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Specifying OLAP Cubes on XML Data
(Abstract)
On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) enables analysts to gain insight
into data through fast and interactive access to a variety of possible
views on information, organized in a dimensional model. The demand for
data integration is rapidly becoming larger as more and more
information sources appear in modern enterprises. In the data
warehousing approach, selected information is extracted in advance and
stored in a repository. This approach is used because of its high
performance. However, in many situations a logical (rather than
physical) integration of data is preferable. Previous web-based data
integration efforts have focused almost exclusively on the logical
level of data models, creating a need for techniques focused on the
conceptual level. Also, previous integration techniques for web-based
data have not addressed the special needs of OLAP tools such as
handling dimensions with hierarchies.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is fast becoming the new standard for
data representation and exchange on the World Wide Web. The rapid
emergence of XML data on the web, e.g., business-to-business (B2B)
e-commerce, is making it necessary for OLAP and other data analysis
tools to handle XML data as well as traditional data formats.
Based on a real-world case study, this paper presents an approach to
the conceptual specification of OLAP DBs based on web data. Unlike
previous work, this approach takes special OLAP issues such as
dimension hierarchies and correct aggregation of data into
account. Additionally, an integration architecture that allows the
logical integration of XML and relational data sources for use by OLAP
tools is presented.
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