Key Terminology

Casabase Cube uses familiar multidimensional and OLAP concepts together with Snowflake-native capabilities. The following terms are used throughout this documentation.

Core OLAP Concepts

Term	Definition
Cube	A multidimensional business model that organizes data using dimensions, hierarchies, members, calculations, and aggregation rules.
Dimension	A primary analytical component of a cube used to organize and analyze data, such as Account, Period, Entity, Product, Scenario, or Version.
Hierarchy	The organizational structure that defines relationships among members of a dimension and how those members can be navigated and aggregated.
Member	An individual element within a dimension. For example, Revenue may be a member of the Account dimension and FY26 may be a member of the Years dimension.
Parent	A member that has one or more members directly beneath it in a hierarchy.
Child	A member immediately below another member in a hierarchy.
Ancestor	A member above another member in the same hierarchy.
Descendant	A member below another member in the same hierarchy.
Leaf Member / Level-0 Member	A member with no children. Leaf or level-0 members represent the bottom of a hierarchy branch.
Shared Member	An additional occurrence of a member in a hierarchy that allows the same member to participate in more than one rollup path.
Level	A position within a hierarchy measured from the bottom of the hierarchy.
Generation	A position within a hierarchy measured from the top of the hierarchy.
Aggregation	The process of calculating higher-level values from lower-level members according to the hierarchy and aggregation rules.
Aggregation Operator	A member property that determines how a member contributes to its parent during aggregation.

Dimensions and Hierarchies

A dimension is a primary analytical component of a cube. Its hierarchy defines how the members of that dimension are organized.

For example:

Cube: FINANCE
│
├── Dimension: ACCOUNT
│   └── Hierarchy
│       ├── Income
│       │   ├── Revenue
│       │   └── Cost of Sales
│       └── Expenses
│
├── Dimension: ENTITY
│   └── Hierarchy
│       ├── North America
│       └── Europe
│
└── Dimension: PERIOD
    └── Hierarchy
        ├── Q1
        │   ├── Jan
        │   ├── Feb
        │   └── Mar
        └── Q2

Throughout this documentation, dimension refers to the analytical component of the cube, while hierarchy refers to the parent-child structure used to organize its members.

Calculations and Querying

Term	Definition
Formula / Calculated Member	A formula associated with a dynamic member and evaluated as part of query-time calculation.
Point of View (POV)	The multidimensional member selection that defines the context of a Casabase Cube query. Programmatic POVs are represented as JSON.
Default Member	The member used for a dimension when that dimension is omitted from a query POV.
Solve Order	Calculation precedence used when multiple calculated members interact.
Dimension Solve Order	A dimension-level setting used as part of calculation precedence across dimensions.
*IS Functions**	Supported hierarchy-aware formula functions that test relationships or positions such as leaf, child, descendant, generation, or level.
Cube Variable	A named cube-level value that can be referenced by supported Casabase Cube query functionality.
Query Builder	The visual Casabase Cube interface for selecting dimensions and members and executing multidimensional queries.
`QUERY_CUBE`	The primary programmatic multidimensional query interface. It applies hierarchy aggregation, formulas, calculation behavior, and configured row-level security.

Dimension Configuration

Term	Definition
Dimension Definition Table	A Snowflake table containing the members, parent-child relationships, and member properties used to create or update a Casabase Cube dimension.
Parent-Child Relationship	A relationship between two members that defines their position within a hierarchy.
Time Dimension	The dimension designated to represent time periods and participate in supported time-aware calculation behavior.
Auto-Rebuild	A dimension setting that determines whether the dimension participates in automatic rebuild operations.
Time Balance	Member behavior that controls how values are evaluated across the time dimension for supported balance-style calculations.
UDA	A User Defined Attribute associated with a hierarchy member and available to supported formula behavior.

Dimension Definition Tables

A dimension definition table provides the source definition Casabase Cube uses to create or update a dimension.

For example:

PARENT          CHILD           ALIAS             OPERATOR
--------------  --------------  ----------------  --------
Total Product   Electronics     Electronics       +
Total Product   Furniture       Furniture         +
Electronics     Computers       Computers         +
Electronics     Phones          Mobile Phones     +

Parent-child relationships define hierarchy structure. Additional mapped columns can define supported member properties such as aliases, formulas, aggregation operators, shared-member indicators, Time Balance behavior, UDAs, and sort order.

See Dimension Definition Tables for the supported schema and mapping behavior.

Data and Storage

Term	Definition
Cube Data	Bottom-level multidimensional business data loaded into and managed by Casabase Cube within the Native Application database.
Application-Managed Storage	Snowflake storage owned and managed by the Casabase Cube Native App. It remains inside the customer’s Snowflake account.
Secure Fact View	The `<CUBE_NAME>_FACT_SECURE` view that exposes security-filtered bottom-level cube data through standard SQL. It does not perform hierarchy aggregation or formula evaluation.
Dimension View	A supported secure relational view exposing cube dimension metadata for SQL-based access.
Virtual Warehouse	Snowflake compute resources used to execute queries and other workloads.

Security

Term	Definition
Application Role	A role defined by the Snowflake Native App and granted to Snowflake account roles. Casabase Cube defines `CUBE_PUBLIC` and `CUBE_ADMIN`.
`CUBE_PUBLIC`	Casabase Cube application role for client-facing functionality, including supported querying and shared views.
`CUBE_ADMIN`	Casabase Cube administrative application role. It inherits `CUBE_PUBLIC`.
Row-Level Security	Optional Casabase Cube security that restricts individual Snowflake users to permitted portions of secured cube hierarchies.
Security Rule	A user-based Casabase Cube rule defining permitted member access for a secured hierarchy. Only active rules participate in security evaluation.

Casabase Cube row-level security is opt-in per user. A user with application access but no active security rules for a cube is not restricted by Casabase Cube row-level security.

See Security Model and Access Control for details.

Migration Terminology

Term	Definition
Outline (`.otl`)	The native Oracle Essbase outline file containing multidimensional structure and metadata. Casabase Cube can import supported outline content to create cube metadata.
Native Level-0 Export	A native Essbase data export containing level-0 data from the source application.
Migration Artifacts	The source artifacts used for an Oracle Essbase or Oracle Cloud EPM migration, including the native outline (`.otl`) and native level-0 data export.
Snowflake Stage	A Snowflake location used to hold files for operations such as outline and data imports. Access to a customer-owned stage must be explicitly granted to the Native App when required.
Compatibility Notes	Documented differences between Oracle Essbase / Cloud EPM behavior and supported Casabase Cube behavior that should be reviewed during migration.

See Oracle Essbase & Cloud EPM Migration and Compatibility Notes.

Snowflake Native App Concepts

Term	Definition
Snowflake Native App	An application built using the Snowflake Native App Framework and installed in a customer’s Snowflake account.
Native Application Database	The application-owned Snowflake database in which Casabase Cube manages its internal cube data, metadata, and operational objects.
Customer-Owned Object	A Snowflake object outside the Native App, such as a table or stage, that remains controlled by the customer and requires explicit application access when a Casabase Cube operation needs to use it.