Using OCL to Model Constraints in Data Warehouses

Abstract

Recent research works propose using Object-Oriented (OO) approaches, such as UML to model data warehouses. This paper overviews these recent OO techniques, describing the facts and different analysis dimensions of the data. The authors propose a tutorial of the Object Constraint Language (OCL) and show how this language can be used to specify constraints in OO-based models of data warehouses. Previously, OCL has been only applied to describe constraints in software applications and transactional databases. As such, the authors demonstrate in this paper how to use OCL to represent the different types of data warehouse constraints. This paper helps researchers working in the fields of business intelligence and decision support systems, who wish to learn about the major possibilities that OCL offer in the context of data warehouses. The authors also provide general information about the possible types of implementation of multi-dimensional models and their constraints.