The following is a preview of Pentaho's new approach to building and delivering Business Intelligence solutions. Watch how you can quickly deliver self-service reporting and analysis all while iterating through the development process rapidly. This process ensures accurate results to your business users as well as provides a uniformed development process all from one tool.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Guided Ad hoc with Pentaho Report Designer 3.5
Many of you remember the advanced technique I created in order to create a dynamic SQL query and Pentaho report layout using the Pentaho Report Designer version 3.0. It was a method that demonstrated advanced parameterized reporting for Enterprise and Operational type reports. I called this technique Guided Ad hoc. With the release of Pentaho Report Designer 3.5 there have been some enhanced functions and capabilities that make creating Guided Ad hoc reports even easier. Please review this video to see that functionality in action with Report Designer 3.5.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Recovery: A good time to read, Pentaho Reporting (not just) for Java Developers
Well guys I just had some minor surgery. As I am relaxing in bed, I figured this would be a good time to catch up on some reading. No, I did not grab a Tom Clancy espionage thriller, but in fact a Will Gorman original. Will Gorman is an Engineering Team Lead at Pentaho, a fantastic talent, a friend and colleague as well as the author of Pentaho Reporting 3.5 for Java Developers. I received a complimentary copy of the book from PACKT Publishing and have been meaning to write some brief reviews. I will be expanding in more detail in future blog entries. (This is just a quick reminder for all those following me on Twitter and my blog. If you are evaluating or using Pentaho, you "need" to pick up this book, it covers almost anything and everything you wanted to know about Pentaho in the most desirable way possible.) It can be found here.
Now, keep in mind that this book is not only for Java Developers, but for information technologists and anyone who is interested in Business Intelligence and building reporting applications. The book is clearly written and steps you through setting up your examples, both from the Report Designer perspective (GUI) and from the Java Developer perspective (code).
Within a matter of minutes I was able to have my first Pentaho Reporting Java Swing Application running and then follow that up with a deployment to an enterprise web application. I am extremely proud of this accomplishment because it was so easy "even the technical sales guy could do it"! This only empowers me to speak and demonstrate with even more conviction on my sales calls in regards to the embedded capabilities of Pentaho.
To give you a bit more depth and breadth into the Pentaho Reporting Capabilities which can be called via the methods mentioned in this book, there is a Pentaho Reporting 3.5 Tutorial I created located on our Pre-Sales Tools page. This tutorial covers some of the fundamentals used when creating reports with the Pentaho 3.5 Report Designer. Give it a look in your spare time and I am sure you will be excited to engage with us and want to know more.
http://www.pentaho.com/products/demos/presales_tools.php
Great job Will and team..as I continue to read I will post additional comments. Thanks for creating such a valuable addition to the Pentaho documentation stack.
Now, off to sleep.
Now, keep in mind that this book is not only for Java Developers, but for information technologists and anyone who is interested in Business Intelligence and building reporting applications. The book is clearly written and steps you through setting up your examples, both from the Report Designer perspective (GUI) and from the Java Developer perspective (code).
Within a matter of minutes I was able to have my first Pentaho Reporting Java Swing Application running and then follow that up with a deployment to an enterprise web application. I am extremely proud of this accomplishment because it was so easy "even the technical sales guy could do it"! This only empowers me to speak and demonstrate with even more conviction on my sales calls in regards to the embedded capabilities of Pentaho.
To give you a bit more depth and breadth into the Pentaho Reporting Capabilities which can be called via the methods mentioned in this book, there is a Pentaho Reporting 3.5 Tutorial I created located on our Pre-Sales Tools page. This tutorial covers some of the fundamentals used when creating reports with the Pentaho 3.5 Report Designer. Give it a look in your spare time and I am sure you will be excited to engage with us and want to know more.
http://www.pentaho.com/products/demos/presales_tools.php
Great job Will and team..as I continue to read I will post additional comments. Thanks for creating such a valuable addition to the Pentaho documentation stack.
Now, off to
Monday, October 5, 2009
Pentaho Analyzer is here - Imagine that!
Imagine non-technical business users easily creating meaningful, attractive and interactive web based reports and charts with only a few mouse clicks. Imagine putting intuitive, analytical capabilities in to the hands of your knowledge workers without the usual complexities of traditional Business Intelligence applications and with little to no training. Imagine turning that raw data into actionable information that someone can actually use. Now... Imagine having all this capability and more without the costs of exorbitant software license fees. Well imagine no longer. Along with Pentaho's other innovative technologies, we introduce to you Pentaho Analyzer. Available soon in Pentaho 3.5 Enterprise Edition. Here is a sneak peek of our new web based analytics tool. Please note that existing Pentaho Enterprise Edition subscription customers will be able to take advantage of this new offering without any upgrade or migration pricing. Imagine the possibilities.
To learn more, please contact us a www.pentaho.com.
