from many rows, create 1 - question on using functions

[stuwhalen]

 :-[    - Novice Here... Needs more help...  :-[

In the Foundation view (or Data Layer)

I have Order_header table (one row per order)
I have an Order_detail table (one row per order and item-ordered).  The Order_detail table has things like shipping_date and weight and other interesting things.

I'd like to add some fields to my Order_header_Fact in my consolidation view (or Business Layer).  Things like:

- first_ship_date    -- which is minimum(Order_Detail.Shipping_date), for order_number
- last_ship_date    -- which is maximum Order_Detail.Shipping_date), for order_number
- total_order_ship_weight  -- sum (Order_detail.weight) Group by Order_number

I can create these functions BUT ...I do not get 1 row per Order.  For each order I get the number of rows found on the Order_Detail.

[stuwhalen]

To the user community, after some struggles, I came up with this solution ... but, is there a better solution out there?

On the database itself, I created a view with the summary information I need from the order_detail file, and saved the view.  Then, I ran the metadata wizard and imported the view. After that I was able to create a new query subject in the metadata layer.

It seems cumbersome, but it works.  Any better ideas?