) it. The Hidden icon appears beside hidden object.

In the Main Side Panel → Objects tab, use the Show Main View/Show all Cubes toggle button to display all cubes or only the cubes and objects that are visible in Design mode.