Oracle® OLAP Developer's Guide to the OLAP API 10g Release 2 (10.2) Part Number B14347-01 |
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This chapter describes the Oracle OLAP API Template
class and its related classes, which you use to create dynamic queries. This chapter also provides examples of implementations of those classes.
This chapter includes the following topics:
For the complete code of the examples in this chapter, see the example programs available from the Overview of the Oracle OLAP Java API Reference.
The Template
class is the basis of a very powerful feature of the Oracle OLAP API. You use Template
objects to create modifiable Source
objects. With those Source
objects, you can create dynamic queries that can change in response to end-user selections. Template
objects also offer a convenient way for you to translate user-interface elements into OLAP API operations and objects.
These features are briefly described in the following section. The rest of this chapter describes the Template
class and the other classes you use to create dynamic Source
objects. For information on the Transaction
objects that you use to make changes to the dynamic Source
and to either save or discard those changes, see Chapter 8, "Using a TransactionProvider".
The main feature of a Template
is its ability to produce a dynamic Source
. That ability is based on two of the other objects that a Template
uses: instances of the DynamicDefinition
and MetadataState
classes.
When a Source
is created, a SourceDefinition
is automatically created. The SourceDefinition
has information about how the Source
was created. Once created, the Source
and its SourceDefinition
are paired immutably. The getSource
method of a SourceDefinition
returns its paired Source
.
DynamicDefinition
is a subclass of SourceDefinition
. A Template
creates a DynamicDefinition
, which acts as a proxy for the SourceDefinition
of the Source
produced by the Template
. This means that instead of always getting the same immutably paired Source
, the getSource
method of the DynamicDefinition
gets whatever Source
is currently produced by the Template
. The instance of the DynamicDefinition
does not change even though the Source
that it gets is different.
The Source
that a Template
produces can change because the values, including other Source
objects, that the Template
uses to create the Source
can change. A Template
stores those values in a MetadataState
. A Template
provides methods to get the current state of the MetadataState
, to get or set a value, and to set the state. You use those methods to change the data values the MetadataState
stores.
You use a DynamicDefinition
to get the Source
produced by a Template
. If your application changes the state of the values that the Template
uses to create the Source
, for example, in response to end-user selections, then the application uses the same DynamicDefinition
to get the Source
again, even though the new Source
defines a result set different than the previous Source
.
The Source
produced by a Template
can be the result of a series of Source
operations that create other Source
objects, such as a series of selections, sorts, calculations, and joins. You put the code for those operations in the generateSource
method of a SourceGenerator
for the Template
. That method returns the Source
produced by the Template
. The operations use the data stored in the MetadataState
.
You might build an extremely complex query that involves the interactions of dynamic Source
objects produced by many different Template
objects. The end result of the query building is a Source
that defines the entire complex query. If you change the state of any one of the Template
objects that you used to create the final Source
, then the final Source
represents a result set different than that of the previous Source
. You can thereby modify the final query without having to reproduce all of the operations involved in defining the query.
You design Template
objects to represent elements of the user interface of an application. Your Template
objects turn the selections that the end user makes into OLAP API query-building operations that produce a Source
. You then create a Cursor
to fetch the result set defined by the Source
from Oracle OLAP. You get the values from the Cursor
and display them to the end user. When an end user makes changes to the selections, you change the state of the Template
. You then get the Source
produced by the Template
, create a new Cursor
, get the new values, and display them.
In the OLAP API, several classes work together to produce a dynamic Source
. In designing a Template
, you must implement or extend the following:
The Template
abstract class
The MetadataState
interface
The SourceGenerator
interface
Instances of those three classes, plus instances of other classes that Oracle OLAP creates, work together to produce the Source
that the Template
defines. The classes that Oracle OLAP provides, which you create by calling factory methods, are the following:
DataProvider
DynamicDefinition
The classes that produce a dynamic Source
work together as follows:
A Template
has methods that create a DynamicDefinition
and that get and set the current state of a MetadataState
. An extension to the Template
abstract class adds methods that get and set the values of fields on the MetadataState
.
The MetadataState
implementation has fields for storing the data to use in generating the Source
for the Template
. When you create a new Template
, you pass the MetadataState
to the constructor of the Template
. When you call the getSource
method of the DynamicDefinition
, the MetadataState
is passed to the generateSource
method of the SourceGenerator
.
The DataProvider
is used in creating a Template
and by the SourceGenerator
in creating new Source
objects.
The SourceGenerator
implementation has a generateSource
method that uses the current state of the data in the MetadataState
to produce a Source
for the Template
. You pass in the SourceGenerator
to the createDynamicDefinition
method of the Template
to create a DynamicDefinition
.
