Representing Conceptual Multidimensional Properties Using the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM)

Abstract

Data warehouses, multidimensional databases and OLAP tools are based on the multidimensional (MD) modeling. Lately, several approaches have been proposed to easily represent main MD properties at the conceptual level. As the core of any tool implementation, these MD models should be managed using a metadata facility. Due to this broad diversity of MD models, in the practice tools with dissimilar metadata are integrated through the building of complex metadata bridges. Therefore, the necessity of a globally understood standard definition for metadata should be addressed in order to ensure interoperability, integration and spreading of metadata use in DW projects. In this paper, we make use of the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) to represent main MD properties at the conceptual level, so any CWM-based tool could interoperate by exchanging their CWM-based metadata. Furthermore, we introduce the implementation of CWM-enabled metadata resources viaCWM specific interfaces like CORBA IDL.