Generating BPEL control flows

1. A method for generating Business Process Execution Language (‘BPEL’) control flows to populate a data warehouse for analysis of data of an operational system, the method comprising:

identifying source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse;

creating BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the operational system and each corresponding target table in the data warehouse;

determining a sequence for the BPEL steps including:

determining which BPEL steps to execute in parallel and assigning the BPEL steps to execute in parallel to a same sequence number;

determining relationships among source tables in the operational system;

determining relationships among target tables in the data warehouse; and

applying a BPEL policy that includes the relationships among source tables in the operational system and relationships among target tables in the data warehouse;

and adding the BPEL steps to a BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence, wherein: the method further comprises identifying source tables in the data warehouse and one or more additional corresponding target tables in the data warehouse;

the method further comprises creating additional BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the data warehouse and each additional corresponding target table in the data warehouse;

determining a sequence for the BPEL steps further comprises determining a sequence for the additional BPEL steps; and

adding the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises adding the additional BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence for the additional BPEL steps.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

adding the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises:

creating one or more parallel containers for the BPEL steps having the same sequence number; and

adding the BPEL steps having the same sequence number to a same parallel container.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein:

determining relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises retrieving metadata describing the source tables in the operational system; and

determining relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises retrieving metadata describing the target tables in the data warehouse.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

determining relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises inferring the relationships from the operational system; and

determining relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises inferring the relationships from the data warehouse.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse further comprises:

inferring, from actions specified in an Extraction, Transformation, and Load (‘ETL’) control flow, source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse.

6. An apparatus for generating Business Process Execution Language (‘BPEL’) control flows to populate a data warehouse for analysis of data of an operational system, the apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to:

identify source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse;

create BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the operational system and each corresponding target table in the data warehouse;

determine a sequence for the BPEL steps including:

determine which BPEL steps to execute in parallel and assigning the BPEL steps to execute in parallel to a same sequence number;

determine relationships among source tables in the operational system;

determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse; and

apply a BPEL policy that includes the relationships among source tables in the operational system and relationships among target tables in the data warehouse; and

add the BPEL steps to a BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence, wherein: the method further comprises identifying source tables in the data warehouse and one or more additional corresponding target tables in the data warehouse; the method further comprises creating additional BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the data warehouse and each additional corresponding target table in the data warehouse; determining a sequence for the BPEL steps further comprises determining a sequence for the additional BPEL steps; and adding the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises adding the additional BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence for the additional BPEL steps.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein:

the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to determine a sequence for the BPEL steps further comprises computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to:

add the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises:

create one or more parallel containers for the BPEL steps having the same sequence number; and

add the BPEL steps having the same sequence number to a same parallel container.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein:

the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to determine relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to retrieve metadata describing the source tables in the operational system; and

the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to retrieve metadata describing the target tables in the data warehouse.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein:

the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to determine relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to infer the relationships from the operational system; and

the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to infer the relationships from the data warehouse.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to identify source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse further comprises:

computer program instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to infer, from actions specified in an Extraction, Transformation, and Load (‘ETL’) control flow, source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse.

11. A computer program product for generating Business Process Execution Language (‘BPEL’) control flows to populate a data warehouse for analysis of data of an operational system, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable, recordable, non-transmission medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code configured to identify source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse;

computer readable program code configured to create BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the operational system and each corresponding target table in the data warehouse;

computer readable program code configured to determine a sequence for the BPEL steps including:

computer readable program code configured to determine which BPEL steps to execute in parallel and assigning the BPEL steps to execute in parallel to a same sequence number;

computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among source tables in the operational system;

computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse; and

computer readable program code configured to apply a BPEL policy that includes the relationships among source tables in the operational system and relationships among target tables in the data warehouse; and

computer readable program code configured to add the BPEL steps to a BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence, wherein: the method further comprises identifying source tables in the data warehouse and one or more additional corresponding target tables in the data warehouse; the method further comprises creating additional BPEL steps to represent links between each source table in the data warehouse and each additional corresponding target table in the data warehouse; determining a sequence for the BPEL steps further comprises determining a sequence for the additional BPEL steps; and adding the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises adding the additional BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence for the additional BPEL steps.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein:

the computer readable program code configured to determine a sequence for the BPEL steps further comprises:

computer readable program code configured to add the BPEL steps to the BPEL control flow according to the determined sequence further comprises:

computer readable program code configured to create one or more parallel containers for the BPEL steps having the same sequence number; and

computer readable program code configured to add the BPEL steps having the same sequence number to a same parallel container.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein:

the computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises computer readable program code configured to retrieve metadata describing the source tables in the operational system; and the computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises computer readable program code configured to retrieve metadata describing the target tables in the data warehouse.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein:

the computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among source tables in the operational system further comprises computer readable program code configured to infer the relationships from the operational system; and

the computer readable program code configured to determine relationships among target tables in the data warehouse further comprises computer readable program code configured to infer the relationships from the data warehouse.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the computer readable program code configured to identify source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse further comprises:

computer readable program code configured to infer, from action specified in an Extraction, Transformation, and Load (‘ETL’) control flow, source tables in the operational system and one or more corresponding target tables in the data warehouse.