Patent ID: 6662174
Filing Date: 2003-12-09
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of operating an analytical server which is positioned between a client and a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), the method operable to provide an interface between the client and a relational database located on the RDBMS, the relational database having fact tables, dimension tables, and metadata describing the relationships between the fact and dimension tables, wherein the fact tables include measures which can be additive or non-additive, and wherein the metadata includes a designation of which measures are additive and which measures are non-additive, the method comprising:(a) receiving in the analytical server, from the RDBMS, at least a portion of the metadata information regarding the relational database and its organization, including information about whether certain measures are additive and information about a logical hierarchy of the fact and dimension tables; (b) receiving in the analytical server, from the client, a metric query, the metric query calling for a metric broken down across a dimension and also calling for a roll-up of that metric; (c) determining, based on the metric query received from the client and based on the received information from the RDBMS regarding the logical hierarchy of the fact and dimension tables and whether the measures of the requested metric are additive, which hierarchical levels of the fact and dimension tables are available in the relational database for responding to the metric query; (d) determining at least one database query according to the available hierarchical levels of the fact and dimension tables; and (e) sending the determined at least one database query to the RDBMS whereby the metric query can be responded to by the analytical server based on the responses of the RDBMS to the determined at least one database query, whereby the response is tailored to the most efficient hierarchical level necessary depending on whether the measures of the requested metric are additive, wherein the designation of which measures are additive and which are non-additive further specifies by dimension which measures are additive and which are non-additive.