Abstract: A method for structuring a data store by analysing source data bases using the steps of relationship discovery, schema merging, hierarchy discovery, heuristic based attribute inclusion and optionally denormalising This is applied to products such as Navision in building an OLAP cube for use in business intelligence applications. Also disclosed is a security adapter to carry security settings from a source data base to an OLAP cube which includes creating a synthetic dimension in the OLAP cube which is a common trait related to all other dimensions in the cube and one role is created for each role in the source data base and users treated as members of those roles as defined in the source data base.

Abstract: A method of synchronizing a source system that stores its records in a relational database and defines its own application level security with an OLAP cube, in which the structure of the relational database and cube is modelled to an intermediate representation for the purpose of comparing both structures; the differences between the two models are identified and used to modify the structure of the cube; the modified structure of the cube is used to generate a script for retrieving data from the relational database for insertion into the cube, after which the script is run and the data is inserted into the modified cube. A unique identifier is used for each item in the base system and each system is tagged with the same identifier in the cube.