Technology for generating a model in response to user selection of data

A computer program product for dynamically generating a model for a report, the computer program product including a computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for execution by a computer system, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to implement a method comprising:

• presenting a user with source data by a source application module, the source data being presented to the user by the source application module in a unitary structure of rows and columns, rather than as a plurality of tables, wherein the source data is available for producing a report;
• receiving selections from the user indicating portions of the source data to potentially include in the report, the selections including user selected ones of the columns and user selected rows of the respective columns;
• and
• generating, by a computer system builder module in response to receiving the user selections a star-schema-based, analytic processing model for the user selected portions of the source data,
• where the generating includes the computer system builder module converting the unitary structure of the user selected columns and user selected rows of the source data into a central fact table and dimension tables for the star-schema-based, analytic processing model, and
• where the computer system builder module performs the converting automatically, where the automatic converting includes:
• the computer system builder module automatically creating the central fact table in response to one of the user selected columns being a column having metric data, including automatically creating respective key columns of the central fact table for respective ones of the dimension tables, and
• the computer system builder module automatically selecting between:
• automatically adding a column to one of the dimension tables in response to a nesting structure of the user selected ones of the columns and user selected rows of the respective columns, and
• creating one of the dimension tables.

A system for dynamically generating a model for a report, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium connected to the processor, wherein the computer readable storage medium has stored thereon a program for controlling the processor, and wherein the processor is operative with the program to execute the program for:
• presenting a user with source data by a source application module, the source data being presented to the user by the source application module in a unitary structure of rows and columns, rather than as a plurality of tables, wherein the source data is available for producing a report or query;
• receiving selections from the user indicating portions of the source data to potentially include in the report, the selections including user selected ones of the columns and user selected rows of the respective columns;
• and
• generating, by a computer system builder module in response to receiving the user selections, a star-schema-based, analytic processing model for the user selected portions of the source data,
• where the generating includes the computer system builder module converting the unitary structure of the user selected columns and user selected rows of the source data into a central fact table and dimension tables for the star-schema-based, analytic processing model, and
• where the computer system builder module performs the converting automatically, where the automatic converting includes:
• the computer system builder module automatically creating the central fact table in response to one of the user selected columns being a column having metric data, including automatically creating respective key columns of the central fact table for respective ones of the dimension tables, and
• the computer system builder module automatically selecting between:
• automatically adding a column to one of the dimension tables in response to a nesting structure of the user selected ones of the columns and user selected rows of the respective columns, and
• creating one of the dimension tables.