First published on MSDN on May 12, 2010
(This post was contributed by John Burrows, Lead Program Manager for the MDS Team)
A couple of new samples have been posted to the MSDN Code Gallery; two sample models that illustrate recursive and explicit cap hierarchies and a Visual Studio solution that contains an example of calling the Model Deployment API via code.
Sample Models
Employees
The Employee sample model contains the employees of a fictitious Winery “Coho Winery” that has a legal structure in the form of three subsidiaries and an operating structure in the form of four operating groups.
You can download the model from MSDN Code Gallery here:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SSMDSEmployeeSample
Once you unzip the .pkg file you can deploy it to your MDS system using the Model Deployment Wizard. For more information about using the Model Deployment Wizard, see “Deploying Models (Master Data Services)” (
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff486956(SQL.105).aspx
) in SQL Server Books Online.
Recursive derived hierarchies are illustrated in the model in three hierarchies:
1. “Reports to” hierarchy. This hierarchy is a simple recursive hierarchy built on the Employee entity and Manager domain-based attribute.
2. “Operating groups” hierarchy. This hierarchy is also a recursive hierarchy that adds the Group domain-based attribute on top of the recursive Employee-Manager relationship.
3. “Subsidiaries” hierarchy. Again, here is another recursive hierarchy that adds the Subsidiary domain-based attribute on top of the Group domain-based attribute on top of the recursive Employee-Manager relationship.
For more information about recursive hierarchies, see “Recursive Hierarchies (Master Data Services)” (
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff487006(SQL.105).aspx)
in SQL Server Books Online.
Accounts
The Accounts sample model contains the employees of a fictitious multi-national company, Contoso Pharmaceuticals, which has general ledger systems located in various locations across the globe.
You can download the model from MSDN Code Gallery here:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SSMDSAccountSample
Once you unzip the .pkg file you can deploy it to your MDS system using the Model Deployment Wizard.
The local general ledger systems in the company have different charts of accounts. The “Corporate” hierarchy in the sample illustrates how a derived hierarchy with an explicit cap can be used to establish a standard corporate chart of accounts that combines the local differing chart of accounts. The hierarchy uses the derived relationship between the account and subsidiary account entities and the explicit hierarchy “base” to standardize the rollup of the corporate chart of accounts.
For more information about derived hierarchies with explicit caps, see “Derived Hierarchies with Explicit Caps (Master Data Services)” (
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff486988(SQL.105).aspx)
in SQL Server Books Online
Model Deployment API code sample
Deploying the sample
This sample illustrates calling the Model Deployment API via code with a simple console application demonstrating a couple of common methods. You can download the sample here:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ModelDApiSample
Once you download the sample and unzip it, you will need to perform a couple of steps to successfully build the Visual Studio project. These steps are also documented in the readme in the .zip file.
The sample has the following external dependencies:
· Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Core.dll
· Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Deployment.dll
· Microsoft.MasterDataServices.Services.dll
In order to build the solution, you will need to adjust the project references to point to these binaries in your Master Data Services deployment.
You will also need to update the ConnectionString in ModelDUtil.config to point to your deployed database. Please be sure not to change the name of the connection -- that should be left as "defaultMdsConnection". Also, ModelDUtil.config must be located in the same folder as ModelDUtil.exe.
Running the sample
The console application can be run with the following commands:
ModelDUtil [mode] [params]
where [mode] is one of the following:
ListModels -- returns a list of all the user models in the target system
ModelDUtil ListModels
ListVersions -- returns a list of the versions for a given model
ModelDUtil ListVersions [model name]
CreatePackage -- create a package file for a given model
ModelDUtil CreatePackage [output package file name] [model name] [version name]
DeployClone -- deploys a clone of a model from a given package
ModelDUtil DeployClone [input package file name]
DeployNew -- deploys a model from a given package with the new given name
ModelDUtil DeployNew [input package file name] [new model name]
DeployUpdate -- deploys an update to a given version of a model from a given package
ModelDUtil DeployUpdate [input package file name] [version name to update]
DeleteModel -- deletes a given model
ModelDUtil DeleteModel [model name]
Help -- displays the help
ModelDUtil Help
Note: names that contain spaces should be wrapped with double quotation marks. For Example: ModelDUtil DeployUpdate mypackage.pkg "Version 1"
For more information about the API, see the Model Deployment API reference (
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.masterdataservices.deployment(SQL.105).aspx)
...
in SQL Server Books Online.
