Cube Builds but gets an error on deployment (DDL300_300: FormatString Line Element cannot appear under...

Question

I am deploying a cube after changing a number of measures and dimensions.  The Cube builds sucessfully (warnings only) with no errors.  When the cube deploys I get an error message as follows:

Error 17 The ddl300_300:FormatString element at line 11558, column 41 (namespace http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2011/engine/300/300) cannot appear under Envelope/Body/Execute/Command/Batch/Alter/ObjectDefinition/Database/Dimensions/Dimension/Attributes/Attribute.

I am using Visual 2010 and the SQL Server is SQL2008R2.

I think this error means that the XML that is being sent to the server to deploy the cube has an XML element in it in a place that is not expected under the 300/300 engine schema.

 How can I fix this?  Is there a good way to get to the XML that VS2010 is sending to the server so that I can see what line 11558 column 41 is?

Thank You in advance for any help you can provide

Answer 1

Ok all...  Looks like when I update the FormatString of a couple of Attributes, some fun stuff like this got placed into the dimension file I had:

    <Attribute dwd:design-time-name="c5360e60-a2d3-4d15-aaf8-47b493d5341c">
      <ID>Calendar Week End</ID>
      <Name>Calendar Week End</Name>
      <KeyColumns>
        <KeyColumn dwd:design-time-name="cf652987-2ce3-4d9f-8cbc-278ea44e3427">
          <DataType>Date</DataType>
          <Source xsi:type="ColumnBinding" dwd:design-time-name="f00052f2-d02d-429e-9160-940633332ee5">
            <TableID>dbo_vDimDate</TableID>
            <ColumnID>CalendarWeekEnd</ColumnID>
          </Source>
        </KeyColumn>
      </KeyColumns>
      <OrderBy>Key</OrderBy>
      <ddl200:ProcessingState>Unprocessed</ddl200:ProcessingState>
      <ddl300:AttributeHierarchyProcessingState>Unprocessed</ddl300:AttributeHierarchyProcessingState>
      <ddl300_300:FormatString>M/d/yyyy</ddl300_300:FormatString>

So I just deleted out the "offending" and now I am back in the pink...  Perhaps my deployment model was in the 11.0 format?  I don't know but I think I am on to other problems.

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Jeremy Sechler

Answer 2

I ran into a similar issue. What worked for me was to download the latest version of BIDSHelper. I suspect a problem with BIDS or BIDSHelper caused my issue in the first place, but getting the latest version resolved it for me... for now.