Common Warehouse Metamodel: An Introduction to the Standard for Data Warehouse Integration (Paperback)

by John Poole (Author), Dan Chang (Author), Douglas Tolbert (Author), David Mellor (Author) "The Common Warehouse Metamodel is an open industry standard defining a common metamodel and XML-based interchange format for meta data in the data warehousing and..." (more)
Key Phrases: meta data integration architecture, meta data bridges, shared meta data, Warehouse Manager, Enablement Showcase, Core's Package (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The official guide to programming with the revolutionary data-sharing technology
The Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) is the new OMG standard that makes the sharing of data seamless. The CWM standard development team provides developers with a complete overview of what CWM is and how it works. After acquainting readers with the CWM architecture and how each CWM component fits into existing database and data warehouse architectures, the authors provide expert guidance on how to plan for, implement, and deploy CWM technologies.
Companion Web site features updates on CWM technologies, descriptions of tools, and links to vendor sites.

From the Back Cover
"The time has come for the consumers themselves to step forward and to specify a standard for meta data semantics and meta data exchange. This book is an important first step in that direction."
–W. H. Inmon, from the Foreword

The Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) is rapidly gaining momentum within the data warehousing and business analysis communities, and is being incorporated into the next generation of data warehousing products and tools. This new standard for meta data interchange, which was developed by the Object Management Group (OMG), provides for seamless integration of data warehouses–– a critical ingredient for sharing data within and across organizations.

This book provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of CWM. The authors are among the key developers of the CWM standard, and they give you an intimate understanding of how to develop and implement CWM applications for data warehousing and business analysis. They also explain how CWM relates to both established and forthcoming standards for system integration and interoperability.

The book covers everything you’ll need to know to begin planning your own CWM projects, including:

• An overview of the core metamodeling technologies that CWM employs, including Meta Object Facility (MOF), Unified Modeling Language (UML), XML Meta Data Interchange (XMI), and Interface Definition Language (IDL)
• How CWM extends the OMG Metamodeling Architecture into the data warehousing and business analysis domains
• Concrete examples of how CWM is used to model various real-world data warehousing applications

The Web site contains updates to the CWM technology, descriptions of tools, and links to vendors.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471200522
• ISBN-13: 978-0471200529
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,344,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The emperor has no clothes, June 9, 2002

By	David C. Hay "Dave" (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ok, I am a known heretic. I am not impressed by the CWM model. It is oriented toward the object-oriented implementation of a tool for metadata exchange, not toward representing the things business people would be looking for in a meta data repository.

This book is better than the on-line specification at describing the model--which was really incomprehensible--but this is at the expense of completeness. Definitions are not available for all classes and the ones that are are not clear (to me at least). The relationships are barely defined at all.

In fairness, the model is so complex that it may not be possible to describe clearly to anyone not deeply immersed in the language of object-orientation. The team of authors is further hampered by its use of UML. The notation does not permit a complete inheritance tree to be portrayed in a diagram if the diagram is of less than the entire model. Two classes may be related, but you can't see this because the relationship is between great grandparents, shown on a different page.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worryingly vague and unimplementable, September 6, 2003

By	Frank Carver (Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

I'll say at the start that this is not my kind of book. I prefer books which are useful, enlightening or both. This didn't seem to be either. From page 3: "The mission of this book is to provide a single, coherent, and comprehensive overview of the OMG's Common Warehouse Metamodel, which is easy to read.". It may be slightly easier to read than the raw specification, but it's a lot less useful. The most telling point is further down the same page where it admits to really being just an introduction to a forthcoming "Warehouse Metamodel Developers Guide".

For an overview, the book is really short on examples. It's got lots of vague UML diagrams and pretty pictures like you might see on a powerpoint slide, but not a single worked example to show how all the buzzwords and technologies might actually fit together. I also have great problems with their use of UML as a language to actually specify data models, processes and so on. For me UML is a tool to help express intentions to people, not supply details to processing software, but this book seems to ignore the difference.

If you know nothing about meta-modelling, and want the sort of information you can get from the slides of a conference presentation, this may be a useful book. If you want to understand the details, or (gosh) actually get a job done, then this book will just frustrate you.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent documentation reference, February 15, 2002

By A Customer

By far, the finest presentation of a new (to me) concept I have seen in a long time. Structure of book is ideal, with a strong writing style, fantastic use of graphics, and examples that aid in understanding. I knew virtually nothing about CWM before reading this book -- I know a good deal now. Excellent, understandable writing style combined with superb technical information...a definite "stew" for the CWM-hungry mind. Bon appetit!