Preface

The Oracle OLAP Developer's Guide to the OLAP API introduces Java programmers to the Oracle OLAP API, which is the Java application programming interface for Oracle OLAP. Through Oracle OLAP, the OLAP API provides access to data stored in an Oracle database. The OLAP API capabilities for querying, manipulating, and presenting data are particularly suited to applications that perform online analytical processing (OLAP) operations.

The preface contains these topics:

• Audience

• Documentation Accessibility

• Structure

• Related Documents

• Conventions

Audience

This manual is intended for Java programmers who are responsible for creating applications that perform analysis using Oracle OLAP. To use this manual, you should be familiar with Java, relational database management systems, data warehousing, OLAP concepts, and Oracle OLAP.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Structure

The following paragraphs describe the chapters that comprise this manual.

Chapter 1, " Introduction to the OLAP API"

Introduces the OLAP API to application developers who plan to use it in their Java applications.

Chapter 2, " Understanding OLAP API Metadata"

Describes the multidimensional metadata (MDM) classes that the OLAP API provides, and explains how MDM objects relate to the metadata objects that a database administrator specifies when preparing the OLAP Catalog.

Chapter 3, " Connecting to a Data Store"

Explains the procedure for connecting to a data store through the OLAP API.

Chapter 4, " Discovering the Available Metadata"

Explains the procedure for discovering the MDM metadata in a data store through the OLAP API.

Chapter 5, " Working with Metadata Mapping Objects"

Describes the metadata mapping (MTM) classes that the OLAP API provides, and explains how MTM objects relate to the mapping of MDM metadata objects to relational database tables or views.

Chapter 6, " Understanding Source Objects"

Introduces Source objects, which are the OLAP API objects that specify a query of the data in the database.

Chapter 7, " Making Queries Using Source Methods"

Provides examples of using the basic Source methods and of using Source methods to accomplish typical OLAP tasks and other operations.

Chapter 8, " Using a TransactionProvider"

Describes the Oracle OLAP API Transaction and TransactionProvider interfaces and describes how you use implementations of those interfaces in an application. You must create a TransactionProvider before you can create a DataProvider, and you must use methods of the TransactionProvider to prepare and commit a Transaction before you can create a Cursor for a derived Source.

Chapter 9, " Understanding Cursor Classes and Concepts"

Describes the Oracle OLAP API Cursor class and its related classes, which you use to retrieve and gain access to the results of a query. This chapter also describes the Cursor concepts of position, fetch size, and extent.

Chapter 10, " Retrieving Query Results"

Describes how to retrieve the results of a query with an Oracle OLAP API Cursor, how to gain access to those results, and how to customize the behavior of a Cursor to fit your method of displaying the results.

Chapter 11, " Creating Dynamic Queries"

Describes the Oracle OLAP API Template class and its related classes, which you use to create dynamic queries. This chapter also provides examples of implementations of those classes.

Appendix A, " Setting Up the Development Environment"

Describes the steps you take to set up your development environment for creating applications that use the OLAP API.

Related Documents

For more information, see the following manuals in the Oracle 10g Release 1 (10.1) documentation set:

• Oracle OLAP Java API Reference

• Oracle OLAP Application Developer's Guide

• Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspace Java API Reference

• Oracle OLAP Reference

• Oracle OLAP DML Reference

• Oracle Database JDBC Developer's Guide and Reference

• Oracle Data Warehousing Guide

Conventions

The following conventions are also used in this manual:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted. In an example, they mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
boldface text	Boldface type in text indicates a term defined in the text.
italic text	Italic typeface denotes book titles or emphasis.
monospace text	Monospace typeface indicates filenames, Java elements, such as classes, methods, and fields, SQL keywords or commands, code examples, and references to code example objects in the text. An exception is the OLAP API data types, which appear in regular typeface to distinguish them from Java data types.
monospace italic text	Monospace italic typeface indicates a variable that a user supplies in a SQL command.