A Decision Support System (DSS) coalescer offloads and transforms data
from an online statistical gathering database to a report query database
adapted for report generation. The coalescer generates and populates a
query database structured for query data retrieval, in contrast to
realtime access transaction storage as in the online database.
Configurations transform the online database into a star join schema
(table structure) that centralizes database "facts" in a central table
and forms associations to database "dimensions" upon which a query is
likely to be based. The facts refer to items which tend to change
regularly over time, such as sales volumes and unit shipped. Conversely,
the dimensions include more static values such as time (e.g. days, weeks,
and quarters) and geographic regions, such as states and countries. The
resulting query model (schema) includes relatively small dimensions
tables associated with (i.e. having a schema association to) a relatively
larger fact table.