OLAP Applications for ALL: Gentia on the Web  
 
 
Planning Sciences International LimitedAbstract 

Introduction and Background  The Role of Data Warehousing and OLAP on the Web 
Gentia, an architecture for the Internet 
Gentia and the World Wide Web  Summary 

Abstract 
There has been much talk and hype over the last year or so about the 'Information Superhighway' or Internet. The manifestation of this that most people have seen is the 'World Wide Web', a system that allows HyperText links within and between documents stored on computers across the Internet. 
This short paper communicates what progress Planning Sciences has so far made with its presence on the 'Net' and what future product enhancements and new features will be delivered over the next twelve months to provide true Internet and World Wide Web interoperability. 

Introduction and Background 
What is the Internet? 

The Internet started as US military computer network, allowing data to be easily distributed around the world. This network was then joined by academic networks and then commercial networks. The Internet currently has around 50,000 servers and 30 million users world-wide, but this number is growing daily. 
Initially, being usually based around UNIX as the operating system employed on Internet sites, the interface provided was character based, with complex and arcane syntax required to find resources across the network. This system cried out for an easier way to manage the documents and the method of retrieval. Several utilities existed for the access of Internet based data, including file search mechanisms such as Gopher. In order to speed the access of linked information, a standard format was developed in which to present Internet documents. 

What is HTML? 
HTML stands for HyperText Mark-up Language. This is a  language used to describe the format of electronic documents. It also allows the definition of HyperText links to other parts of the same document, another document on the same server, or another document on another server. 
The connection and access to documents is controlled by a server process, called a Web server. This approach was originally developed by physicists at CERN to share information and data with other researchers around the world, hence the name, World Wide Web. 
Documents are viewed using a Web Browser, popularised by Netscape, based upon original browser, MOSAIC from the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in the US. These browsers allow relatively low specification client machines to access the Web servers. Access to these servers is via a local Internet Service Provider which provides a Point of Presence (POP) into the Internet. TCP/IP is used as the global networking protocol. 
The provision of information through this medium has now become very popular with commercial concerns as a way of disseminating company and product information. Because of the low power client machine required and the intuitive nature of HyperText, this type of data access is also now emerging as a mechanism for internal information systems. An HTML server is located on a company's network and documents viewed using a browser. Since only the internal company network is utilised, this has become known as Intranet. 
What is Java? 
According to the marketing blurb, Java is.... 
"...designed to meet the challenges of application development in the context of heterogeneous, network-wide distributed environments. Paramount among these challenges is secure delivery of applications that consume minimum system resources, can run on any hardware and software platform, and can be extended dynamically." 
This sounds not very much different from the design goals of Gentia! Java, however is a general purpose programming language, rather than one designed to support the manipulation of multi dimensional data sets. As such it is on its way to being the de facto standard for Internet and Web applications, with endorsements and licensing by the likes of IBM and Microsoft. 

The Role of Data Warehousing and OLAP on the Web