Abstract:
Extraction-Transformation-Loading (ETL) tools are pieces of software
responsible for the extraction of data from several sources, their cleansing,
customization and insertion into a data warehouse. Literature and personal
experience have guided us to conclude that the problems concerning the ETL
tools are primarily problems of complexity, usability and price. To deal with
these problems we provide a uniform metamodel for ETL processes, covering the
aspects of data warehouse architecture, activity modeling, contingency
treatment and quality management. The ETL tool we have developed, namely
ARKTOS, is capable of modeling and executing practical ETL scenarios by
providing explicit primitives for the capturing of common tasks.
provides three ways to describe an ETL scenario: a graphical point-and-click
front end and two declarative languages: XADL (an XML variant), which is more
verbose and easy to read and SADL (an SQL-like language) which has a quite
compact syntax and is, thus, easier for authoring.
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