Multi-dimensional data processing alternatives

Question

I am looking for a multi-dimensional data processing but without having to use any OLAP. For example, I have a table of sales transactions. I would like to have the total sales on many dimensions like Product, State, Region, Time (monthly, quarterly) etc. The dimensions on which I need the measure (Total Sales) is dynamic and is known only at run time.

I can accomplish this using OLAP technologies (cubes). But I am looking for simpler alternatives (Open source) like possibility of using key-value databases or some software on top of RDBMS (not an ideal option considering performance needs).

Over to you folks !

Answer 1

Try build your internal queries around the "With ROLLUP" option. Several Databases (including MySQL have this option). This will allow you to perform OLAP cube like querying within your database by setting a few flags.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/group-by-modifiers.html

Answer 2

Pentaho is the only open source player I know of in this arena. I'm sure there are others. I don't know whether Pentaho supports MySQL, though.

Greenplum Community Edition is built on PostgreSQL.