Applications Access to Oracle OLAP

On a very basic level, all applications have access to analytic workspaces and the computational engine using SQL, but the application can be unaware of the SQL or unaware of the underlying OLAP facilities. They all use OCI or JDBC for their communications protocol.

However, at a higher level, different types of applications can access the computational power of Oracle OLAP in different ways.

• OLAP API clients are written in Java, which the SQL generator in Oracle OLAP converts to SQL. The application developer does not need to be familiar either with SQL or the OLAP DML.
• SQL-based applications can use pure SQL against relational views of multidimensional data. The application developer only needs to know SQL and the language of the user interface, such as C++. However, an application developer who is familiar with the OLAP DML can manipulate multidimensional data directly using DML commands embedded in SQL table functions.
• OLAP applications can operate directly on multidimensional data by making use of the conditional processing capabilities of stored procedures written in the OLAP DML.

Figure 1-1 illustrates these methods.

Figure 1-1 Methods of Querying Analytic Workspaces

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