A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for using a relational database management system to support on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems. A multi-dimensional database is represented as a relational schema in the relational database. The multi-dimensional database has one or more dimensions. Each dimension has one or more members. The relational schema includes a fact table and one or more related dimension tables. Additionally, the fact table has a dimension column for all but one of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional database and a value column for each member of the remaining dimension. The fact table also has at least one row that contains values corresponding to the intersection of the members identified by the dimension columns and the members associated with the value columns.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to the following co-pending and commonly-assigned patent applications:
Application Ser. No. 08/885,112, entitled "MAPPING DENSE DATA BLOCKS TO ROWS IN A RELATIONAL DATABASE," filed on same date herewith, pending.
Application Ser. No. 08/885,409, entitled "RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATA," filed on same date herewith, pending.
Application Ser. No. 08/884,695, entitled "RELATIONAL DATABASE MODIFICATIONS BASED ON MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATABASE MODIFICATIONS," filed on same date herewith, allowed.
Application Ser. No. 08/885,417, entitled "RELATIONAL EMULATION OF A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATABASE INDEX," filed on same date herewith, pending.
Application Ser. No. 08/885,410, entitled "ATTRIBUTE-BASED ACCESS FOR MULTI-DIMENSIONAL DATABASES," filed on same date herewith, allowed.
all of which applications are incorporated by reference herein.
A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for using a relational database management system to support on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems. A multi-dimensional database is defined having a set of multi-dimensional data blocks and a set of identifiers comprising selected dimensions of multi-dimensional data for identifying particular ones of the multi-dimensional data blocks. The set of identifiers provides an ordering of the multi-dimensional data blocks using multi-dimensional member identifiers and holds usage information and age information about the multi-dimensional data blocks. The data in the set of multi-dimensional data blocks is stored in a relational database that represents the multi-dimensional database. Then, a set of rows representing a multi-dimensional data block is accessed from the relational database. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention leverages MOLAP performance for ROLAP objects (dimensions, partitions and aggregations) by building, in a background process, a MOLAP equivalent of that object. When the background processing completes, queries are switched from ROLAP queries to MOLAP queries. When changes occur to relevant relational objects (such as tables that define content of OLAP objects), an OLAP object is switched back to a ROLAP mode, and all relevant caches are dropped while, as a background process, a new MOLAP equivalent is created.
Developing an ETL system for transforming data prior to loading the data into a data warehouse. An embodiment of the invention automatically generates configuration files from an input data flow diagram defining the ETL system. The configuration files or other metafiles control execution of the processes illustrated in the data flow diagram. The invention includes a notation for use in the data flow diagram.
A planning system and method for dynamically generating an invisible hierarchy during a planning session in an OLAP type tool. The planning system comprises: (1) a loading mechanism for loading a plan segment, wherein the plan segment is a portion of a plan cube and comprises data, rules, and a defined hierarchy within a dimension; (2) a checking mechanism for determining whether any of the rules associated with the plan segment reference data outside of the plan segment; and (3) a mechanism for creating an invisible hierarchy, wherein the invisible hierarchy comprises the defined hierarchy and at least one ancestor of a top member of the defined hierarchy.
A web-based data access system is described that allows users to easily access, manipulate and share information. The users can access the system to create customized view of the data and share the views with others. The data access system includes a database for storing multidimensional data. Electronic reports are stored as report object on a server and define dimensions and members of multidimensional data that are included in an electronic report. A page generation module executes on the server to access the multidimensional data and format a web page based on the report object. A packet engine communicates the web page to a client device in a stream of packets for display to the user.
