Patent ID: 8543535
Filing Date: 2013-09-24
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of supporting business applications to operate based on data stored in data warehouses, said method comprising: storing data in a plurality of fact tables and a plurality of dimension tables of a data warehouse, said plurality of fact tables and said plurality of dimension tables being initially organized in the form of a first star schema, each of some of said plurality of fact tables and said plurality of dimension tables having a corresponding set of key fields, which are enabled to be configured to change said first star schema to a snowflake schema; providing an application development framework (ADF) in a digital processing system external to said data warehouse, said ADF containing metadata objects that form a layer of abstraction over said plurality of fact tables and said plurality of dimension tables present in said data warehouse, wherein a developer is enabled to specify links between said metadata objects in said ADF, which in turn updates the key fields of corresponding tables to cause the formation of said snowflake schema in said data warehouse, wherein a business application developed using said ADF is designed to operate with data organized only as star schemas in said data warehouse, thereby necessitating the generation of a second star schema corresponding to said snowflake schema; generating in said digital processing system, said second star schema corresponding to said snowflake schema, said generating comprising: converting data organized according to said snowflake schema in said data warehouse to data according to said second star schema, wherein said receiving, said inspecting and said including enable said user to ensure inclusion of data of the pertinent tables in said second star schema; and processing queries from said business application, said queries being designed to operate with the data organized as said second star schema.