Using SQL Developer for OLAP Development

You can choose between two tools for creating and managing dimensional objects:

SQL Developer: The OLAP extension is tightly integrated into SQL Developer and provides a familiar environment for creating and managing dimensional objects. This guide describes how to use the OLAP extension. For basic tasks, such as connecting to Oracle Database or editing an object, see the general SQL Developer documentation.
Analytic Workspace Manager: A full featured, standalone application specifically for creating and managing dimensional objects. See the Oracle OLAP User's Guide for download instructions and usage.

Locating the OLAP Extension

The OLAP extension is available in SQL Developer 4.0. It does not run in Release 3.2 or earlier release

To verify the OLAP extension is loaded:

Open the Help menu and click About.
Select the Extensions tab.
Scroll down the alphabetical list of extensions until you find OLAP.

Configuring the OLAP Environment

You can set various options that affect the way that SQL Developer operates.

To set your configuration preferences:

From the Tools menu, choose Preferences.
Expand the OLAP node, and choose one of the following panels:
- Advanced: Overrides some default data storage settings.
- Build Log: Controls the content of the build logs.
- OLAP DML Syntax Colors: Customizes the colors used in the OLAP DML program editor.
- OLAP Expression Syntax Colors: Customizes the colors used in the OLAP Expression Syntax editor.

Creating a Time Dimension Table

In SQL Developer, you can use the Create Time Dimension Table wizard to automatically generate a relational table that contains time periods. The table provides the metadata required to support time-based analysis, such as end dates and time spans. You can use the time dimension table as the source for a time type cube dimension.

To create a time dimension table:

From the Tools menu, choose OLAP, and then choose Create Time Dimension Table.
On the General panel, specify a name for the table, the date at which you want the time periods to start, and the number of years to include in the table.
On the Time Periods panel, select the time period types, such as DAY or MONTH, and specify a column name prefix for each type.
On the Select Attributes panel, select the attributes for which to include columns in the table. For the Description attribute, you can select a format for the time values or specify your own valid time format.
On the Summary panel, you can view the PL/SQL script that creates the table. You can also save the script to a file.