Example of How to Use Attributes

 Let's say you have a Location dimension that has different types of physical locations such as offices, distributioncenters, and manufacturing plants. Using the hierarchy example below, on your Location dimension, you have a hierarchy that has all distribution centers rolling up to a parent (DC-Texas,DC-New York, and DC-Oregon roll up to Distribution Center parent), all manufacturing plants rolling up to a Manufacturing parent and all offices rolling up to an Office parent. On your Profit and Loss Statement, you have totals for Distribution Centers, Manufacturing Plants and Offices using the primary hierarchy shown below for the Location dimension.

These locations (offices, distribution centers and manufacturing plants) are located in different states. The Tax department needs a different view of these locations that shows totals by state for tax return purposes.

To provide this information to the Tax department, you could reorganize the Location dimension so that the leaf member rollup is by State, but then you would not have totals by distribution center, manufacturing, and offices. Instead, create an "alternate" or "second view" of the Location dimension and name it State (shown below) while still retaining the view in your primary hierarchy (shown above).

Edit the Location dimension and update the attribute value for each leaf member to identify the state where that location exists. You can also load this data using Data Load Rules. Next, map the attribute to the Financial Reporting cube so that you can use it in reports. You do so by navigating to Maintenance > Reports >Cube Settings. Add the State attribute to your Financial Cube via the Attribute Settings tab.

Once the attribute is mapped to the cube, you can use it like a dimension. When you open a new Dynamic report, you will notice that the dimension selection box has changed and has a greater than icon (>) on the right (highlighted in yellow in the image below). When you click the Location dimension, it will expand and you will see the attribute. Drag it to an axis and use it like any other dimension to build the Dynamic report.