Oracle OLAP dbms_aw_xml

Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

XML Support for Analytic Workspace (AW)
Mike Ault

In general, there are three basic OLAP development interfaces. They are OLAP java interface, SQL and PL-SQL interface, and OLAP DML interface. The 10g database release focuses more on improving the SQL and PL-SQL interface by providing XML access and expanding the power of SQL user.

Oracle Database 10g includes a new set of XML metadata and associated PL/SQL packages for SQL users to define simple multi-dimensional models and load data into data models. These procedures also help to perform advanced OLAP calculations on the loaded data.

The 10g release introduces the new package dbms_aw_xml, which comes with a comprehensive set of functions. This package allows you to create the Analytic Workspace (AW) and execute the calculations specified in the XML metadata.

New Package dbms_aw_xml

The dbms_aw_xml contains the following functions:

Prior to 10g, the cwm_to_ecm olap dml package used to read the metadata from the cwm lite catalog and used it to create an Analytic Workspace. This package can now read XML metadata and produce corresponding Analytic Workspace/s. It indicates that the Analytic Workspace created by CwM metadata and produced from the XML metadata have the same structure and follows the same conventions.