Patent ID: 8433673

Claim:
A method for extending extract, transform, and load (ETL) metadata, wherein the ETL metadata defines ETL processes for a data warehouse, the method comprising: detecting changes in one or more data objects that are associated with one or more application data stores; passing the detected changes to an extender associated with a data warehouse; creating, via the extender, an ETL extension plan that executes on one or more microprocessors including receiving input specifications that define data to be loaded and tables to be extended in the data warehouse, reading an ETL plan template from a metadata service based on the input specifications, generating an initial plan by applying the input specifications to the ETL plan template, refining the initial plan by reading, from the data warehouse, an additional metadata that defines the data warehouse, and including in the refined plan one or more ETL plan elements specifying modifications to be made to the data warehouse to accommodate the detected changes in the data objects, and checking consistency and resolving dependencies among the plan elements in the refined plan to generate a final plan; organizing the one or more ETL plan elements in the final plan into an order which denotes a sequence in which the plan elements are to be executed in the data warehouse; and performing an ETL metadata extension based on the ETL extension plan to extend the data warehouse.