Querying Levels in Dimensions joined to the Facts

Question

I created a location dimension using the standard levels, i.e., region > subregion > country > state > location_id. I then attached it to a sales fact that had the location_id as the key, but when I tried to query the cube by it's levels the only level I see is the location_id level which is at the state. None of the other levels appear or are queryable when I do something like:
SELECT * FROM vw_SALES_CUBE A, vw_LOCATION_DIM B
WHERE A.LOCATION_DIM = B.DIM_KEY
AND A.LEVEL = 'COUNTRY'
Only one level comes up although in the location_dim all the other levels exist the join does not carry them over. The data for the levels appears in the COUNTRY_LONG_DESCRIP column and not in the LEVEL column.
What am I doing wrong. Are there other objects I need to create like an MV.
jrod

Answer 1

I was thinking that is if I created a cube such as the one described in the thread and that I did a query along the LEVEL_NAME that the cube would fetch the data without the need for me to create say MV's aggregateing the data. For example,
/* The following is a basic query against a fact table */
SELECT T.CALENDAR_YEAR_DSC TIME, SUM(F.SALES) SALES
FROM TIME_DIM T, UNITS_FACT F
WHERE T.CALENDAR_YEAR_DSC IN ('2005', '2006')
AND T.MONTH_ID = F.MONTH_ID
GROUP BY T.CALENDAR_YEAR_DSC;
/* The next query fetches the exact same results from a cube using filters: */
SELECT T.LONG_DESCRIPTION TIME, F.SALES SALES
FROM TIME_CALENDAR_VIEW T,
PRODUCT_PRIMARY_VIEW P,
CUSTOMER_SHIPMENTS_VIEW CU,
CHANNEL_PRIMARY_VIEW CH,
UNITS_CUBE_VIEW F
/* Apply filters to every dimension */
WHERE T.LONG_DESCRIPTION IN ('2005', '2006')
AND P.LEVEL_NAME = 'TOTAL'
AND CU.LEVEL_NAME = 'TOTAL'
AND CH.LEVEL_NAME = 'TOTAL'
/* Join dimension views to cube view */
AND T.DIM_KEY = F.TIME
AND P.DIM_KEY = F.PRODUCT
AND CU.DIM_KEY = F.CUSTOMER
AND CH.DIM_KEY = F.CHANNEL
ORDER BY TIME;
In these two queries I fetch the same grain. So why is it that the cube has not precomputed these factors. What do I need to do this?