Apparatus and method for accessing diverse native data sources through a metadata interface
A computer readable medium storing executable instructions includes a metadata view module. The metadata view module has a data foundation module to facilitate data abstraction of enterprise data, where the enterprise data is stored in diverse native formats. A business element module facilitates the logical grouping of the enterprise data to form business elements and a business view module facilitates the logical grouping of business elements.
1 . A computer readable medium storing executable instructions, comprising:
a metadata view module including,
a data foundation module to facilitate data abstraction of enterprise data,
wherein said enterprise data is stored in diverse native formats;
a business element module to facilitate the logical grouping of said enterprise data to form business elements; and
a business view module to facilitate the logical grouping of business elements.
2 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said metadata view module facilitates data abstraction of enterprise data stored in a relational data source and an On Line Analytic Processing (OLAP) data source.
3 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said metadata view module facilitates data abstraction of enterprise data stored as a data source selected from the group comprising: legacy data, transactional data, enterprise application data, warehouse data, and custom data.
4 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising a data connection module to facilitate connection to a pre-existing data link and thereby form a view of a pre-existing data channel.
5 . The computer readable medium of claim 4 wherein said data connection module facilitates connection to a development system, a test system, and a production system.
6 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 further comprising a security module to control access to said enterprise data.
7 . The computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein said security module includes filters defined at a data foundation level.
8 . The computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein said security module includes filters defined at a business element level.
9 . The computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein said metadata view module supplies data views in accordance with a dynamic determination of the best data view shape for a specified query.
10 . A method of accessing data, comprising:
accessing enterprise data stored in diverse native formats, wherein accessing includes
logically grouping sub-sets of said enterprise data to form business elements, and
logically combining sub-sets of business elements into a business view.
11 . The method of claim 10 further comprising accessing enterprise data stored in a relational data source and an On Line Analytic Processing (OLAP) data source.
12 . The method of claim 10 further comprising accessing enterprise data stored in a data source selected from the group comprising: legacy data, transactional data, enterprise application data, warehouse data, and custom data.
13 . The method of claim 10 further comprising accessing a pre-existing data link to form a view of a pre-existing data channel.
14 . The method of claim 10 further comprising sequentially accessing a development system, a test system, and a production system.
15 . The method of claim 10 further comprising controlling access to selected data of said enterprise data using object-oriented filters.
16 . The method of claim 15 further comprising controlling access to selected data of said enterprise data using object-oriented filters operative at a data foundation level.
17 . The method of claim 15 further comprising controlling access to selected data of said enterprise data using object-oriented filters operative at a business element level.
18 . The method of claim 10 further comprising supplying data views in accordance with a dynamic determination of the best data view shape for a specified query.