The DynamicDefinition
has a getSource
method that gets the Source
produced by the SourceGenerator
. The DynamicDefinition
serves as a proxy for the immutably paired SourceDefinition
of that Source
.
You use a Template
to produce a modifiable Source
. A Template
has methods for creating a DynamicDefinition
and for getting and setting the current state of the Template
. In extending the Template
class, you add methods that provide access to the fields on the MetadataState
for the Template
. The Template
creates a DynamicDefinition
that you use to get the Source
produced by the SourceGenerator
for the Template
.
For an example of a Template
implementation, see Example 11-1.
An implementation of the MetadataState
interface stores the current state of the values for a Template
. A MetadataState
must include a clone
method that creates a copy of the current state.
When instantiating a new Template
, you pass a MetadataState
to the Template
constructor. The Template
has methods for getting and setting the values stored by the MetadataState
. The generateSource
method of the SourceGenerator
for the Template
uses the MetadataState
when the method produces a Source
for the Template
.
For an example of a MetadataState
implementation, see Example 11-2.
An implementation of SourceGenerator
must include a generateSource
method, which produces a Source
for a Template
. A SourceGenerator
must produce only one type of Source
, such as a BooleanSource
, a NumberSource
, or a StringSource
. In producing the Source
, the generateSource
method uses the current state of the data represented by the MetadataState
for the Template
.
To get the Source
produced by the generateSource
method, you create a DynamicDefinition
by passing the SourceGenerator
to the createDynamicDefinition
method of the Template
. You then get the Source
by calling the getSource
method of the DynamicDefinition
.
A Template
can create more than one DynamicDefinition
, each with a differently implemented SourceGenerator
. The generateSource
methods of the different SourceGenerator
objects use the same data, as defined by the current state of the MetadataState
for the Template
, to produce Source
objects that define different queries.
For an example of a SourceGenerator
implementation, see Example 11-3.
DynamicDefinition
is a subclass of SourceDefinition
. You create a DynamicDefinition
by calling the createDynamicDefinition
method of a Template
and passing it a SourceGenerator
. You get the Source
produced by the SourceGenerator
by calling the getSource
method of the DynamicDefinition
.
A DynamicDefinition
created by a Template
is a proxy for the SourceDefinition
of the Source
produced by the SourceGenerator
. The SourceDefinition
is immutably paired to its Source
. If the state of the Template
changes, then the Source
produced by the SourceGenerator
is different. Because the DynamicDefinition
is a proxy, you use the same DynamicDefinition
to get the new Source
even though that Source
has a different SourceDefinition
.
The getCurrent
method of a DynamicDefinition
returns the SourceDefinition
immutably paired to the Source
that the generateSource
method currently returns. For an example of the use of a DynamicDefinition
, see Example 11-4.
The design of a Template
reflects the query-building elements of the user interface of an application. For example, suppose you want to develop an application that allows the end user to create a query that requests a number of values from the top or bottom of a list of values. The values are from one dimension of a measure. The other dimensions of the measure are limited to single values.
The user interface of your application has a dialog box that allows the end user to do the following:
Select a radio button that specifies whether the data values should be from the top or bottom of the range of values.
Select a measure from a drop-down list of measures.
Select a number from a field. The number specifies the number of data values to display.
Select one of the dimensions of the measure as the base of the data values to display. For example, if the user selects the product dimension, then the query specifies some number of products from the top or bottom of the list of products. The list is determined by the measure and the selected values of the other dimensions.
Click a button to bring up a Single Selections dialog box through which the end user selects the single values for the other dimensions of the selected measure. After selecting the values of the dimensions, the end user clicks an OK button on the second dialog box and returns to the first dialog box.
Click an OK button to generate the query. The results of the query appear.
To generate a Source
that represents the query that the end user creates in the first dialog box, you design a Template
called TopBottomTemplate
. You also design a second Template
, called SingleSelectionTemplate
, to create a Source
that represents the end user's selections of single values for the dimensions other than the base dimension. The designs of your Template
objects reflect the user interface elements of the dialog boxes.
In designing the TopBottomTemplate
and its MetadataState
and SourceGenerator
, you do the following:
Create a class called TopBottomTemplate
that extends Template
. To the class, you add methods that get the current state of the Template
, set the values specified by the user, and then set the current state of the Template
.
Create a class called TopBottomTemplateState
that implements MetadataState
. You provide fields on the class to store values for the SourceGenerator
to use in generating the Source
produced by the Template
. The values are set by methods of the TopBottomTemplate
.
Create a class called TopBottomTemplateGenerator
that implements SourceGenerator
. In the generateSource
method of the class, you provide the operations that create the Source
specified by the end user's selections.
