The Data Webhouse Toolkit Building the Web-Enabled Data Warehouse

by Kimball, Ralph; Merz, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780471376804
• ISBN10: 0471376809
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-03
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The companion Website at www.wiley.com/compbooks/kimball provides updates on Webhouse technologies and techniques, as well as links to related sites and resources.

Author Biography

RALPH KIMBALL, PhD, has been a leading visionary in the data warehouse industry since 1982 and is one of today&#146;s most well-known speakers, consultants, and teachers. He writes the "Webhouse Architect" column for Intelligent Enterprise magazine and is the author of the bestselling books The Data Warehouse Toolkit and The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit (both from Wiley).<BR>

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(1)
Building the Infrastructure for the Revolution	1	(3)
The Data Webhouse	3	(1)
What This Book Is About	4	(17)
Who the Book Is For	7	(1)
What You Need to Know	8	(1)
How to Use This Book	9	(1)
The Purpose of Each Chapter	10	(8)
Goals of a Data Webhouse	18	(1)
Goals of the Book	19	(2)
PART ONE BRINGING THE WEB TO THE WAREHOUSE	21	(178)
Why Bring the Web to the Warehouse?	23	(18)
Why the Clickstream Is Not Just Another Data Source	24	(2)
Analyzing Behavior	26	(3)
Ensuring Privacy	29	(1)
The Webhouse Architecture	30	(8)
The User and the ISP	33	(1)
The Public Web Server and Business Transactions	33	(1)
The Hot Response Cache	34	(3)
The Data Webhouse System	37	(1)
Summary	38	(3)
Tracking Website User Actions	41	(28)
A Brief Catalog of User Actions	44	(2)
Steps in Product Purchase	46	(5)
Recognition of Need	46	(1)
Trying to Find What's Needed	46	(1)
Searching for Information about Alternatives	47	(1)
Selection	47	(1)
Cross-Selling and Up-Selling	47	(3)
Checkout	50	(1)
Post-Order Processing	51	(1)
Steps in Software or Content Purchase	51	(1)
Trials and Demos	52	(1)
Elements of Tracking	52	(7)
User Origin	53	(1)
Session Identification	54	(2)
User Identification	56	(3)
Behavioral Analysis	59	(4)
Entry Point	60	(1)
Dwell	60	(1)
Querying	61	(1)
Intra-Site Navigation	61	(2)
Exit Point	63	(1)
Associating Diverse Actions	63	(1)
The Requirements of Personalization	64	(4)
Recognition of Re-visits	64	(1)
User Interface and Content Personalization	65	(1)
Collateral and Impulse Sales	65	(1)
Active Collaborative Filtering	66	(1)
Calendar and Lifestyle Events	66	(1)
Localization	66	(2)
Summary	68	(1)
Using the Clickstream to Make Decisions	69	(22)
Decisions About Identifying and Recognizing Customers	71	(6)
Customizing Marketing Activities by Identifying Your Customers	71	(2)
Targeting Marketing Activities by Clustering Your Customers	73	(2)
Deciding Whether to Encourage or Support a Referring Cross-Link	75	(1)
Deciding Whether a Customer Is About to Leave Us	76	(1)
Decisions About Communicating	77	(6)
Deciding Whether a Particular Web Ad Is Working	77	(1)
Deciding If Custom Greetings Are Working	78	(2)
Deciding If a Promotion Is Profitable	80	(1)
Responding to a Customer's Life Change	81	(1)
Improving the Effectiveness of Your Website	82	(1)
Fostering a Sense of Community	83	(1)
Fundamental Decisions About Your Web Business	83	(6)
Deciding Which Products and Services We Provide over the Web	84	(1)
Providing Real Time Status Tracking of Our Operations	85	(2)
