Accessing SSAS cube from Java

I was recently asked this question and so did some research and here are some of the options:

1) XMLA is the protocol designed for universal access to SSAS from heterogeneous clients - https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187178.aspx

2) 3^rd party components are available to make this work

• Olap4j is an open Java API for OLAP - https://www.olap4j.org
• REX is a open source client that provides this functionality - https://sourceforge.net/projects/whex
• J-Integra for COM is another provider for this