Automatic Synthesis and Presentation of OLAP Cubes from Semantically Enriched Data Sources

Abstract

This system comprises methods that simplify the creation of multidimensional OLAP models from one or more semantically enabled data sources. The system also comprises methods enabling interoperability between existing OLAP end-user interfaces, the system's representation of OLAP and the underlying data sources. This includes web-enabled OLAP interfaces.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method of organizing data storage executed by a computer system comprised of one or more computers comprising:
 receiving data representing a database schema;   generating a first data structure that encodes an ontological representation derived from the received database schema;   receiving data representing an OLAP cube data structure associated with an at least one cube dimension label;   generating a second data structure representing a mapping from the first data structure to the at least one OLAP cube dimension labels;   storing the second data structure;   receiving data representing a data search query compatible with the OLAP cube data structure; and   translating the received query to a data search query compatible with a database that uses the received schema by using the generated second data structure.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 generating and storing a third data structure comprised of data elements associated with corresponding attributes that complies with the ontological representation derived from the database schema, where the data elements are allocated to locations in the third data structure in accordance with the ontological representation. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  where the step of generating a first data structure that encodes an ontological representation is comprised of extracting an ontological representation from the received database schema. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  where the received data representing a database schema is a descriptor file; and where the step of generating a first data structure that encodes an ontological representation is comprised of parsing the descriptor file. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  where the descriptor file is a SQL ddl file. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  where the step of generating a first data structure that encodes an ontological representation is comprised of parsing a database schema descriptor file. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of extracting the at least one cube dimension label by parsing an OLAP cube definition file associated with the OLAP cube data structure. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  where the OLAP cube definition file is a data structure representing a hierarchy of labels. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  where the step of generating a second mapping data structure is further comprised of encoding a hierarchy of labels associated with the OLAP cube data structure. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  where the generating a second mapping data structure step is further comprised of generating a data that represents a graph. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  where the generated second mapping data structure encodes the graph in the form of a matrix, where the values in the matrix represent the edges of the graph, said edges being connections between one or more vertices in the graph. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10  where the generated second mapping data structure encodes the graph in the form of a list of edges of the graph, said edges being connections between one or more vertices in the graph. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10  where the generated second mapping data structure encodes the graph in the form of a set based data structure, where each member of the set is a pair of elements, the first element corresponding to a first vertex in the graph and the second element a list of at least one edges that connect the first vertex to at least one second vertex. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  where the generating a second mapping data structure step is further comprised of generating a spanning tree. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising: translating a source information to an end-user representation as a bidirectional translation. 
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising encoded program code that when executed by a computer system causes the computer system to execute any of the methods of  claims 3 - 15 . 
     
     
         17 . A computer system comprised of a data memory comprising:
 a module adapted by logic to receive data representing a first data search query compatible with an OLAP data source;   a data processing module adapted by logic to automatically generate a data structure stored in the data memory that encodes an ontological representation derived from a database schema stored in the computer system that is associated with a database; and   a data processing module adapted by logic to automatically translate the received first query into a second data search query by using the generated data structure derived from the database schema associated with the database.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  further comprising:
 the database associated with the database schema; and 
 a data processing module adapted by logic to submit the translated second data search query to the database. 
 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18  further comprising:
 a data processing module adapted by logic to map the ontological representation derived from the stored database schema to at least one of the dimensions of the OLAP cube data source using the output of the module adapted by logic to automatically generate the data structure. 
 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 17  where the generating module is further adapted by logic to parse a descriptor file associated with the database schema. 
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20  where the descriptor file is a SQL ddl file. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 17  further comprising:
 a module adapted by logic to parse a definition file associated with the OLAP data source. 
 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 17  where the database schema is a relational database schema. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 17  further comprising a relational database where the database schema is the schema associated with the relational database. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 17  where the where the generating module is further adapted by logic to extract at least one cube dimension label from the OLAP data source. 
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 17  where the generating module is further adapted by logic to create and store a data structure that represents a graph where said graph encodes the generated mapping.