What is SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio?

SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio is Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 with additional project types that are specific to SQL Server 2005 business intelligence. Business Intelligence Development Studio is the primary environment that you will use to develop business solutions that include Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services projects. Each project type supplies templates for creating the objects required for business intelligence solutions, and provides a variety of designers, tools, and wizards to work with the objects.

Accessibility in SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio

Business Intelligence Development Studio includes the following features to make it easier for people with disabilities to develop business intelligence solutions:

• Keyboard shortcuts in Business Intelligence Development Studio for navigation and for working with solutions and projects.
• Ability to customize keyboard layouts, set font color and size, and turn on high contrast mode by using options in the Visual Studio environment.
• Support for the Active Accessibility interface.

Analysis Services in Business Intelligence Development Studio

The design surface in Business Intelligence Development Studio is specialized for each object that you work with in Analysis Services. For example, there is a designer for working with data mining models, called Data Mining Designer, and another designer for working with cubes, called Cube Designer. Solution Explorer, located to the right of the design surface, provides a mechanism for navigating between design surfaces and managing the items within a project. Business Intelligence Development Studio also contains a deployment window that displays the progress of a deployment, and a Properties window, allowing you to change the properties of selected objects.

The Solution Explorer contains the following project items when you open a new Analysis Services project:

• Data Sources folder.
• Data Source Views folder.
• Cubes.
• Dimensions.
• Mining Structures.
• Roles.
• Assemblies.
• Miscellaneous folder.

Analysis Services Designers

The following designers can be used in an Analysis Services project in Business Intelligence Development Studio. To use a designer, open its associated project item in Solution Explorer.

• Data Source View Designer: provides an environment that you can use to add and remove objects, designate logical primary columns, define relationships between tables, replace tables with other tables or with named queries, and add named calculations to existing tables in the data source view.
• Cube Designer: provides an environment to configure the cube and the objects in the cube. For international applications, you can add translations for Analysis Services objects. For processed cubes, you can browse the cube structure and view data.
• Dimension Designer: provides an environment to configure the dimension and the objects in the dimension. For international applications, you can add translations for the dimension metadata. For processed dimensions, you can browse the dimension structure and view data.
• Data Mining Designer: provides an environment that you can use to create, explore, and work with data mining models.

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