What about a meta-data repository, and a catalog of all those columns and the relationships (or lack thereof) between them. (assuming the users would use such a thing). Would that not help eliminate the problem you are concerned about?
RF Robert G. Freeman - Oracle OCP Oracle Database Architect CSX Midtier Database Administration Author Oracle9i RMAN Backup and Recovery (Oracle Press - Oct 2002) Oracle9i New Features�(Oracle Press) Mastering Oracle8i� (Sybex) Clark Griswold: Eddie,�has anyone�ever told you that you're bad luck? Cousin Eddie: Those were my mother's dying words. But I guess if your body's covered in third degree burns, and your foot's caught in a bear trap, you tend to start talkin' crazy. -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 4:35 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Paul, Yes and no. As I understand datamarts, you do some renormalization, and you make sure that the end user looking at the data will have a reasonable chance of getting good information out from their queries. What is being suggested here is access to a clone of the Prod OLAP system. Many of these tables have similarly or identically named fields that ARE NOT foreign keys. Someone blindly building queries will almost certainly get erroneous information. My concern isn't "I don't want end users in the data", it's "I don't want the end users making business decisions on data and not information". In general, I agree that it is the end users data, but then they might be to two year olds matches too. I feel no moral compunction to let them be burned.... John P Weatherman Database Administrator Replacements Ltd. -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 3:32 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Cognos notwithstanding, isn't the objective in the case of Data Warehouse/DSS/Reporting/BI (or whatever the latest buzzword is for generating reports) to give end-users access to the data. These end-users then generate the own reports, without the need for IT every time they need a new total on a report? Sure I understand the need to prevent cartesian products and other queries from hell, but there are ways to achieve that. I fail to understand why the end-users shouldn't have access to the data, it is THEIR data, after all, not the DBA's. Paul -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 12:08 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Anybody have any experience with "Cognos"? We've got a bhb that thinks its the solution for giving every end user access to the raw data (groan...loudly!)... I've argued every which-a-way against the concept, now I have to fight the specifics.... HELP! John P Weatherman Database Administrator Replacements Ltd. -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: John Weatherman INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: John Weatherman INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Freeman, Robert INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
