XML for Analysis - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

XML for Analysis is an industry standard for data access in analytical systems, such as OLAP

OLAP

In computing, online analytical processing, or OLAP , is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining...

and data mining

Data mining

Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...

. XMLA is based on other industry standards such as XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

, SOAP

SOAP

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...

and HTTP. XMLA is maintained by XMLA Council with Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Hyperion and SAS

SAS Institute

SAS Institute Inc. , headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig...

being the official XMLA Council founder members.

History

The XMLA specification was first proposed by Microsoft

Microsoft

as a successor for OLE DB for OLAP in April 2000. By January 2001 it was joined by Hyperion endorsing XMLA. The 1.0 version of the standard was released in April 2001, and in September 2001 the XMLA Council was formed. In April 2002 SAS

SAS Institute

SAS Institute Inc. , headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA, has been a major producer of software since it was founded in 1976 by Anthony Barr, James Goodnight, John Sall and Jane Helwig...

joined Microsoft and Hyperion as founding member of XMLA Council. With time, more than 25 companies joined with their support for the standard.

API

XMLA consists of only two SOAP

SOAP

SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...

methods. It was designed in such a way to preserve simplicity.

Execute
Discover

Execute

Execute method has two parameters:

Command - command to be executed. It can be MDX
Multidimensional Expressions
Multidimensional Expressions is a query language for OLAP databases, much like SQL is a query language for relational databases. It is also a calculation language, with syntax similar to spreadsheet formulas.-Background:...

, DMX
Data Mining Extensions
Data Mining Extensions is a query language for Data Mining Models supported by Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services product.Like SQL, it supports a data definition language, data manipulation language and a data query language, all three with SQL-like syntax.Whereas SQL statements operate on...

or SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....

.
Properties - XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

list of command properties such as Timeout, Catalog name, etc.

The result of Execute command could be Multidimensional Dataset or Tabular Rowset.

Discover

Discover method was designed to model all the discovery methods possible in OLEDB including various schema rowset, properties, keywords, etc. Discover method allows users to specify both what needs to be discovered and the possible restrictions or properties.
The result of Discover method is a rowset.

Query language

XMLA specifies MDXML as the query language. In the XMLA 1.1 version, the only construct in MDXML is an MDX

Multidimensional Expressions

Multidimensional Expressions is a query language for OLAP databases, much like SQL is a query language for relational databases. It is also a calculation language, with syntax similar to spreadsheet formulas.-Background:...

statement enclosed in the tag.

Example

Below is an example of XMLA Execute request with MDX query in command.





 

  

   

    SELECT Measures.MEMBERS ON COLUMNS FROM Sales

   

   

    

     

     FoodMart

     Multidimensional

     TupleFormat

Session management

XMLA has a notion of session state. It is maintained through predefined SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...

headers

BeginSession - to begin a new session
EndSession - to end existing session
UseSession - to use existing session. SessionId attribute previously returned for BeginSession should be used.

Products

Products which support XMLA fall into two categories:

XMLA Providers - these products provide XMLA service. Typically these are server or middle tier products
XMLA Consumers - these products can connect to XMLA Providers and consume XMLA. Typically these are client/UI products
XMLA Libraries - libraries implementing XMLA protocol (client side), allowing to develop XMLA Consumers without taking care of XMLA protocol details.

XMLA Providers

Hyperion Essbase
Essbase
Essbase is a multidimensional database management system that provides a multidimensional database platform upon which to build analytic applications. Essbase, whose name derives from "Extended Spread Sheet dataBASE", began as a product of Arbor Software, which merged with Hyperion Software in 1998...
IBM Infosphere Warehouse Cubing Services
IBM InfoSphere
IBM Infosphere is a branded product line from IBM under its Information Management Software brand, announced in February 2008, which includes software products from its WebSphere and Information Server product lines...
icCube OLAP Server
Infor PM OLAP Server - formerly known as MIS Alea
InterSystems
InterSystems
InterSystems Corporation is a privately held vendor of software for high-performance database management, rapid application development, integration, and healthcare information systems...

DeepSee
Microsoft Analysis Services
Microsoft Analysis Services
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services is part of Microsoft SQL Server, a database management system. Microsoft has included a number of services in SQL Server related to business intelligence and data warehousing. These services include Integration Services and Analysis Services...
Mondrian OLAP server
Mondrian OLAP server
Mondrian is an open source OLAP server,written in Java.It supports the MDX query languageand the XML for Analysis and interface specifications.It reads from SQL and other data sources...
Palo (OLAP database)
Palo (OLAP database)
Palo is a memory resident multidimensional database server and typically used as a Business Intelligence tool for Controlling and Budgeting purposes with Spreadsheet software acting as the user interface...
Simba Technologies
Simba Technologies
Simba Technologies is a supplier of standards-based data access solutions located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Simba Technologies specializes in connectivity for ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB for OLAP and XML for Analysis...

SimbaProvider XMLA SDK
SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence SAP BW MDX Syntax

XMLA Libraries

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.