Web Technology/Data Warehouses

Database connectivity

mechanisms through which application programs connect and communicate with data repositories

Database middleware

database connectivity software through which application programs connect and communicate with data repositories

Data repository

data management application used to store data generated by an application program

Universal Data Access (UDA)

collection of technologies used to access any type of data source and manage the data through a common interface (i.e. ODBC, OLE-DB, ADO.NET)

Native SQL Connectivity

connection interface provided by database vendors, which is unique to each vendor

Microsoft's Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

allows Windows applications to access relational data sources by using SQL via standard application programming interface (API)

Data Access Objects (DAO)

object-oriented API used to access desktop databases such as MS Access and FileMaker Pro

Remote Data Objects (RDO)

higher-level object-oriented application interface used to access remote database servers

Dynamic-link libraries (DLLs)

Implements ODBC, DAO, and RDO as shared code that is dynamically linked to the Windows operating environment

Microsoft's .NET Framework (ADO.NET)

component-based platform for developing distributed, heterogeneous, interoperable applications

DataSet

disconnected memory-resident representation of the database

Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

application programming interface that allows a Java program to interact with a wide range of data sources

Web server

main hub through which Internet services are accessed

Server-side extension

program that interacts directly with the web server

Web browser

software that lets users navigate the web from their client computer

The web is a _______ system

stateless

stateless system

does not know the status of any clients

plug-in

external application automatically invoked by the browser when needed

data warehouse

subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data in support of management decision making process

subject-oriented

data is organized around major subjects of the enterprise (i.e. customer, products, and sales)

Transformation

applies a series of rules or functions to the extracted data (i.e. data summation, data calculations, etc.)

Loading

additional constraints defined in the data warehouse schema can be activated (i.e. uniqueness, referential integrity, etc.)

End-User Access Tools

four main groups of tools exist to support end users (decision makers)

Data mart

database that contains a subset of corporate data to support analytical requirements of a particular business unit and to support users who share the same requirements to analyze a particular business process

dimension

master table composed of individual, non-overlapping data elements

measure

represents a column that contains quantifiable data, typically numeric, that can be aggregated

fact table

provides statistics for a set of dimensions

star schema (star join)

data-modeling technique used to map multidimensional decision support data into a relational database for advanced data analysis

Operational data

not well suited for decision support