Throughout this Help file, and in all OLATION documentation, we refer to the "OLATION database." It’s important to clarify what this term means: an OLATION database represents data within a multidimensional modeling context, primarily for creating Cubes. It stores data and provides instructions to those Cubes, organizing them with specific "dimensionality" (such as Accounts, Regions, Months, Products, Version, etc.) and additional characteristics found in more complex models, including formulas and security logic.
Where does the data come from to create an OLATION database? It may originate from underlying relational database tables (and views or queries), such as those found in applications (e.g., an ERP system) installed in SQL Server or SAP HANA environments—just two examples of relational database management systems OLATION can work with.
For example, using the SQL Server (often referenced in OLATION documentation) as the underlying data store for building OLATION models, we would say the OLATION database is of the “OLATION for MS SQL Server” database type. This means the data logic for OLATION’s multidimensional modeling exists within the SQL Server. However, the data logic is not limited to what OLATION “sees” in the SQL Server. In other words, while OLATION can leverage the SQL Server table (or view or query) logic for multidimensional models, OLATION can also create multidimensional logic (e.g., a new Dimension) that has no connection to the SQL Server. OLATION can generate multidimensional logic entirely on its own, and this logic can work with data derived from the SQL Server. Moreover, new dimensional logic created in OLATION will be saved as relational tables, which can then be used by both OLATION and the relational database system itself.
In fact, an entire model—without relying on any underlying SQL or other relational tables—can be built directly in OLATION. This model can be saved independently of the SQL Server (or equivalent), which is what a PowerExcel database is: an OLATION database saved on its own without any connection to a relational database.
This backgrounder of the "OLATION database" should provide context for what follows, whether in this section or in the topics that come later.
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