Managing large OLAP in an analytical context

1. A method of managing a large Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) report, the method comprising:

segmenting, by a computing device, a set of members of interest that is represented by an OLAP report according to an OLAP model to define one or more discrete segments;

determining, by the computing device, an interest degree of each discrete segment, wherein the interest degree comprises one of greater interest or lesser interest;

generating a summarized representation of each discrete segment that is determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest, wherein the summarized representation comprises an aggregation of the corresponding discrete segment; and

presenting a report that includes detailed representations of members of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of greater interest and that includes the summarized representation of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein segmenting comprises assigning each member of the set to a single discrete segment.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein segmenting comprises analyzing one or more filters applied to the set by a user for segmentation of the set of members based on the filters.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein determining the interest degree comprises determining that the interest degree of a discrete segment containing members specified by the filters comprises a greater interest, and that the interest degree of a discrete segment containing members filtered out by the filters comprises a lesser interest.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein generating a summarized representation comprises aggregating the members that are filtered out.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

providing additional data items that describe data of the members of the set.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein

providing additional data comprises generating a subtotal of the members of the discrete segment of greater interest, and

presenting comprises presenting the members of the discrete segment of greater interest with the subtotal.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein

providing additional data comprises generating an overall summary of all the members of the set, and

presenting comprises presenting the overall summary.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising providing to a discrete segment a fixed context property having a data item reference.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a summarized representation comprises calculating, by the computing device, the aggregation of the corresponding discrete segment, and calculating members of the corresponding discrete segment.

11. A method comprising:

retrieving data from a multidimensional database that stores data according to an Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) model;

receiving a definition of a greater interest and a definition of a lesser interest;

segmenting, by a computing device, the data into a plurality of discrete segments according to interest degrees, a first discrete segment of the plurality of discrete segments corresponding to data having a greater interest and a second discrete segment of the plurality of discrete segments corresponding to data having a lesser interest, by assigning portions of the data that match the definition of the greater interest to the first discrete segment and assigning portions of the data that match the definition of the lesser interest to the second discrete segment;

summarizing, by the computing device, the data of the second discrete segment by aggregating the data of the second discrete segment; and

presenting an OLAP report representative of the data, wherein the OLAP report includes a detailed representation of the data of the first discrete segment and the summarized data of the second discrete segment.

12. A computing system comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for a segment manager, an interest degree manager, a representation manager, and a display manager;

a display; and

a processor to execute the instructions for the segment manager, the interest degree manager, the representation manager, and the display manager,

wherein the segment manager is configured to segment a set of members of interest that is represented by an OLAP report according to an OLAP model to define one or more discrete segments,

wherein the interest degree manager is configured to determine an interest degree of each discrete segment, wherein the interest degree comprises one of greater interest or lesser interest;

wherein the representation manager is configured to generate a summarized representation of each discrete segment that is determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest, wherein the summarized representation comprises an aggregation of the corresponding discrete segment; and

wherein the display manager is configured to cause the display to present a report that includes detailed representations of members of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of greater interest and that includes the summarized representation of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest.

13. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

segment a set of members of interest that is represented by an OLAP report according to an OLAP model to define one or more discrete segments;

determine an interest degree of each discrete segment, wherein the interest degree comprises one of greater interest or lesser interest;

generate a summarized representation of each discrete segment that is determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest, wherein the summarized representation comprises an aggregation of the corresponding discrete segment; and

present a report that includes detailed representations of members of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of greater interest and that includes the summarized representation of each discrete segment determined to comprise an interest degree of lesser interest.

14. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the instructions to segment comprise instructions to assign each member of the set to a single discrete segment.

15. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the instructions to segment comprise instructions to analyze one or more filters applied to the set by a user for segmentation of the set of members based on the filters.

16. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the instructions to determine the interest degree comprise instructions to determine that the interest degree of a discrete segment containing members specified by the filters comprises a greater interest, and that the interest degree of a discrete segment containing members filtered out by the filters comprises a lesser interest,

wherein the instructions to generate a summarized representation comprise instructions to aggregate the members that are filtered out.

17. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 13 further comprising instructions for causing the programmable processor to provide additional data items that describe data of the members of the set.

18. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 17 , wherein

the instructions to provide additional data comprises instructions to generate a subtotal of the members of the discrete segment of greater interest, and

the instructions to present comprise instructions to present the members of the discrete segment of greater interest with the subtotal.

19. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 18 , wherein

the instructions to provide additional data comprise instructions to generate an overall summary of all the members of the set, and

the instructions to present comprise instructions to present the overall summary.