Several basic utilities exist for creating components in the Analysis Server: FileWrapper, ExcelWrapper, ScriptWrapper, PerlWrapper, and Java Bean authoring. Each section contains the same basic format: a brief overview that states the purpose of the utility, a terminology section that includes utility-specific terms, and a getting started section that introduces the user to the utility. If the utility possesses a large set of commands and syntax, a complete listing of these appears as a final subtopic.
Table 1 below provides an overview of the advantages and limitations of each utility. FileWrapper can be used whenever a file-in/file-out program must be wrapped. PerlWrapper can be used whenever a simple component, like a data converter or an algebraic equation, must be created. It can be used when the operating system of the server machine supports Perl, and Perl is installed. ExcelWrapper is a special tool that allows authors to publish Excel spreadsheets as Analysis Server components. Finally, Java Beans can be used in general situations to create new components. The essentially unlimited flexibility of Java Beans carries with it the need for programming, so the other three utilities require less effort in many cases. However, Java can wrap just about any piece of software if the author is willing to make the effort. That effort is usually fairly small since the hard work, creating the analysis program, is already done. Additionally, Java can be used create components of arbitrary complexity from scratch.
| Authoring Tool | Purpose | Authoring Complexity |
|---|---|---|
| FileWrapper | Wrapping file-based legacy software and commercial programs | Easy to moderate |
| ExcelWrapper | A utility for publishing Excel spreadsheets as components | Easy |
| ScriptWrapper | A general purpose wrapping tool using any Active Scripting language (such as VBScript or JScript) or the Java language itself | Easy to moderate |
| PerlWrapper | Authoring simple components | Easy |
| Java | Extremely flexible, general purpose wrapping and authoring | Moderate to difficult |
Each of the wrapping utilities has a few optional tags that enable authors to include descriptive information for the component. Since these tags are applied in essentially the same format for all of the utilities, it is useful to describe them here. The wrapping utilities will recognize these tags when placed inside of comment lines and will assign the line of text that comes after each tag to the appropriate field in the component. These tags are:
The Analysis Server stores these items as simple text
strings in all of its components. It does not require standardized
formatting or content in any of these fields. The author is free to
format these fields in according to personal preference or corporate
standards. Multi line descriptions should be formatted as follows:
# @description: This description is just too
# big to fit on one line.
See also Analysis Server| FileWrapper| ExcelWrapper| ScriptWrapper| PerlWrapper| Java Components