Book Review : "The Multidimensional Modeling Toolkit", John Paredes
As such it's not an introduction to basic Oracle OLAP via the Analytic Workspace Manager, it's more something that could have been written in the days of Express and takes a more low-level, philosophical approach to OLAP with a particular emphasis on multi-dimensional concepts and the multi-dimensional building blocks that make up an Analytic Workspace. Whilst illustrated using recent front-end tools such as the Data Viewer within AWM, it eschews the approach taken by Oracle to make OLAP data behave as much like relational data as possible, an instead takes you straight into OLAP DML and the building blocks of a mult-dimensional database. The book does start off with instructions on how to build a cube using AWM, but even in this chapter its not long before we're into the OLAP Worksheet (the OLAP DML front-end that's hidden in AWM) where we're using OLAP DML to add members to dimensions and query the metadata.
As such, it's a brilliant book for anyone who's used Analytic Workspace Manager and tools like Discoverer for OLAP and even OBIEE, and has wondered just how the engine within Oracle OLAP actually works. I've waited years for a book on OLAP DML and Jon Paredes has produced something that must surely be a labour of love, particularly as the market for Oracle OLAP books in total must be pretty small let alone one that focuses on OLAP DML, something that Oracle are in fact de-emphasizing with the move towards the OLAP API and cube organized materialized views in Oracle OLAP 11g.
One word of warning that I would give though is that with this move towards SQL and PL/SQL-based cube definitions in Oracle 11g, it's now impossible to create OLAP objects using OLAP DML that are then registered in the OLAP metadata used increasingly by Oracle's development and query tools, as this metadata has from 11g moved out of the analytic workspace itself and into the standard Oracle relational data dictionary tools. You can still use this manual approach though if working with OLAP data through the OLAP_TABLE function, and I know I'll be working through John's book over the next few months to fill out my knowledge of OLAP DML.
So, overall, a great book and it's great to see something that's been produced by someone for their love of the technology, and based on Oracle OLAP DML programming which is a bit of a specialist subject these days (I doubt most Oracle developers would even have heard of it). If you're a developer using Oracle OLAP, particularly if you've migrated from another technology such as Holos or TM/1 and are wondering how to get under the controls hidden by Analytic Workspace Manager, or if you're looking to use Oracle OLAP for high-end statistical or financial analysis, this is a very interesting read and I'd encourage you to get hold of a copy. If you've ever wondered just how to do an allocation, a forecast or create a calculation using more than two operators and been frustrated by the simplicity of Analytic Workspace Manager, this book may turn out to be an excellent investment.