Specify cube name in the connection string

Question

I am new to the Analysis services world, and i was wondering why we can't specify the cube name in the connection string?

I am using sql server 2008 R2 and the adomdclient assembly version 10.0.0.0

I read the following article about connections string :

connection string

In the community content, at the end of the article, the cube name parameter is mentioned.

I try to include it in the connection string, but an ArgumentException is thrown at this location

Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.ConnectionInfo.InsertKeyValueIntoHash

Reflector told me that the dictionary containing the connection string parameters names (class MDXMLAPropInfo) did not contain the "cube name" property. I found a "cube" property though.

Maybe the cube name property is a legacy property?

In the Microsoft code sample for cube browsing, i saw that the connection string did not contain the cube name and that a cube collection was browsed.

The cube collection contain the perspectives and the dimensions too... it seems we can get all database information from the adomdconnection instance.

Is the adomdclient API designed for this use? I would find more logical to get only one cube informations if i want to.

Any guess? Any link for me to understand more the analysis API is welcome too.

Best Regards,

Bombinosh

Edit 26/06/14:

Yes, thank you Franck, i got it.

The thing which was bothering me was the ghostly cube name property.

In fact, the cube name property do not exist, but the cube property did.

In my understanding, the cube name is specified in the MDX query. We can specifying the cube name in the connection string for specific need ( as related in the analysis services thread below)

msdn analysis service thread

It seems the cube name has to be set in the connection string if the CLEAR CALCULATIONS command is used.

There may be other cases but this is the only one i know right now.

Answer 1

conceptionally, you connect to a database (also called catalog in other contexts). And then you state the cube in each statement that accesses one (like SELECT ... FROM [cube]). Analysis Services/XMLA/MDX sees the cube somewhat similar to the concept of table in a relational database, and perspectives similar to a view.

Frank