Oracle Openworld 2016 saw the latest Oracle database version announced with immediate availability in the cloud – 12.2. Unfortunately this is not yet available on-premise however a free trial can be obtained over at cloud.oracle.com. This release contains some exciting stuff such as 128 byte identifiers (up from 30), additional approximation aggregates over and above APPROX_COUNT_DISTINCT and enhancements to some existing functions such as a trimming option for LISTAGG. However most exciting to us here at Beyond is probably the Analytic View. This is a database feature which allows the representation of a star schema data model within the database (including hierarchical dimensions), with a simplified query syntax. Moreover it allows a complete set of complementary metadata to be stored within the database itself, which can then in turn be utilised by your application. Essentially an encapsulation of the OLAP cube within a database object (or several objects to be precise).
Over the coming weeks/months I’ll be posting some in-depth examples and studies of analytic views so watch this space!