BBDW/OLAP Extensibility Model

The OLAP extensibility model covers three broad areas: Revisions, ETL, and OLAP Extensions. The extensibility model supports revisions so that you can extend the database in a structured fashion that follows Blackbaud's methodology. ETL is supported to move transactional data to the warehouse. OLAP Extensions enable extensions to the cube alone. For example, you may want to add a calculation that does not include database or package updates. For these areas, we recommend some best practices:

• Extend the database through revisions specs. For more information, see Parts of a Revisions Spec

• Follow the numbering scheme established by Blackbaud Product Development and Professional Services for revisions. For more information, see Database Revisions Process for BBDW Database

• Include a specification to reset ETL in every revisions spec. For more information, see Revisions Spec: Reset

• Following the naming convention established for extensions by Blackbaud Professional Services, BBDW_<table name>_EXT.For more information, see ETL SSIS Packages

• Create a Business Intelligence project with Visual Studio. Visual Studio 2010 does not support Business Intelligence projects, so you must install a version of Visual Studio with support for Business Intelligence projects. For more information, see Create a Business Intelligence Project.

Tip: Before you implement the extension, establish best practices for how you identify your reporting needs and model your data.

Note: The data warehouse and cube are populated using administrator level privileges. This means that the security roles defined in the core system are not explicitly respected by the reporting tools. You control access to specific data for your end users by crafting reports with the appropriate filters and then exposing those reports to the appropriate system role.