Monday, August 24, 2009

Creating Mondrian Star Schemas with Power*Architect - Part 1/2

A few months ago I first mentioned that you can create Mondrian schemas with Power*Architect. Finally I get the time to create a step by step guide for a small Mondrian schema. This post covers the preparation of Power*Architect to create a new schema, the coming blog post will cover the schema creation and testing.

What you need to get started:
Step 1 - Setting up the database connection
  • Start Power*Architect
  • Open the Connections menu and start the Database Connection Manager.
  • Click on New.
  • Add the database connection details. For the Pentaho sample data enter the data as shown in the screenshot (Click on it for a larger screenshot). Make sure you enter the right folder name.

  • Test the connection and click on Ok.
  • Close the Database Connection Manager.
  • Open the Connections menu -> Add source connection and select the created connection
Step 2 - Visualize the data model (Optional)
If you don't know the data model, I recommend using Power*Architect to visualize it. This step is not needed for the creation of Mondrian schemas.
  • Unfold the database connection and drag&drop the needed tables to the right hand PlayPen. In my example I use the tables orders, customers, dim_time and orderfact.
  • Add the relationships between the tables: Click on (Non identifying relationship), on the key in the dimension table and then on the related column in the fact table.
  • Add the end the model should look similar to the following screenshot.
  • You can find more details on how to use Power*Architect in the help and manual.
The second part tomorrow will cover the actual schema creation and testing. Comments are welcome.

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