== ActiveWarehouse
The ActiveWarehouse library provides classes and functions which help with
building Data Warehouses using Rails. It can be installed either as a plugin
or as a Gem.
To install as a plugin just use:
script/plugin install --force svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/activewarehouse/activewarehouse/trunk
To get the latest edge version.
To install as a Gem, use:
gem install activewarehouse
On *nix you will need to run this command as root or better yet, using sudo.
Next, you will need to freeze or link the Gem to your Rails app. I prefer using
the gemsonrails project:
gem install gemsonrails
And then in your Rails app:
rake gems:link GEM=activewarehouse
It is possible that freezing the Gem to the Rails app may not work at all times. It is most often best to install as a plugin.
== Generators
ActiveWarehouse comes with several generators
script/generate fact Sales
script/generate fact sales
Creates a SalesFact class and a sales_facts table.
script/generate dimension Region
script/generate dimension region
Creates a RegionDimension class and a region_dimension table.
script/generate cube RegionalSales
script/generate cube regional_sales
Creates a RegionalSalesCube class.
script/generate bridge CustomerHierarchy
script/generate bridge customer_hierarchy
Creates a CustomerHierarchyBridge class.
script/generate dimension_view OrderDate Date
script/generate dimension_view order_date date
Creates an OrderDateDimension class which is represented by a view on top
of the DateDimension.
The rules for naming are as follows:
Facts:
Fact classes and tables follow the typical Rails rules: classes are singular
and tables are pluralized.
Both the class and table name are suffixed by "_fact".
Dimensions:
Dimension classes and tables are both singular.
Both the class name and the table name are suffixed by "_dimension".
Cube:
Cube class is singular. If a cube table is created it will also be singular.
Bridge:
Bridge classes and tables are both singular.
Both the class name and the table name are suffixed by "_bridge".
Dimension View:
Dimension View classes are singular. The underlying data structure is a view
on top of an existing dimension.
Both the class name and the view name are suffixed by "_dimension"
== ETL
The ActiveWarehouse plugin does not directly handle Extract-Transform-Load
processes, however the ActiveWarehouse ETL gem (installed separately) can help.
To install it use:
gem install activewarehouse-etl
Once again you should run this command as root or using sudo.
More information on the ETL process can be found at
http://activewarehouse.rubyforge.org/etl
== Tutorial
A tutorial for ActiveWarehouse is available online at
http://anthonyeden.com/2006/12/20/activewarehouse-example-with-rails-svn-logs
(Note that is is out of date.)
You can also get a demo from the ActiveWarehouse subversion repository. Look in
the SVN_ROOT/demo directory.
