The OLAP Extension is now available in SQL Developer 4.0

The OLAP Extension is now in SQL Developer 4.0.

See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/sql-developer/downloads/sqldev-releasenotes-v4-1925251.html for the details.

The OLAP functionality is mentioned toward the bottom of the web page.

You will still need AWM 12.1.0.1.0 to

• Manage and enable cube and dimension MV's.
• Manage data security.
• Create and edit nested measure folders (i.e. measure folders that are children of other measure folders)
• Create and edit Maintenance Scripts
• Manage multilingual support for OLAP Metadata objects
• Use the OBIEE plugin or the Data Validation plugin

What is new or improved:

• New Calculation Expression editor for calculated measures.  This allows the user to nest different types to calculated measures easily.  For instance a user can now create a Moving Total of a Prior Period as one calculated measure.  In AWM, it would have required a user to create a Prior Period first and then create a Moving Total calculated measure which referred to the Prior Period measure.  Also the new Calculation Expression editor displays hypertext helper templates when the user selects the OLAP API syntax in the editor.
• Support for OLAP DML command execution in the SQL Worksheet.  Simply prefix OLAP DML commands by a '~' and then select the execute button to execute them on the SQL Worksheet.  The output of the command will appear in the DBMS Output Window if it is opened, or the Script Output Window if the user has executed 'set serveroutput on' before executing the DML command.
• Improved OLAP DML Program Editor integrated within the SQL Developer framework.
• New diagnostic reports in the SQL Developer Report navigator.
• Ability to create a fact view with a measure dimension (i.e. "pivot cube").  This functionality is accessible from the SQL Developer Tools-OLAP menu option.
• Cube scripts have been renamed to Build Specifications and are now accessible within the Create/Edit Cube dialog.  The Build Specifications editor there, is similar to the calculation expression editor as far as functionality.

Oracle OLAP option - Did You Know?

Jameson White added "Did You Know?" to the DBA Zone on the Oracle OLAP option Wiki. Please make your comments in a thread on this Wiki page.

Oracle OLAP option Diagnostic Techniques

Jameson White added "Diagnostic Techniques" to the DBA Zone on the Oracle OLAP option Wiki. Please make your comments in the thread on the Wiki page.

Oracle Database 11g One of 2007's Most Important Products

Today eWeek named Oracle Database 11g "One of the Most Important Products of 2007". To be honest, this is not really surprising given the huge number of new features that comprised the 11g release. Well, what else would you expect from the worldwide leader in database technology. In recognition of the product, eWEEK Labs stated, "Oracle's Database 11g is the cornerstone of the vendor's dynamically allocated computing grids and should garner the attention of database managers with its improved management, recovery and table compression capabilities." In response Andy Mendelsohn, senior vice president, Oracle Database Server Technologies, stated:

"As the worldwide database leader, Oracle distinguishes itself from competitors with leading security, scalability, availability, and data centre automation capabilities, Oracle Database 11g represents years of experience solving our customers' business and IT challenges, and it gives us great pride to be recognized by eWEEK."

Oracle Database 11g has delivered over 400 new features many of which will be of direct benefit to data warehouse projects. Not only is Oracle the worldwide leader in database technology, it is also the world wide leader in providing best-of-breed functionality for data warehouses and data marts. Oracle Database 11g also provides a uniquely integrated platform for managing business driven analytics; by embedding OLAP, Data Mining, and statistical capabilities directly into the database, Oracle 11g delivers all of the functionality of standalone OLAP engines with the enterprise scalability, security, and reliability of the Oracle's world class Database. Oracle Database 11g includes the proven ETL capabilities of Oracle Warehouse Builder; robust ETL is critical for any DW/BI project, and OWB provides a solution for every Oracle Database including design, deployment and management of solutions that use the OLAP option.


For more information on the eWeek story go here : http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/eWEEK-Labs-The-Most-Important-Products-of-2007/7/
For more information on Oracle Database 11g go here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/database/index.html
For more information on Oracle Database 11g for data warehousing go here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/db/11g/index.html

If you want to take 11g for a test drive you can download the software directly from OTN by going here: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/database/index.html

where you will find all links for the following platforms are available:

• Microsoft Windows (32-bit)
• Microsoft Windows (x64)
• Linux x86 (1.7 GB)
• Linux x86-64 (1.8 GB)
• Solaris (SPARC) (64-bit)
• AIX (PPC64)
• HP-UX Itanium
• HP-UX PA-RISC (64-bit)