Determining If Our Web Business Is Profitable	87	(2)
Summary	89	(2)
Understanding the Clickstream as a Data Source	91	(22)
Web Client/Server Interactions---A Brief Tutorial	92	(3)
Basic Client / Server Interaction	92	(2)
Advertisements	94	(1)
The Referrer	94	(1)
The Profiler	94	(1)
Composite Sites	95	(1)
Proxy Servers and Browser Caches	95	(2)
Browser Caches	97	(1)
Web Server Logs	97	(8)
Host	99	(2)
Ident	101	(1)
Authuser	101	(1)
Time	101	(1)
Request	101	(1)
Status	102	(1)
Bytes	102	(1)
Referrer	102	(1)
User-Agent	102	(2)
Filename	104	(1)
Time-to-Serve	104	(1)
IP Address	104	(1)
Server Port	104	(1)
Process ID	105	(1)
URL	105	(1)
Cookies	105	(5)
Cookie Contents	107	(1)
Cookie Tutorial---Examining Your Own Cookie File	108	(2)
Universal System Identifiers	110	(1)
Query Strings	110	(2)
Templates	111	(1)
Summary	112	(1)
Designing the Website to Support Warehousing	113	(16)
Monolithic vs. Distributed Web Servers	114	(1)
Synchronize Your Servers	115	(4)
Time Synchronization Tools and Techniques	116	(3)
Content Labels for Pages	119	(3)
Content Indexes for Static HTML	120	(1)
Content Indexes for Dynamic HTML	121	(1)
A Simple Content Index Application	121	(1)
Consistent Cookies	122	(1)
Null Logging Server	123	(3)
Personal Data Repository	126	(1)
Building Trust	127	(1)
Special Issues in Collecting Information from Children	127	(1)
Summary	128	(1)
Building Clickstream Data Marts	129	(40)
A Lightning Tour of Dimensional Modeling	129	(10)
Stringing Stars Together	134	(5)
Clickstream Dimensions	139	(19)
Calendar Date Dimension	139	(3)
Time of Day Dimension	142	(1)
Customer Dimension	143	(5)
Page Dimension	148	(1)
Event Dimension	149	(1)
Session Dimension	150	(1)
Referral Dimension	151	(1)
Product (or Service) Dimension	152	(2)
Causal Dimension	154	(1)
Business Entity Dimension	155	(2)
Clickstream Tracking Keys	157	(1)
The Clickstream Data Mart	158	(10)
A Clickstream Fact Table to Analyze Complete Sessions	159	(4)
A Clickstream Fact Table to Analyze Individual Page Use	163	(4)
Aggregate Clickstream Fact Tables	167	(1)
Summary	168	(1)
Assembling Clickstream Value Chains	169	(18)
The Sales Transaction Data Mart	170	(1)
The Customer Communication Data Mart	171	(1)
The Web Profitability Data Mart	172	(4)
A Supply Chain for a Web Retailer	176	(2)
A Policies and Claims Chain for Insurance	178	(2)
A Sales Pipeline Chain	180	(2)
A Health Care Value Circle	182	(3)
Summary	185	(2)
Implementing the Clickstream Post-Processor	187	(12)
Post-Processor Architecture	189	(8)
The Page Event Extractor	191	(1)
The Content Resolver	192	(1)
The Session Identifier	192	(1)
Computing Dwell Time	193	(2)
Host and Referrer Resolver	195	(2)
Summary	197	(2)
PART TWO BRINGING THE WAREHOUSE TO THE WEB	199	(156)
Why Bring the Warehouse to the Web?	201	(14)
The Web Pulls the Data Warehouse	202	(2)
The Web Pushes the Data Warehouse	204	(8)
Tightening the User Interface Feedback Loop	205	(1)
Mixing Query and Update	206	(1)
Speed Is Nonnegotiable	206	(1)
The Sun Never Sets on the Data Webhouse	207	(1)
Multimedia Merges into Communication	208	(1)
The Web Is Mass Customization	209	(1)
The Webhouse Is Profoundly Distributed	210	(1)
We Must Face Security and Its Cousin, Privacy	211	(1)
Summary	212	(3)
Designing the User Experience	215	(36)
How the Second Revolution Differs from the First	215	(2)
Second Generation User Interface Guidelines	217	(31)
Ensure Near-Instantaneous Performance	217	(9)
Meet User Expectations	226	(8)
