Action Types

Actions are a new feature of Analysis Services that can link more detailed information to an OLAP cube. Here are the names and descriptions of the action types.

Command line: Executes a command line. With it, you could start virtually any program with command-line parameters to initialize the program with the relevant information. For example, a command-line action on a product name could bring up an inventory program that displays current inventory and order status information.

Statement: Executes an OLE DB command that either succeeds or fails, but doesn't return a result. Examples are data-definition commands such as CREATE MEMBER or DROP MEMBER.

HTML: Contains HTML to open in an Internet browser. The client application stores the HTML in a temporary file and launches the user's default browser to display it.

URL: Similar to the HTML action, except that it contains a URL instead of HTML. The URL action is useful for linking cube meta data to intranet or Internet sites.

Dataset: Contains an MDX query that returns a data set. The data set can be on a different cube in the same database as the action. This action type is useful for linking users to different but related cubes.

Rowset: Contains an OLE DB command like the statement and dataset types, but this command returns a rowset. The rowset action might contain a drillthrough command or a standard SQL query.

Proprietary: Can contain anything you want it to. You use it for a custom action that the analysis application can recognize for special behavior that doesn't fit into one of the other categories.