Using your application, an end user selects units sold as the measure and products as the base dimension in the first dialog box. From the Single Selections dialog box, the end user selects the Asia Pacific region, the first quarter of 2001, and the direct sales channel as the single values for each of the remaining dimensions.
The query that the end user has created requests the ten products that have the highest total amount of units sold through the direct sales channel to customers in the Asia Pacific region during the calendar year 2001.
For examples of implementations of the TopBottomTemplate
, TopBottomTemplateState
, and TopBottomTemplateGenerator
classes, and an example of an application that uses them, see Example 11-1, Example 11-2, Example 11-3, and Example 11-4. The TopBottomTemplateState
and TopBottomTemplateGenerator
classes are implemented as inner classes of the TopBottomTemplate
outer class.
Example 11-1 is an implementation of the TopBottomTemplate
class.
Example 11-1 Implementing a Template
package globalExamples; import oracle.olapi.data.source.DataProvider; import oracle.olapi.data.source.DynamicDefinition; import oracle.olapi.data.source.Source; import oracle.olapi.data.source.SourceGenerator; import oracle.olapi.data.source.Template; import oracle.olapi.transaction.metadataStateManager.MetadataState; /** * Creates a TopBottomTemplateState, a TopBottomTemplateGenerator, * and a DynamicDefinition. Gets the current state of the * TopBottomTemplateState and the values it stores. Sets the data * values stored by the TopBottomTemplateState and sets the changed state as * the current state. */ public class TopBottomTemplate extends Template { // Constants for specifying the selection of elements from the // beginning or the end of the result set. public static final int TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP = 0; public static final int TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_BOTTOM = 1; // Variable to store the DynamicDefinition. private DynamicDefinition _definition; /** * Creates a TopBottomTemplate with a default type and number values * and the specified base dimension. */ public TopBottomTemplate(Source base, DataProvider dataProvider) { super(new TopBottomTemplateState(base, TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP, 0), dataProvider); // Create the DynamicDefinition for this Template. Create the // TopBottomTemplateGenerator that the DynamicDefinition uses. _definition = createDynamicDefinition(new TopBottomTemplateGenerator(dataProvider)); } /** * Gets the Source produced by the TopBottomTemplateGenerator * from the DynamicDefinition. */ public final Source getSource() { return _definition.getSource(); } /** * Gets the Source that is the base of the elements in the result set. * Returns null if the state has no base. */ public Source getBase() { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); return state.base; } /** * Sets a Source as the base. */ public void setBase(Source base) { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); state.base = base; setCurrentState(state); } /** * Gets the Source that specifies the measure and the single * selections from the dimensions other than the base. */ public Source getCriterion() { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); return state.criterion; } /** * Specifies a Source that defines the measure and the single values * selected from the dimensions other than the base. * The SingleSelectionTemplate produces such a Source. */ public void setCriterion(Source criterion) { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); state.criterion = criterion; setCurrentState(state); } /** * Gets the type, which is either TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP or * TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_BOTTOM. */ public int getTopBottomType() { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); return state.topBottomType; } /** * Sets the type. */ public void setTopBottomType(int topBottomType) { if ((topBottomType < TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP) || (topBottomType > TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_BOTTOM )) throw new IllegalArgumentException("InvalidTopBottomType"); TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); state.topBottomType = topBottomType; setCurrentState(state); } /** * Gets the number of values selected. */ public float getN() { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); return state.N; } /** * Sets the number of values to select. */ public void setN(float N) { TopBottomTemplateState state = (TopBottomTemplateState) getCurrentState(); state.N = N; setCurrentState(state); } }
Example 11-2 is an implementation of the TopBottomTemplateState
inner class.
Example 11-2 Implementing a MetadataState
/** * Stores data that can be changed by its TopBottomTemplate. * The data is used by a TopBottomTemplateGenerator in producing * a Source for the TopBottomTemplate. */ private static final class TopBottomTemplateState implements Cloneable, MetadataState { public int topBottomType; public float N; public Source criterion; public Source base; /** * Creates a TopBottomTemplateState. */ public TopBottomTemplateState(Source base, int topBottomType, float N) { this.base = base; this.topBottomType = topBottomType; this.N = N; } /** * Creates a copy of this TopBottomTemplateState. */ public final Object clone() { try { return super.clone(); } catch(CloneNotSupportedException e) { return null; } } }
Example 11-3 is an implementation of the TopBottomTemplateGenerator
inner class.
