Excel OLAP Report losing layout after migration

I have big numbers of OLAP Excel (Pivot tables) report and very complex.

Finally I am able to move my olap database from AS 2000 to AS 2005 after fixing some know issues some specific to my database.

Now the big challenge is all Excel 2002 reports should work un touched. I am using Excel Macro to update connection string in all Excel file but I can not afford to redesign all of them. Redesigning Excel report will almost kill my AS 2005 migration project.

After changing pivot table connection from 2000 database to 2005 database, when I refresh pivot table I am losing my reports layout. In my "Field List" all shared dimensions and measures has exact same names after refresh.

Looks it's ok for most of the dimensions but all shared dimensions had Hierarchy name like Company.Vendor , Company.Employee in AS 2000 has this issue in AS 2005.

After migration I do had to fix all Hierarchy shared dimensions because all came in AS 2005 as Company 1, Company 2.

Any idea what I should try to do fix them.

Thank you - Ashok

Macro to change Excel PivotTable connection from AS 2000 to AS 2005

With ActiveCell.PivotTable.PivotCache
Response = MsgBox("Current Connection: " & .Connection)
.Connection = Replace(.Connection, "MSOLAP.2", "MSOLAP.3")
.Connection = Replace(.Connection, "AS2000DB_Name", "AS2005DB_Name")
Response = MsgBox("New Connection: " & .Connection)
End With

Hello. Most respect to your situation but we have had this discusssion a few days ago here: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1061202&SiteID=1

Kind regards

Thomas Ivarsson

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Thanks Thomas.

There is one way to fix this. It worked for me however still there are some open issues but may be it's in my case only.

Let's say we have Hierarchy shared dimensions in AS 2000

Company.Vendor

Company.Employee

Company.Location

Once we run the migration in AS 2005 we see dimensions like

Company (Hierarchy name Vendor)

Company 1 (Hierarchy name Employee)

Company 2 (Hierarchy name Location)

What I did before, I renamed them "Company Vendor", "Comapny Employee" and "Company Location". That created issues of losing layout in Excel Pivot table report.

This is what I tested and worked to fix Excel Pivot report losing layout issue.

- After migration create a dimension "Company" or user first one "Company" dimension, in that dimension create three Hierarchy "Vendor", "Employee" and "Location". If you use existing "Company" dimension then add two new "Employee" and "Location"

- Remove all Company dimensions from cubes

- Add new Company dimension which has more the one Hierarchy

- Process cube

- Open Old Excel Pivot table report which runs fine with AS 2000 cube

- Run macro to change connection to AS 2005

- Refresh report

You should see "Filed list" changed now "Company Vendor" DIM will be only "Vendor" but the big deal is you don't lose reports layout.

It worked for me I still have open issue that I have 5 cubes and one Cube with 5 Linked Cubes (like Virtual Cube in 2000). I don't know why I am not able to add my new "Company" dimension to my Virtual Cube.

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Hello Ashok. The cube migration wizard(AS2000 to SSAS2005) will only copy the structures in AS2000 and do its best to make it fit in SSAS2005. You are already aware of this as I can see.

Another problem that you might see is that some MDX will no longer work as expected.

If you have several customer dimensions in AS2000 you will still have several customer dimensions in SSAS2005. But one design fundamental is that you can have one customer dimension in SSAS2005 with several user hierarchies in that dimension.

Attribute relations is another fundamental thing in SSAS2005 that I do not think that the migration wizard will get right.

In SSAS2005 you no longer have virtual cubes but a logical cube with one or several measure groups(fact tables)

I have done some migration projects and I have always recommended my customers to avoid the migation wizard and redesign the AS2000 cubes according to what is best in SSAS2005. I think that this have been the best approach.

This is the best chance you will have to improve you AS2000 cubes.

Regards

Thomas Ivarsson