Patent ID: 7831630

Claim:
A method for providing access to an electronic database for business intelligence, comprising: receiving a request to create a new universe to interface with the electronic database to access the electronic database for business intelligence, wherein the new universe maps terms used by a business intelligence application to the electronic database; receiving an input of a first set of universe details to populate the new universe, wherein the universe details include classes for the terms used by the business intelligence application, and the classes describe groups of data in the electronic database, the universe details further including objects describing data elements or fields and their associated data tables in the electronic database that are associated with the classes, and joins between the data tables based on values; executing at least a first application macro to populate the new universe with the received first set of universe details by calling the business intelligence application to create the new universe with the populated first set of universe details; and providing the created new universe as a metadata layer that interfaces with the electronic database to provide access to the electronic database, wherein the interfacing with the electronic database includes interfacing with the new universe using at least one of the classes, objects and joins in the new universe to execute a query in the electronic database associated with at least one of the terms used by the business intelligence application.