About Add-ins

Microsoft® Management Console (MMC) is used by Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 Analysis Services and other server software and services to offer a consistent user interface. Analysis Services provides a snap-in program that operates within MMC and calls the Microsoft OLAP Services Add-ins Manager library, which in turn calls registered add-ins. The Analysis Manager user interface is implemented as an add-in and is called by the Analysis Services Add-Ins Manager in the same way that your custom add-in will be called. The functionality for the Analysis Services Add-In Manager is supplied by the Microsoft OLAP Services Add-Ins Manager library, named Msmdadin.dll.

Your add-in can add nodes to the structure in the tree pane as the user selects or expands a node and can augment node menus with items that will cause your program to be called when those items are selected. Analysis Manager allows multiple custom add-ins to be registered and operating at the same time.

Some ideas for custom add-ins are:

• Reporting tools

  You can use custom add-ins to create reports on multidimensional meta data or usage-based analysis.

• Scheduling tools

  You can use custom add-ins to create scheduling tools that handle automatic routine administrative activities.

• Maintenance tools

  You can create custom add-ins to back up data and meta data.

• Copying and transferring

  You can create custom add-ins to transfer data from a multidimensional data source to a spreadsheet or other analysis tool.