Method and apparatus for transporting data for data warehousing applications that incorporates analytic data interface
View Patent ↗A method and apparatus for transporting data for a data warehousing application. Data is extracted from one or more source containing data having a standard data structure and is translated into data that contains meaningful business terms. The translated data is then stored. In the present embodiment, an analytic business component is operable for extracting data from the source, translating the extracted data and for storing the translated data into a staging area. The translated data is then processed to obtain data having a common structure. In the present embodiment, a source adapter processes the translated data to obtain data having a common structure. The data having a common structure is then transformed into a format suitable for loading into a data mart. In the present embodiment, an analytic data interface receives the data having a common structure and transforms the data for loading into a data warehouse. The data is then stored in a data warehouse.
1. A method for tracking historical data from different sources, comprising:
processing source-specific data originating at sources with disparate formats into source-independent data with a single, common format;
storing the source-independent data;
automatically determining dimensions of the stored data having historically significant attributes;
in response to a change to a dimension having a historically significant attribute, creating a historical record of the change, wherein creating a historical record of the change further comprises:
creating a first record for the stored dimension having a historically significant attribute;
generating a first key;
associating the first key with the first record;
creating a second record to store the change to the dimension having a historically significant attribute;
re-associating the first key with the second record;
generating a second key; and
associating the second key with the first record.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to a change to a dimension without a historically significant attribute, overwriting the dimension.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing source-specific data originating at sources with disparate formats into source-independent data with a single, common format further comprises:
performing source-related clean up.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein processing source-specific data originating at sources with disparate formats into source-independent data with a single, common format further comprises:
configuring unique key identification information.
5. A computer program product for tracking historical data from different sources, comprising:
a computer-readable medium; and
computer program code, encoded on the medium, for controlling a computer system to perform the operations of:
processing source-specific data originating at sources with disparate formats into source-independent data with a single, common format;
storing the source-independent data;
automatically determining dimensions of the stored data having historically significant attributes; and
in response to a change to a dimension having a historically significant attribute, creating a historical record of the change by:
creating a first record for the dimension having a historically significant attribute;
generating a first key;
associating the first key with the first record;
creating a second record to store the change to the dimension having a historically significant attribute;
re-associating the first key with the second record;
generating a second key; and
associating the second key with the first record.
6. A system for tracking historical data from different sources, comprising:
a source adapter for processing source-specific data originating at sources with disparate formats into source-independent data with a single, common format; and
an analytic data interface for storing the source-independent data, automatically determining dimensions of the stored data having historically significant attributes, and creating a historical record of a change to a dimension having a historically significant attribute, wherein the analytic data interface further comprises:
a record generation module for creating a first record for the dimension having a historically significant attribute and creating a second record to store the change to the dimension having a historically significant attribute;
a key generation module for generating a first key and a second key to uniquely identify records; and
an association module for associating the first key with the first record, re-associating the first key with the second record, and associating the second key with the first record.
7. The computer program product of claim 5 , further comprising computer program code, encoded on the medium, for controlling a computer system to perform the operation of, in response to a change to a dimension without a historically significant attribute, overwriting the dimension.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the analytic data interface is further configured for, in response to a change to a dimension without a historically significant attribute, overwriting the dimension.