Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Let us see what we have learned about data requirements from our customer. What
data elements are important and must be included in the database? Our customer
has indicated that they need to track vehicle sales, vehicle production, gross stocks,
and profits. Chances are that there will be more data elements, but because we are
working with Essbase, they can be added quickly and easily at anytime in the future.
The elements listed in the previous paragraph will become members under a
dimension, which we will call
Measures
.
These elements are what the customer
is using to measure his business. It is the attributes of these data elements which
will help us determine the rest of the necessary dimensions in the Essbase outline.
The dimensions described in an Essbase outline can best be
described as a category of information used to organize your
data. For example,
Calendar Periods
can be a dimension in
an Oracle Essbase database and can also be used to describe the
frequency of your data. Dimensions will be discussed in depth
in the next chapter.
The
Measures
dimension is included in most databases as it
contains the customer-required measurables. The other dimensions
can be thought of as the necessary descriptors of the measurable
data, such as
Calendar Periods
,
product lines
,
markets
.
When we talk about the data elements and their categories, we ask many questions.
Typically, each critical data descriptor or data member category, needs to be created
as a dimension in the Essbase database outline. Keep reading to see how this plays out.
Although we go into great detail on exactly what a database outline is and the
purpose it serves, for the time being, consider the Essbase database outline to
be similar to a logical data model you create for a standard relational database.
One use of your new system is to track the company's performance based on sales
and profits. What is the frequency of the data? Is it safe to figure that we need
a
Calendar Periods
dimension in the database outline? Depending on how we
build the
Calendar Periods
dimension, we will be able to work with the data on
a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
What is it that our customer produces? Why, it's automobiles of course! Wouldn't
our customer want to track the company's performance in many ways? We are
probably safe in assuming that we need to create a
Total Vehicle
dimension
that allows us to look at the data by an individual vehicle line or by the total of
all vehicles.
