Common Warehouse Metamodel

The common warehouse metamodel (CWM) defines a specification for modeling metadata for relational, non-relational, multi-dimensional, and most other objects found in a data warehousing environment. The specification is released and owned by the Object Management Group, which also claims a trademark in the use of "CWM".

By year 2011 the active version of the CWM specification is v1.1 with a supplementary specification, CWM metadata interchange patterns (MIP), which further refines the requirements for tools to inter-operate smoothly.

The CWM specifies interfaces that can be used to enable interchange of warehouse and business intelligence metadata between warehouse tools, warehouse platforms and warehouse metadata repositories in distributed heterogeneous environments. CWM is based on three standards:

CWM models enable users to trace the lineage of data – CWM provides objects that describe where the data came from and when and how the data was created. Instances of the metamodel are exchanged via XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) documents.

Initially, CWM contained a local definition for a data translation facility. It is not clear how the QVT final adopted specification will affect CWM.

While the Object Management Group owns the standard for CWM, some companies are considered co-submitters of the CWM specification. The following companies were listed as co-submitters to the v1.1 specification:

Software vendors claiming CWM support differ in the degree to which they comply with CWM. Some were co-submitters of the specification, and are actively using the OMG trademark in marketing literature. Other vendors have expressed support for CWM or claim they have products that are "CWM-compliant."

Questions about compliance are addressed within the specification itself. Chapter 18 in both the 1.0 and 1.1 specification list required and optional compliance points.

The Object Management Group has a list of CWM implementations, but it is unclear how this list is maintained.

Compliance with the CWM specification does not guarantee tools from different vendors will integrate well, even when they are "CWM-compliant". The OMG addressed some of these issues by releasing patterns and best practices to correct these problems in a supplementary specification, CWM Metadata Interchange Patterns

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