The Data Warehouse Center is a metadata-driven system. Metadata, or information about your data, provides administrators and business users with descriptions of the data that is stored in the data warehouse. You can create information catalogs that describe business metadata in business terms, organize the metadata into subject areas, and customize it to your workgroup or enterprise's needs. Then, you can use the Information Catalog Manager to provide a graphical representation of data relationships and object definitions for warehouse steps.
The Information Catalog Manager provides a powerful, business-oriented solution to help users locate, understand, and access enterprise data. It enables business users to view aggregations, histories, data derivations, data sources, and descriptions of data.
The Information Catalog Manager consists of the following components: Information Catalog Manager Tools, Information Catalog Administrator, Information Catalog User, and the Information Catalog Manager for the Web.
The Information Catalog Manager Tools component includes the Information Catalog Administrator component and the information catalog initialization utility. You must run the information catalog initialization utility to create your information catalogs.
You can use the Information Catalog Administrator component to enable metadata exchange and to keep your information catalog current with the warehouse control database. The Information Catalog Administrator component includes utilities that extract descriptive data from many popular data and information sources, such as Oracle and Microsoft Excel. The Information Catalog Administrator component also includes a sample information catalog with data. See the Information Catalog Manager Administration Guide for more information about extractors and the sample information catalog.
After you install the Information Catalog Administrator component, you can access functions for both the Information Catalog Administrator component and the Information Catalog User component. The Information Catalog User component helps the business user understand the warehouse data through a browse-and-search interface. Using this interface, business users can launch any program or command file required to display the data or business object.
You can use the Information Catalog Manager for the Web to access information catalogs and obtain descriptions of available data, including format, currency, owner, and location. From any Web browser, users can run available helper applications to view data.