Make Each Page a Pleasant Experience	234	(3)
Streamline Processes	237	(2)
Reassure Users	239	(2)
Provide a Means for Resolving Problems	241	(2)
Build Trust	243	(3)
Provide Communication Hooks	246	(1)
Support International Transparency	247	(1)
Summary	248	(3)
Driving Data Mining from the Webhouse	251	(18)
The Roots of Data Mining	252	(1)
The Activities of Data Mining	253	(2)
Preparing for Data Mining	255	(6)
Data Transformations for Webhouses in General	255	(1)
Data Transformations for all Forms of Data Mining	256	(3)
Special Data Transformations Depending on the Data Mining Tool	259	(2)
Handling the Data to the Data Miner	261	(4)
OLAP, Data Mining, and the Webhouse	265	(1)
Summary	266	(3)
Creating an International Data Webhouse	269	(26)
The Evolving International Web	270	(8)
UNICODE	271	(2)
Parallel Hypertext and Machine Translation	273	(2)
Multilingual Search	275	(1)
Time Zone Converter Services	276	(1)
Holiday Lookup Services	277	(1)
International Webhouse Techniques	278	(14)
Synchronize Multiple Time Zones and Time Formats	278	(2)
Support Multiple National Calendars and Date Formats	280	(1)
Collect Revenue in Multiple Currencies	281	(3)
Handle International Names and Addresses	284	(6)
Support Variable Number Formats	290	(1)
Support International Telephone Numbers	290	(1)
Handle Multinational Queries, Reports, and Collating Sequences	290	(2)
Apply Localization in the Data Webhouse	292	(1)
Summary	292	(3)
Data Webhouse Security	295	(12)
Recommended Security Techniques	297	(8)
Provide Two-Factor Authentication	297	(3)
Secure the Connection	300	(2)
Connect the Authenticated User to a Role	302	(2)
Access All Webhouse Objects Through the Roles	304	(1)
Manage a Security Process, Not a Solution	305	(1)
Summary	306	(1)
Scaling the Webhouse	307	(18)
The Webhouse Is Not the Web Server	308	(1)
Explosive Changes in Clickstream Activity	309	(5)
Web-Enabled Population Growth	310	(1)
Increasing Click Rates	311	(1)
User-Level Auto-Search	312	(1)
Deeper Economic Penetration	312	(1)
Sudden Fame	312	(1)
IP as a Universal Transport Protocol	313	(1)
XML---Universal Transfer	313	(1)
Explosive Changes in Demand for Data Warehouse Services	314	(1)
Critical Bottlenecks in Hardware and Software	314	(8)
Avoiding the Single Bottleneck	315	(2)
Avoiding Process Duplication	317	(1)
Physical Considerations: Co-Location	317	(1)
Operating Systems	318	(1)
Programming Languages	319	(1)
Databases	319	(1)
Query and Reporting Software	320	(1)
Balance the Use of E-Mail and Links	321	(1)
Hardware Characteristics	321	(1)
The Granularity Tradeoff	322	(1)
Summary	323	(2)
Managing the Webhouse Project	325	(18)
Define the Project	326	(2)
Identify the Roles	328	(9)
Front Office: Sponsors and Drivers	328	(2)
Coaches: Project Managers and Leads	330	(1)
Regular Lineup: Core Project Team	331	(6)
Gather Business Requirements and Audit Data	337	(2)
Plan and Manage the Implementation	339	(1)
Launch the System	340	(1)
Loop Back and Do It Again	341	(1)
Summary	341	(2)
The Future of Webhousing	343	(12)
CRM Will Continue to Drive Data Webhousing	344	(1)
Describing Behavior Better	345	(1)
We Will Finally Need Data Mining	346	(2)
ISPs Own a Gold Mine	348	(1)
Wanted: Better Search Engines	349	(1)
Is Data Winning the War over Storage and Speed?	350	(1)
Full Inversion of Databases	351	(1)
Website Application Logs	351	(1)
Everything Is a Module	352	(1)
Summary	353	(2)
Glossary of Abbreviations and Terms	355	(32)
Bibliography	387	(4)
Index	391