Expanding the Period dimension

The Period Table Task offers a number of options for deriving output from the pure date format. E.g. in some solutions, rather than having the full date information on the lowest level of the Posting Period hierarchy an alternative could be the Day of Month number – i.e. numbers potentially ranging from 1 to 31.

In the Period Table Task this is added as a new column on the Output tab.

Run the full SSIS package. This will cause the Period Table Task to be executed and effectively produce the new column in the Posting period table.

However, to make use of the new column in the Analysis Services project we must make sure that the changed table with the new column is properly reflected in the Data Source View.

Go to the Data Source View and click the Refresh button in the upper left corner.

Refreshing the Data Source View will detect any changes that have been made to the underlying source tables.

The added DayOfMonthNumber column of the Posting Period table has been detected.

And from this point on we can start using the new column as an attribute and potentially as part of a hierarchy in the dimension design of the Posting Period dimension.