SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING DATA WAREHOUSE METADATA EXTENSION USING AN EXTENDER

• US 20110295794A1
• Filed: 05/03/2011
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Venkatasubramanian, Raghuram, Chowdhury, Saugata, Vigeant, Jacques, Bolsius, Roger, Pan, Harvard, Mascarenhas, Alextair, Venkata, Ananth, Surendran, Venugopal
• Granted Patent: US 8,433,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/602
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/283 Multi-dimensional databases or data warehouses, e.g. MOLAP or ROLAP

Abstract

An extender associated with a data warehouse can support metadata extension for the data warehouse. The extender can create an ETL extension plan for extending the data warehouse. The ETL extension plan includes one or more ETL plan elements that indicate extensions on ETL metadata objects. The one or more ETL plan elements within the ETL extension plan can be ordered, and ETL metadata extension can be performed based on the ETL extension plan.

Claims

1. A method for supporting extract, transform, and load (ETL) metadata extension for a data warehouse, comprising:

creating an ETL extension plan for the data warehouse, wherein the ETL extension plan includes one or more ETL plan elements that indicate extensions on ETL metadata objects;

ordering the one or more ETL plan elements within the ETL extension plan; and

performing ETL metadata extension based on the ETL extension plan in order to extend the data warehouse.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

allowing each said ETL plan element to be a high level element that is conceptual or abstract.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

reading in a plan template in order to generate the ETL extension plan plan, wherein the plan template contains one or more plan elements that has a creation mode.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

resolving dependencies among the one or more plan elements, before ordering the one or more plan elements.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

deleting the ETL extension plan.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the creating step to include steps of

generating an initial level plan;

reading metadata from the data warehouse in order to refine the initial level plan into a more specific plan; and

generating a final plan based on one or more rules based on the refined more specific plan.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

processing the one or more plan elements differently for different underlying data warehouse, wherein the one or more plan elements are independent from any particular data warehouse.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

converting each said plan element into a detailed set of internal extension metadata for a particular data warehouse.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

reading in one or more specific templates for a particular data warehouse and making incremental changes to the metadata associated with the particular data warehouse.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

representing extension metadata in XML document that is shipped to an end user'"'"'s site.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

relying on template processing to create a extension flow that can be represented in a delta map, which is merged with an actual map to transfer one or more extension changes to the actual map representing a particular data warehouse.

12. A system for supporting extract, transform, and load (ETL) metadata extension for a data warehouse, comprising:

one or more processors;

an extender, running on the one or more processors, that is capable of

creating an ETL extension plan for the data warehouse, wherein the ETL extension plan includes one or more ETL plan elements that indicate extensions on ETL metadata objects;

ordering the one or more ETL plan elements within the ETL extension plan; and

performing ETL metadata extension based on the ETL extension plan in order to extend the data warehouse.

13. A machine readable medium having instructions for supporting extract, transform, and load (ETL) metadata extension for a data warehouse stored thereon that when executed cause a system to:

create an ETL extension plan for the data warehouse, wherein the ETL extension plan includes one or more ETL plan elements that indicate extensions on ETL metadata objects;

order the one or more ETL plan elements within the ETL extension plan; and

perform ETL metadata extension based on the ETL extension plan in order to extend the data warehouse.