When a data source contains attribute information, you must use one or more rules files to build attribute dimensions and to associate attributes with members of their base dimensions.
You can use rules files to build attribute dimensions dynamically, to add and delete members, and to establish or change attribute associations.
Working with attributes involves the following operations:
You can use any of the following approaches to perform these operations:
Build the base and attribute dimensions and perform the associations all simultaneously. Doing so, you use a single rules file to build the base dimension and one or more attribute dimensions to associate each attribute with the appropriate member of the base dimension. Because this approach uses a single rules file, it can be the most convenient. Use this approach if the base dimension does not exist and each source data record contains all attribute information for each member of the base dimension.
Build the attribute dimension and perform the associations in one rules file. Assuming that the base dimension is built in a separate step or that the base dimension already exists, you can build an attribute dimension and associate the attributes with the members of the base dimension in one step. You need only to define the attribute associations in the rules file. See Associating Attributes.
Build the attribute dimension and then perform the associations using separate rules files. Assuming that the base dimension is built in a separate step or that the base dimension already exists, you can build an attribute dimension and associate the attributes with the members of the base dimension in separate steps. Build the attribute dimension, and then associate the attribute members with members of the base dimension. Use this approach when you build numeric attribute dimensions that are multilevel or that have members that represent different-sized ranges.
The following sections describe how to build attribute dimensions.