Example 11-3 Implementing a SourceGenerator
/** * Produces a Source for a TopBottomTemplate based on the data * values of a TopBottomTemplateState. */ private final class TopBottomTemplateGenerator implements SourceGenerator { // Store the DataProvider. private DataProvider _dataProvider; /** * Creates a TopBottomTemplateGenerator. */ public TopBottomTemplateGenerator(DataProvider dataProvider) { _dataProvider = dataProvider; } /** * Generates a Source for a TopBottomTemplate using the current * state of the data values stored by the TopBottomTemplateState. */ public Source generateSource(MetadataState state) { TopBottomTemplateState castState = (TopBottomTemplateState) state; if (castState.criterion == null) throw new NullPointerException("CriterionParameterMissing"); Source sortedBase = null; if (castState.topBottomType == TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP) sortedBase = castState.base.sortDescending(castState.criterion); else sortedBase = castState.base.sortAscending(castState.criterion); return sortedBase.interval(1, Math.round(castState.N)); } }
After you have stored the selections made by the end user in the MetadataState
for the Template
, use the getSource
method of the DynamicDefinition
to get the dynamic Source
created by the Template
. This section provides an example of an application that uses the TopBottomTemplate
described in Example 11-1. For brevity, the code does not contain much exception handling.
The Context10g
class used in the example has methods that do the following:
Connects to an Oracle Database instance as the specified user.
Provides the OLAP Catalog metadata objects for the measure and the dimensions selected by the end user.
Creates Cursor
objects and displays their values.
Example 11-4 does the following:
Creates a Context10g
object and from it gets the DataProvider
and the TransactionProvider
.
From the Context10g
object, gets the MdmMeasure
and the MdmPrimaryDimension
objects that it uses.
Creates a SingleSelectionTemplate
for selecting single values from some of the dimensions of the measure. For the code of the SingleSelectionTemplate
class that this example uses, see Appendix B.
Creates a TopBottomTemplate
and stores selections made by the end user.
Gets the Source
produced by the TopBottomTemplate
.
Uses the Context10g
object to create a Cursor
for that Source
and to display its values.
To use Example 8-2 from Chapter 8, replace the lines in the run
method from the following comment to the end of the method
// Replace from here on for the Using Child Transaction example.
You can also get the complete code for the examples from the Oracle OLAP Java API Reference..
Example 11-4 Getting the Source Produced by the Template
import oracle.olapi.data.source.DataProvider; import oracle.olapi.data.source.Source; import oracle.olapi.data.source.StringSource; import oracle.olapi.transaction.Transaction; import oracle.olapi.transaction.TransactionProvider; import oracle.olapi.transaction.NotCommittableException; import oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmDimensionMemberInfo; import oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmHierarchy; import oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmMeasure; import oracle.olapi.metadata.mdm.MdmPrimaryDimension; import java.util.Iterator; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; /** * Creates a query that specifies a number of elements from the top * or bottom of a selection of dimension members, creates a Cursor * for the query, and displays the values of the Cursor. * The selected dimension members are those that have measure values * that are specified by selected members of the other dimensions of * the measure. */ public class TopBottomTest { /** * Creates a Context10g object that connects to an Oracle Database instance. * Gets the MdmMeasure for the Global schema UNITS measure * and the MdmPrimaryDimension objects for that measure. * Gets the default hierarchies for the dimensions and then gets the Source * object for the base of the query. * Creates a SingleSelectionTemplate and adds selections to it. * Creates a TopBottomTemplate and sets its properties. * Gets the Source produced by the TopBottomTemplate, creates a Cursor * for it, and displays the values of the Cursor. * Changes the state of the SingleSelectionTemplate and the * TopBottomTemplate, creates a new Cursor for the Source produced by the * TopBottomTemplate, and displays the values of that Cursor. */ public void run(String[] args) { // Create a Context10g object and get the DataProvider and // TransactionProvider from it. Context10g context = new Context10g(args, false); DataProvider dp = context.getDataProvider(); TransactionProvider tp = context.getTransactionProvider(); // Get the MdmMeasure for the measure. MdmMeasure mdmUnits = context.getMdmMeasureByName("UNITS"); // Get the Source for the measure. Source units = mdmUnits.getSource(); // Get the MdmPrimaryDimension objects for the dimensions of the measure. MdmPrimaryDimension[] mdmPrimDims = context.getMdmPrimaryDimensionsByName(new String[] {"CUSTOMER", "PRODUCT", "CHANNEL", "TIME"}); MdmPrimaryDimension mdmCustDim = mdmPrimDims[0]; MdmPrimaryDimension mdmProdDim = mdmPrimDims[1]; MdmPrimaryDimension mdmChanDim = mdmPrimDims[2]; MdmPrimaryDimension mdmTimeDim = mdmPrimDims[3]; // Get the default hierarchy of the Product dimension. MdmHierarchy mdmProdRollup = mdmProdDim.getDefaultHierarchy(); // Get the StringSource for the hierarchy. StringSource prodRollup = (StringSource) mdmProdRollup.getSource(); // Create a SingleSelectionTemplate to produce a Source that // represents the measure values specified by single members of each of // the dimensions of the measure other than the base dimension. SingleSelectionTemplate singleSelections = new SingleSelectionTemplate(units, dp); // Create MdmDimensionMemberInfo objects for single members of the // other dimensions of the measure. MdmDimensionMemberInfo timeMemInfo = new MdmDimensionMemberInfo(mdmTimeDim, "CALENDAR::YEAR::4"); MdmDimensionMemberInfo custMemInfo = new MdmDimensionMemberInfo(mdmCustDim, "SHIPMENTS_ROLLUP::REGION::8"); MdmDimensionMemberInfo chanMemInfo = new MdmDimensionMemberInfo(mdmChanDim, "CHANNEL_ROLLUP::CHANNEL::2"); // Add the dimension member information objects to the // SingleSelectionTemplate. singleSelections.addDimMemberInfo(custMemInfo); singleSelections.addDimMemberInfo(chanMemInfo); singleSelections.addDimMemberInfo(timeMemInfo); // Create a TopBottomTemplate specifying, as the base, the Source for a // a hierarchy of a dimension. TopBottomTemplate topNBottom = new TopBottomTemplate(prodRollup, dp); // Specify whether to retrieve the elements from the beginning (top) or the // end (bottom) of the selected elements of the base dimension. topNBottom.setTopBottomType(TopBottomTemplate.TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_TOP); // Set the number of elements of the base dimension to retrieve. topNBottom.setN(10); // Get the Source produced by the SingleSelectionTemplate and specify it as // the criterion object. topNBottom.setCriterion(singleSelections.getSource()); // Prepare and commit the current transaction. try { tp.prepareCurrentTransaction(); } catch(NotCommittableException e) { context.println("Cannot commit the current Transaction. " + e); } tp.commitCurrentTransaction(); // Replace from here on for the Using Child Transaction Objects example. // Get the short value descriptions of the dimension members from the // SingleSelectionTemplate. StringBuffer shortDescrsForMemberVals = singleSelections.getMemberShortDescrs(dp, tp); context.println("\nThe " + Math.round(topNBottom.getN()) + " products with the most units sold \nfor" + shortDescrsForMemberVals +" are:\n"); // Get the Source produced by the TopBottomTemplate, create a Cursor // for it, and display the values of the Cursor. Source result = topNBottom.getSource(); context.displayTopBottomResult(result); // Change a dimension member selection of the SingleSelectionTemplate. timeMemInfo.setUniqueValue("CALENDAR::YEAR::3"); singleSelections.changeSelection(timeMemInfo); // After changing the selection of a dimension member, get the short value // descriptions of the dimension members again. StringBuffer shortDescrsForMemberValsAfter = singleSelections.getMemberShortDescrs(dp, tp); // Change the number of elements selected and the type of selection. topNBottom.setN(5); topNBottom.setTopBottomType(TopBottomTemplate.TOP_BOTTOM_TYPE_BOTTOM); // Prepare and commit the current transaction. try { tp.prepareCurrentTransaction(); } catch(NotCommittableException e) { context.println("Cannot commit the current Transaction. " + e); } tp.commitCurrentTransaction(); context.println("\nThe " + Math.round(topNBottom.getN()) + " products " + "with the fewest units sold \nfor" + shortDescrsForMemberValsAfter + " are:\n"); // Create a new Cursor for the Source produced by the TopBottomTemplate // and display the Cursor values. context.displayTopBottomResult(result); } /** * Runs the TopBottomTest application. * * @param args An array of String objects that provides the arguments * required to connect to an Oracle Database instance, as * specified in the Context10g class. */ public static void main(String[] args) { new TopBottomTest().run(args); }
}
The TopBottomTest
program produces the following output.
The 10 products with the most units sold for Asia Pacific, Direct Sales, 2001 are: 1. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::TOTAL_PRODUCT::1 2. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::CLASS::3 3. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::FAMILY::7 4. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::CLASS::2 5. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::FAMILY::9 6. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::FAMILY::6 7. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::FAMILY::11 8. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::30 9. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::28 10. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::47 The 5 products with the fewest units sold for Asia Pacific, Direct Sales, 2000 are: 1. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::44 2. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::36 3. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::43 4. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::38 5. PRODUCT_ROLLUP::ITEM::21