I only ask as I did a devlopment 2 years back for a reporting dashboard that was SQL Server 2000 -> .cub -> Excel 2003 and struggled to get anything to work. The cube would lock when refreshing causing users to get error messages, the learning curve was a pain as the documentation was minimal (Timothy Zapawa’s ‘Excel Advanced Report Development’ devotes about 20-30 basic pages to it, better than the Excel help file at least) and whilst I was impressed by the possibilities, the difficulties in setting up and supporting the blasted thing made me want to scream!

Or maybe it was done because an MSQ cube is prone to catastrophic failure?

Sam,
My Excel 2007 Help says:
“You can create an offline cube file (.cub) with a subset of the data from an OLAP server database. Use offline cube files to work with OLAP data when you are not connected to your network. A cube enables you to work with larger amounts of data in a PivotTable report or PivotChart report than you could otherwise, and speeds retrieval of the data. You can create cube files only if you use an OLAP provider (OLAP provider: A set of software that provides access to a particular type of OLAP database. This software can include a data source driver and other client software that is necessary to connect to a database.), such as Microsoft SQL Analysis Services Server version 2005, which supports this feature.”
So it looks more restricted than deprecated?

although a first OLAP-encounter can be frustrating, admittedly, to dispel it might be a premature judgment. In fact, once having got used to working with data in / from cubes, one sourly misses it’s ease when it’s NOT available in another working environment. While it may not entirely replace the work with conventional lists or databases, OLAP can indeed enhance a spreadsheet’s capacity dramatically, at least from a controller’s (or similar profession’s) perspective.

The term OLAP describes more of a particular way to organize data than a particular product. There are also various technologies available from different vendors. Thus, what Microsoft calls ‘OLAP’ within Excel so far does not necessarily says all about what is possible, and what external OLAP Add-Ins have to offer. Ease of use, as well as data-modeling capabilities (such as “write-back” and plenty of other non-native Excel features) from 3rd party suppliers can go far beyond those in Office 2003/2007.

Actually, one wonders why Microsoft hasn’t harnessed and built in more of OLAP technology until now. However,’Power Pivot’, announced in conjunction with Office 2010, may change that. Hopefully you don’t give up too early, Dick. In case you dare a second attempt, you might want to try, for example, the free(within limits) “Palo” Excel Add-In (see http://www.jedox.com).

Kind regards,

H.G. Lamy

Sam,
Why has this been deprecated in 2007?

Brilliant error message, you have to admit

/Roy