How to use Dimension in Spoon

[kettle_anonymous]

Attachment: Database_Loyalty.pdf (http://forums.pentaho.org/archived_att/kettle/Database_Loyalty.pdf) After studying the user's guide, I still have no idea about how to use Dimension, such
as where is the position of Dimension in a ETL steps.
I think it will be better to add an example in the Dimension section.
Thanks.

[MattCasters]

Attachment: Database_Loyalty.pdf (http://forums.pentaho.org/archived_att/kettle/Database_Loyalty.pdf) Typically, you read source data, let's take for example a customer.
Then you "enrich" that customer data with everything you can find: categories, types, code descriptions, ...
Finally when you have all the fields that you want to put in the slowly changing dimension, you add the dimension step.

What you can also do is populate a dimension and a fact table together, because the Dimension Lookup step also gives back a technical/surrogate key when doing updates.

This is all documented, but of-course, basic knowledge of data warehousing, multi-dimensional modelling and slowly changing dimensions is required.

In attachement, I included a presentation I did a couple of months ago for the Belgan Direct Marketing Assosiation (BDMA) on the subject of BI and data warehousing.

[MattCasters]

Some Ralph Kimball (http://www.ralphkimball.com) links to help you with Dimensional Modelling:


Articles for IntelligentEnterprise.com:

Fact Tables and Dimension Tables (http://www.intelligententerprise.com/030101/602warehouse1_1.jhtml;jsessionid=01FYSKH33XWI2QSNDBCSKH0CJUMEKJVN?/data_warehousing%7Cware)
An Engineer's View (http://www.intelligententerprise.com/020726/512warehouse1_1.jhtml;jsessionid=01FYSKH33XWI2QSNDBCSKH0CJUMEKJVN?/data_warehousing%7Cware)
Two Powerful Ideas (http://www.intelligententerprise.com/020917/515warehouse1_1.jhtml;jsessionid=01FYSKH33XWI2QSNDBCSKH0CJUMEKJVN?/data_warehousing%7Cware)
...

Articles for the now disapeared DBMS Magazine:

A dimensional Modelling Manifesto (http://www.dbmsmag.com/9708d15.html)
Surrogate Keys (http://www.dbmsmag.com/9805d05.html)
It's Time for Time (http://www.dbmsmag.com/9707d05.html)
Slowly Changing Dimensions (http://www.dbmsmag.com/9604d05.html)
Factless Fact Tables (http://www.dbmsmag.com/9609d05.html)


Book references:
The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling (Second Edition) (Paperback) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471200247/qid=1135888978/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4834122-2506207?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)
The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit : Expert Methods for Designing, Developing, and Deploying Data Warehouses (Paperback) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471255475/qid=1135888978/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-4834122-2506207?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)

Or just ask me if you have specific questions...

Best regards,

Matt