Data Warehouse, Data Mart, Three Tier Architecture, and ASP (Active Server Pages)

OLAP or On Line Analytical Processing is a new development used to present information to database users that will allow them to view graphical representations of their data queries in a format very similar to that of SQL (Structured Query Language). With a program like Microsoft’s Access, which is also compatible with SQL, any queries requested by the user would return such query in a format where everything related to a specific record would be displayed in the same row as to the record to which it belongs. All the fields requested to the database would be shown on the same line, thus, this could make a record appear to be very long in nature when read by the user on his or her screen. OLAP uses similar principles for displaying data, however; it has certain advantages to the way it is displayed and a disadvantage which is to say that it uses different names to refer to the same items in a query. This last issue mentioned could be confusing to the person reading the information displayed by the query if they do not know or are not used to the way the

OLAP displays queried information. For instance OLAP uses Axes. These axes contain the main data the user requested. That is to say in an Access query these would be the rows and the columns. These axes also contain the “Dimensions”. These would be the specific information about the axes like time, date, address, etc. Now, any axes that contain more than one dimension will be shown in every combination of the other since they would be related by the axis in any situation in which it is displayed by the query. When referring to OLAP you will also hear the term OLAP Hypercube. This is a term used to describe an OLAP that contains an unlimited amount of axes to be displayed whenever it is queried for information. OLAP also contains something called LEVEL. The levels are hierarchical subsets of a dimension. For instance if the parent level is Nissan the child level would be Altima. OLAP has many storage alternatives like; ROLAP (Relational OLAP), MOLAP (Multidimensional OLAP), and HOLAP (Hybrid OLAP). These variations where created to better meet specific needs as for ROLAP; it was design with the purpose in mind of processing certain queries as well as other types of extensions that other relational database products would be more than adequate to handle. On the other hand MOLAP was designed to handle what some believe to be better performing in that it would handle specialized reports, queries and transaction processing in a more specialized way than any database management system could possibly produce. As the word HYBRID suggests, this was created with the

You can never just open an ASP page with a browser. It has to be requested thru a server, hence its name Active Server Page or ASP (.asp). ASP was initially introduced by Microsoft in its web server IIS (Internet Information Services) that runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional and NT4. It is these operating systems where ASP, normally, would run well. With the recent inception of the .Net generation, improvements have been made to the ASP format more over with the ASP.NET. Enhanced Performance which encompasses early binding, just-in-time compilation, native optimization, and caching services right out of the box. A World Class Tool support complemented with a rich toolbox and designer in the visual studio integrated environment, WYSIWYG editing, and drag and drop server controls. The Power and Flexibility of one common language runtime available to web application developers, a .NET framework class library, and language independency that allows you to choose the language that best suits your application. Simplicity to perform common tasks with simple form submission all the way to client authentication, deployment and site configuration. Better Manageability using a text based hierarchical configuration system. More Scalability and Availability with feature specifically designed to improve performance in a clustered multi-processor environment. Customizable and Extendable by having the ability to insert the necessary code at the necessary level. And last but not least, Security. By using Windows authentication and per application configuration.

Some topics in this essay:
TTA ASP, OLAP Servers, Message Server, Tier Architecture, Data Warehouse, Internet Explorer, MARTS Data, Microsoft’s Access, Hybrid OLAP, Power Flexibility, tier architecture, data warehouse, olap dw dm, tta asp, dm tta, dw dm, dw dm tta, dm tta asp, olap dw, data warehouses, web server, warehouse data, logic layer, line analytical processing, olap line analytical,