Finance/HR Technical Glossary

This glossary defines technical terminology sometimes used by Integrated System programmers. Knowledge of these concepts is not essential for use of the Integrated System. These are provided to assist system users when reviewing technical project documentation.

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TERM	SOURCE	BRIEF TRANSLATION OR EXPLANATION
A
ActiveX	MS	Web page controls for forms to design or collect active data (as opposed to Java applets).
ANSI	ANSI	American National Standards Institute, founded in 1918, is a voluntary organization composed of over 1,300 members (including all the large computer companies) that creates standards for the computer industry, including a wide range of technical areas, from electrical specifications to communications protocols and programming languages. For example, FDDI, the main set of protocols for sending data over fiber optic cables, is an ANSI standard.
ADSM	IBM	Tivoli ADSTAR Distributed Storage Manager is a centralized storage solution that enables IT organizations to deploy, access, share, and protect data.
ATM	Generic	Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a network protocol competing with Ethernet. It is primarily used for high-demand network backbones, rather than connecting desktops
C
CGI	Generic	Common Gateway Interface is an industry standard means of submitting data from HTML forms through a web server, whereby processing of the data is done at the web server, not on the client side.
Client	Oracle	A general term for the computer in a client/server configuration that requests services, data, or processing. The computer supplying the services, data, or processing is the server.
Clusters	Generic	Groups of one or more tables that share common columns and are often used together. They are physically stored together to improve the speed of access time. The related columns of the tables in such a cluster are referred to as the cluster key (which is also indexed to improve access speed).
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Database Index	Generic	A mechanism to locate and access data within a database.
Database Instance	Oracle	One set of database management processes and an allocated area in memory for managing those processes. Typically, a database instance is associated with one database. Note that a database instance may process data for one or more applications. There is always a one-to-one correspondence between an Oracle Instance and a system global area (SGA).
Data Block	Generic	A chunk of fixed space where data is actually stored.
Data Mart	Generic	A data mart contains a subset of corporate data that is of value to a specific business unit, department, or set of users. Typically, a data mart is derived from an enterprise data warehouse.
DSS	Generic	Decision Support System is an application primarily used to consolidate, summarize, or transform transaction data to support analytical reporting and trend analysis.
E
EDD	Oracle	Enterprise Data Dictionary: 1) A part of a database that holds definitions of data elements, such as tables, columns, and views. 2) A set of database tables and views that contains administrative information about users, data storage, and privileges. It is created and maintained automatically.
EDW	Oracle	Enterprise Data Warehouse, see ETT.
ETT	Oracle	Extract-Transform-Transport Architecture is used by Oracle to extract raw data from the operational systems, transform it into a useable format, and transfer it into the data warehouse or data mart. A graphic from Oracle illustrates the process. ch1a.gif
EUL	Oracle	End User Layer. Discoverer consists of three main components: the User Edition, the End User Layer, and the Administration Edition. Without the concept of an End User Layer, relational data must be accessed directly using SQL. This requires an understanding of underlying relational database structures such as tables, columns, joins, etc. The End User Layer of Discoverer provides a way to mask the underlying complexity of the database to provide end users with an interface they can easily understand. enduse.gif
Extent	Generic	A certain number of side-by-side data blocks that have been allocated.
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IETF	Generic	Internet Engineering Task Force is the collective group that defines Internet standards from emerging technologies.
IMAP	Generic	Internet Mail Access Protocol is an IETF standard for accessing e-mail remotely. The current version is v.4.
Instance	Generic	See Database Instance.
J
JDK	Oracle	Java Development Kit is a software development kit for producing Java programs.
JVM	Generic	Java Virtual Machine is a component of a standard web-browser. It is the cornerstone of the Java programming language and part of the technology responsible for Java's cross-platform delivery.
K
KI	Oracle	Key Indicators: 1) a report that lists statistical receivables and collections information that allows the user to review trends and projections, 2) an Oracle Applications feature used to gather and retain information about productivity, such as the number of invoices paid. Users define key indicators and periods, and Oracle Applications provides a report which shows productivity indicators for your current and prior period activity.
