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Bind a Pivot Grid to an OLAP Cube

  • 4 minutes to read

A cube is a multidimensional structure defined by its measures and dimensions. A cube’s measure can be bound to a data field in the PivotGridControl, while a dimension can be bound to a column, filter, or row field. This tutorial contains step-by-step instructions on how to bind the Pivot Grid to an existing OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) cube.

Create a New Project and Add a Pivot Grid Control

Run Microsoft Visual Studio and create a new Windows Forms App (.NET Framework) project.

Create Windows Forms App

Specify the project’s name and location in the New Project wizard.

Configure Windows Forms App

Drag the PivotGridControl item from the DX.24.1: Data & Analytics toolbox group onto the form.

GettingStarted_L1_Toolbox

Note

The control’s PivotGridOptionsData.DataProcessingEngine property is set to Optimized when you drop the Pivot Grid from the toolbox. When the Pivot Grid uses the Optimized calculation engine, data is calculated on the client side, except data from the OLAP and server-mode data sources.

Open the Pivot Grid’s smart tag menu and click Dock in Parent Container to let the Pivot Grid fill the entire window’s client area.

GettingStarted_L1_Dock

Prepare a Data Source

Click the smart tag icon displayed in the top-right corner of the Pivot Grid to invoke the popup PivotGridControl Tasks window.

GettingStarted_L2_SmartTag

Select the Data Source Wizard item.

GettingStarted_L2_ConnectionString_Ellipsis

Select the OLAP Cube technology and click Next in the invoked wizard.

GettingStarted_L2_ConnectionString_Editor_Empty

Select ADOMD.NET as the data provider and click Next.

GettingStarted_L2_ConnectionString_Editor_Filled

Specify the Server Name as https://demos.devexpress.com/Services/OLAP/msmdpump.dll and select the MSOLAP provider. Then, click the Retrieve Schema button.

GettinStarted_L2_RetrieveSchema

Make sure that the following parameters are specified:

Option

Value

Description

Provider

MSOLAP

Identifies the data provider to be used. The “MSOLAP“ string identifies the latest version of the OLE DB provider.

Server Name

https://demos.devexpress.com/Services/OLAP/msmdpump.dll

Specifies either the name of a server that runs an instance of Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), the path to a cube file, or the path to a data pump.

Catalog Name

Adventure Works DW Standard Edition

Specifies a data catalog that contains cubes.

Cube Name

Adventure Works

Specifies the name of a cube that supplies OLAP data.

The image below demonstrates the configured settings of the OLAP connection. Click Finish to close the wizard.

GettinStarted_L2_Wizard

Create and Arrange Pivot Grid Fields

Create fields that correspond to specific measures and dimension levels of the cube in PivotGridControl.

Click the smart tag icon and then click Run Designer… in the popup window.

GettingStarted_L2_RetrieveFields

Use the Add Field button to add Pivot Grid fields and specify their properties in the invoked PivotGrid Designer.

“Country” Field

Create a Pivot Grid field and set its properties to the following values:

DataBinding
Value: Data Source Column
ColumnName
Value: [Customer].[Country].[Country]
AreaIndex
Value: 0
Area
Value: RowArea

“City” Field

Create a Pivot Grid field and set its properties to the following values:

DataBinding
Value: Data Source Column
ColumnName
Value: [Customer].[City].[City]
AreaIndex
Value: 1
Area
Value: RowArea

“Fiscal Year” Field

Create a Pivot Grid field and set its properties to the following values:

DataBinding
Value: Data Source Column
ColumnName
Value: [Date].[Fiscal].[Fiscal Year]
AreaIndex
Value: 0
Area
Value: ColumnArea

“Fiscal Quarter” Field

Create a Pivot Grid field and set its properties to the following values:

DataBinding
Value: Data Source Column
ColumnName
Value: [Date].[Fiscal].[Fiscal Quarter]
AreaIndex
Value: 1
Area
Value: ColumnArea

“Internet Sales Amount” Field

Create a Pivot Grid field and set its properties to the following values:

DataBinding
Value: Data Source Column
ColumnName
Value: [Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]
AreaIndex
Value: 0
Area
Value: DataArea

The image below shows the result.

GettingStarted_L2_RetrievedFields

Close the designer. Pivot grid fields are now arranged as follows:

GettingStarted_L2_OrderedFields

Result

Run the project to see the result.

GettingStarted_L2_Result

More Examples

View Example: How to Connect a Pivot Grid to an OLAP Data Source in Code

See Also