Business Intelligence Development Studio (BI Dev Studio) offers a total development environment for BI operations. The majority of your time using SQL Server Data Mining will be invested in business Intelligence Development Studio (BI Dev Studio). This environment is integrated into the Microsoft Visual Studio (VS) shell to supply a total development experience for business intelligence operations. Working inside Visual Studio, a data mining project enters into a collection of projects referred to as a “solution.” Extra tasks needed for your application can be grouped together into this cohesive solution.
For instance, a database administrator (DBA) might develop an Integration Services project to pull the data from your OLTP system and change it into a kind appropriate for data mining. An expert might produce an Analysis Services project containing models that explored and analyzed the transaction data. Finally, a developer could develop a Web service and a Web site, embedding these models in an end-user application and commercializable service. All these jobs can be included inside a single solution including the whole body of the collaborative work. Moreover, all aspects of the work can be caught with total version histories in the source control system.
The User Interface
The BI Dev Studio is developed primarily for developers, with an unstructured method to solution implementation, which is really different from standard data mining tools. This strategy, along with the added intricacy from the fully included development environment, can be intimidating to those knowledgeable about other data mining toolsets. Nevertheless, as soon as you get past the initial shock of dealing with the myriad of choices and windows inherent in Visual Studio, producing and assessing models is relatively easy. The initial step in familiarizing yourself with the BI Dev Studio is understanding which of the different parts of the interface are intriguing and for what they are made use of.
The most important parts of the BI Dev Studio are:
Solution Explorer: Solution Explorer is where you manage your solution and tasks. All items are created and handled in this window. To add objects to your project, you right-click the project name and choose Add New Item, or right-click on a certain folder and choose New. Doing so will launch a dialog or wizard, permitting you to develop the specified object.
Window tabs: The Window tabs permit you to quickly switch in between designer windows. A tab will be displayed for each object or file that is currently open. If more things are open than can appear in the tab location, added windows can be accessed using the down location to the right of the tabs.
Designer window: The Designer window is where you modify and analyze your objects. Producing a new object or double-clicking on an object in Solution Explorer will open that object’s specific designer, permitting you to customize and interact with the object.
Designer tabs: Many items have various aspects that can be edited or communicated with. These elements are shown by tabs within the Designer window.
Properties window: The Properties window is a context-sensitive window that shows homes for the currently chosen product. This is a basic concept in Visual Studio and applies to any type of operation performed within the studio. For instance, choosing an object in Solution Explorer causes properties of that object, such as object ID, filename, and so forth, to be shown. Selecting a column in the Data Mining Designer window triggers column homes, such as name and data type, to be shown. When a product that has no homes is selected, the property window will be empty.
BI menus: The location on the main menu bar between the Debug menu and the Tools menu is where you will find context-sensitive menus particular to Analysis Services things. For example, opening the Data Source View (DSV) Editor will cause Format and Data Source View menus to appear because location.
Output window: The Output window displays messages when you build and deploy projects. If there are mistakes in your project, this is where you will find their descriptions.
Pointer: To make the environment more suitable for your data mining use, you can reorganize the workspace as you please. Clicking and dragging the title bar of any window shows drifting icons that will help you float or dock the window. You can even stack these windows on top of each other, triggering selectable tabs to appear beneath the windows.
As you experiment with different alternatives in the studio, added windows may appear. You can always close the windows you are not interested in– don’t stress, if you require them, they are always readily available from the View menu. If you desire the windows to be easily available, however are running short on screen space, you can click the push pin icon on the window’s title bar and the window will slide out of sight when not in use.
