Extending the Data Warehouse

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This topic discusses extending the Commerce Server 2000 Data Warehouse logical schema. The architecture of the logical schema is governed by the Data Warehouse meta-model. Extending the logical schema requires detailed knowledge of the meta-model. For more information, see Data Warehouse Meta-model.

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  • Wherever possible, use existing Data Warehouse structures to store data. Deletion from the logical schema is not supported under this version of Commerce Server 2000.

  • The SQL script csdwschema.sql, found in the root installation directory of Commerce Server, creates the logical schema. The script must be run on an empty database. If the schema needs to be reinstalled, delete the previous database, create a new database, and re-run the script.

The distinct steps involved in extending the Data Warehouse are:

  1. Connect to the Data Warehouse and turn on the schema change mode. For details on this step, see Data Warehouse, Analysis, and OLE DB.

  2. Create the classes. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class.

  3. Populate the classes with the appropriate data members. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class Data Member.

  4. If needed, explicitly create a key for the class. A class key can be implicitly created for a single member key. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class Key.

  5. If needed, explicitly create key members for the class. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class Key Member.

  6. If needed, create relations between the classes. If the new structure is to be linked to the existing logical schema, relations have to be created between the new classes and existing Data Warehouse classes. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class Relation.

  7. If needed, create data relation members between the classes. For details on this step, see Creating a New Class Relation Member.

A running example is provided to demonstrate these steps using an existing Data Warehouse class. An existing class is used to provide insight into how the structure fits into the logical schema. The class to be created is the existing OrderFormHeader class. A purchase order is made up of the OrderFormHeader class, representing the information required by an organization to process the order, and the OrderFormLineItems class detailing the purchases. For simplicity, this example will ignore the detailed line items and concentrate on creating the OrderFormHeader class and linking the OrderFormHeader class to an existing OrderGroup class.

The example does not show error checking or certain other formalities required for functional code.

Following this example, the process of filtering is discussed.

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