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Materialized View	Generic	A pre-computed table comprising aggregated and/or joined data from fact and possibly dimension tables. Builders of data warehouses will know a materialized view as a summary or aggregation.
MIME	Generic	Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension is a messaging format that enables the attachment of multimedia (formatted text, video, audio, graphics) to e-mail messages. MIME uses special encoding techniques to convert multimedia binary files to ASCII text, and is the best way to encode attachments to e-mail or transport files across the Internet.
O
OAS	Oracle	Oracle Application Server
OLTP	Generic	On Line Transaction Processing
OWB	Oracle	Oracle Warehouse Builder is a software that enables the design and deployment of data warehouses, data marts, and e-business intelligence applications.
P
PL/SQL	Oracle	A procedural extension of SQL that provides programming constructs such as blocks, conditionals, and functions.
POP	Generic	Post Office Protocol is an IETF standard for downloading e-mail to a desktop. The current version is v.3.
Program Units	Generic	"Canned" chunks of PL/SQL statements that are executed as a group to perform a certain function or procedure.
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Query	Generic	A user's request for information, generally as a formal request to a database or search engine.
R
RAID	Generic	Redundant Array of Independent Disks is used for server fault tolerance in the event of a hard disk failure.
RDBMS	Oracle	Relational Database Management System is a database management system in which data can be viewed and manipulated in tabular form. Data can be sorted in any order and tables of information are easily related or joined to each other.
Responsibility Profile	Generic	Assigned to each Oracle user, it controls access to system resources and assures that you are not logged on multiple times. It ensures there is not unnecessary idle connect time, that the system is not overloaded, and that only allowed actions are executed. It also audits the system to log suspicious database use.
Rollback Segment	Oracle	A set of entries used to undo changes in the database in the event of transaction rollback, crash, or media recovery.
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Schema	Oracle	1) An information model implemented in a database. A schema may be a logical schema, which will define, for example, tables, columns, and constraints, but may not include any optimization. It may be a physical schema that includes optimization, for example, table clustering. 2) An Oracle account or Oracle ID.
Segments	Generic	Groups of extents allocated for certain logical structures (ex. data segment, index segment, undo segment).
Server	Oracle	A program or machine that provides resources, such as files, processing, or other information, to other programs or machines, which are called clients. For example, the Oracle Forms Server process runs on a forms server (machine), and the Oracle Database Server (database process) runs on a database server. Server processes may communicate with other programs, such as desktop client processes, or with other servers. Be specific when describing a server (ex. Hardware Server, Applications Server).
Sequence	Generic	Schema objects that create a series of unique numbers for numeric columns of a database's tables. This feature allows two people to be working on the same table at the same time without interfering with each other.
SGA	Oracle	System Global Area is a reserved section of main memory that provides communication between all database users and the Oracle background processes.
SQL	Oracle	Structured Query Language is the ANSI internationally accepted standard for relational database systems, covering not only query but also data definition, manipulation, security, and some aspects of referential and entity integrity.
SMTP	Generic	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an IETF standard for exchanging e-mail.
Synonym	Oracle	1) A name assigned to a table or view that may then be used more conveniently for reference. 2) An alternate name for an entity.
T
Table	Oracle	The basic unit of storage in a relational database management system, defined by one or more columns of data and a primary key. A table represents entities and relationships.
Tablespace	Oracle	A logical portion of an Oracle database used to allocate storage for data and to group related logical structures. For example, one tablespace may contain all of one Oracle Applications product's database tables and indexes.
TCP/IP	Generic	Transmission Control Protocol\Internet Protocol is a popular industry-standard networking protocol used for communication between computers.
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View	Oracle	1) A means of accessing a subset of data in a database. 2) A custom-tailored presentation of the data in one or more tables. A view can be thought of as a stored query.
Vision	Oracle	Release 11 Oracle Application Demonstration Database.