To learn more, please contact us a www.pentaho.com.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Great Article on Self Service BI
The following is a great article on Self Service BI. Click here to view the article.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Pentaho goes to the Movies - Data Integration and Citrus Report Designer
Yep, once again I roped you in with one of my wacky blog titles. Seriously though, the point of this blog entry is to share some powerful capabilities in the Pentaho BI Suite as well as to preview a feature in the up and coming release of the new Pentaho Report Designer, version 3.5
I have always stated that a powerful technology differentiator within the Pentaho BI Suite, when compared to traditional proprietary BI software or even other commercial open source reporting, is that the Pentaho architecture brilliantly brings together data integration and content delivery under one common BI platform from one vendor. A good example of this is seen below in this brief 15 minute video. It will demonstrate using Pentaho Data Integration 3.2 to create a transformation which accesses a public movie listing web service (WSDL)...then transform the response from the web service to make the columns and data available to a Pentaho Report created with the new Pentaho Report Designer.
Now..., this was always possible with the current release of Pentaho but only during run time of the report. (there is a document in the KB that explains this process) However, with the new Pentaho (Citrus) Report Designer 3.5 we have added many more data access components, one of them being Pentaho Data Integration. This means you are now able to access the Pentaho Data Integration transformation (.ktr) as a data source during design time to create your BI content. Your report or BI content now has a real-time or near real-time data access method.
So whether it is input from a web service, salesforce.com CRM, or even our new Google Analytics step, you have increased the possibilities of creating more robust and real-time or near real-time types of applications.
Imagine the possibilities and take a look at the video below, please provide your comments if you wish.
You can view the Pentaho TechCast here.
I have always stated that a powerful technology differentiator within the Pentaho BI Suite, when compared to traditional proprietary BI software or even other commercial open source reporting, is that the Pentaho architecture brilliantly brings together data integration and content delivery under one common BI platform from one vendor. A good example of this is seen below in this brief 15 minute video. It will demonstrate using Pentaho Data Integration 3.2 to create a transformation which accesses a public movie listing web service (WSDL)...then transform the response from the web service to make the columns and data available to a Pentaho Report created with the new Pentaho Report Designer.
Now..., this was always possible with the current release of Pentaho but only during run time of the report. (there is a document in the KB that explains this process) However, with the new Pentaho (Citrus) Report Designer 3.5 we have added many more data access components, one of them being Pentaho Data Integration. This means you are now able to access the Pentaho Data Integration transformation (.ktr) as a data source during design time to create your BI content. Your report or BI content now has a real-time or near real-time data access method.
So whether it is input from a web service, salesforce.com CRM, or even our new Google Analytics step, you have increased the possibilities of creating more robust and real-time or near real-time types of applications.
Imagine the possibilities and take a look at the video below, please provide your comments if you wish.
You can view the Pentaho TechCast here.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Pentaho and the Google Visualization API
There are many times on a sales call when I am asked, "How does Pentaho 'integrate' with other 'packages'?". Now 'integrate' and 'packages' can mean a number of different things. It can cover anything in the realm of application frameworks, extension points, plug-in architectures, data access, data integration, content delivery, distribution, ETL, SOAs, APIs, portals, etc. However, upon narrowing it down, a common request is one where a developer wants to know how Pentaho can use other 3rd party visualizations. Those visualizations that are provided by a number of vendors, both open source and proprietary.
In short, the Pentaho BI Platform is built on open standards. Java and XML to name a few of them. Its architecture can utilize the Pentaho Action Sequence technology (.xaction) to orchestrate and perform such a request. Many 3rd party visualizations, whether it is a Flash / Flex based charting engine or a JavaScript API based widget, have some means of accepting and processing data input. For example, those components may process data that is in the format of XML, JSON or even a JavaScript API. With a Pentaho Action Sequence, you are able to query and access almost any data source, traverse/iterate and dynamically format the result set into one of those means. Parameterization in the Action Sequence only enhances this capability and provides non-technical users an easy way to provide input as well as customize the visualization the way they want to.
Watch this video below, to see how I use Pentaho and and the Google Visualization API to create enhanced interactive visuals that can be easily added to a Pentaho Dashboard using the Pentaho Dashboard Designer.
Just another example of the power and flexibility of the Pentaho BI Platform. With Pentaho you are not only able to provide point solutions for the here and now problems..., you are able to evolve with it to also meet your future needs.
In short, the Pentaho BI Platform is built on open standards. Java and XML to name a few of them. Its architecture can utilize the Pentaho Action Sequence technology (.xaction) to orchestrate and perform such a request. Many 3rd party visualizations, whether it is a Flash / Flex based charting engine or a JavaScript API based widget, have some means of accepting and processing data input. For example, those components may process data that is in the format of XML, JSON or even a JavaScript API. With a Pentaho Action Sequence, you are able to query and access almost any data source, traverse/iterate and dynamically format the result set into one of those means. Parameterization in the Action Sequence only enhances this capability and provides non-technical users an easy way to provide input as well as customize the visualization the way they want to.
Watch this video below, to see how I use Pentaho and and the Google Visualization API to create enhanced interactive visuals that can be easily added to a Pentaho Dashboard using the Pentaho Dashboard Designer.
Just another example of the power and flexibility of the Pentaho BI Platform. With Pentaho you are not only able to provide point solutions for the here and now problems..., you are able to evolve with it to also meet your future needs.
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