Offline Cubes

Offline cubes are a new feature in Version 9.1 of XLCubed. They allow you to save a snapshot of a cube locally and access it while not connected to the database server. You can reduce the dimensions, members and measures saved to save space.

Access to this feature is enabled by licence key to control data access. If you want a key with offline cubes enabled please contact support@xlcubed.com

Going offline

If you right-click a cube connection you get the option to go offline.

Picking this takes you to the offline setup screen. Here you pick the measures and dimensions you want to be able to use offline. Objects used in the workbook will be pre-selected, and you can add extra items as you wish. You also need to select a file to save the data to.

To reduce the offline file size, and the time taken to generate it, you can use a member selector to restrict the data downloaded. This is accessed using the button next to each dimension.

Updating the connection

If you right-click an offline cube connection in the connection screen you get the option to go back online, which updates the connection to refer to the original server and database. You can also refresh the offline data, e.g. to get the latest data after an overnight cube process on the server.

If you want to update the dimensions and measures stored offline then you can go online and then back offline, you'll have the chance to update the offline file setup before going back offline.

Publishing to the web

When a report with an offline connection is published to the web, the connection in the published report will be returned online. It is not possible to use XLCubed web reports in offline mode.

Limitations

• Offline cubes are only available on Multidimensional Analysis Services connections.
• Distinct Count measures are not supported.
• Dimensions with binary data are not supported.
• All MDX calculations are created in the offline cube. Calcualtions that reference measures that are not imported can cause MDXScript errors when using the cube file. If this happens then the measures need to be included in the offline cube.