Bens Blog

Last week I had some time to create a short screencast to show some features of SQL Power's Wabit open source version. The video could be more professional (My headset didn't like me too much) but I was to busy with other projects to  have more revisions. You are very welcome to share your ideas, critics and comments. Here you go: (Watch on Youtube: SQL Power's Wabit - Feature overview )

Recently I got a change to download Palo Worksheet Server 3 , I was planning to build a small test case and impress some people at work with what Palo can do. But I'm not sure if I should really show too much of the Worksheet Server during my presentation after I started playing with it a bit more. Here is why: Pros: The frontend of Worksheet Server looks nice. The Charts and Micro Charts look nice. Many people won't think of Palo as a full BI tool if it doesn't provide it's own frontend Cons: Why did Jedox release a software that is so unstable? I'm always worried to do too much in a worksheet because I don't know whats gonna happen next. Will i get lots of "value?" Will my session end and I loose my data? (Just happened) If you are used to Excel & Google Docs you get impatient, some of the context menus are too slow. After working with it for half a day I wouldn't let a client create his own reports, the frustration level would proba...

SQL Power Group, based in Toronto, Canada, released version 0.98 of it's open source business intelligence reporting tool Wabit . Here is a overview of the newest (and improved) features: General Improved UI Most item are drag able Multiple workspaces can be open at the same time Search in workspaces Reports Report templates available Extended grouping options Chart New more intuitive UI to create charts Pie chart support added OLAP queries Filter added Improved UI More OLAP navigation features added (Drill replace etc.) One of the features I like the most is the new grouping and sections setting in reports as you can see in the screenshot: There are still many improvements possible but 0.98 brought Wabit a lot closer to all the other open source reporting tools available. What feature do you think should be added next?

A few months ago I first mentioned that you can create Mondrian schemas with Power*Architect. Finally I get the time to create a step by step guide for a small Mondrian schema. This post covers the preparation of Power*Architect to create a new schema, the coming blog post will cover the schema creation and testing. What you need to get started: Nightly build from Power*Architect  [EDIT: The latest stable version should do it too.] A database, e.g. MySQL or PostgreSQL with the data you want to analyze. In this example I'll use the Pentaho sample data which is included in the Pentaho BI Server 3.x Wabit 0.97 (includes Mondrian built in) or a running Mondrian instance and a Mondrian client of your choice Step 1 - Setting up the database connection Start Power*Architect Open the Connections menu and start the Database Connection Manager . Click on New . Add the database connection details. For the Pentaho sample data enter the data as shown in the screenshot (Click on it ...

This is part two of my step by step guide on creating a Mondrian Schema with Power*Architect. Step 3 - Creating the Mondrian schema Go to OLAP-> Edit Schema -> New Schema. Enter a Schema name and select the database connection you created earlier. Dimensions Right click on the PlayPen, select New Dimension , and click on the PlayPen again Enter the dimension name, select TimeDimension as the dimension type and click on ok. Right click on the created dimension and add a hierarchy. Select the time table (public.dim_time) and select the correct primary key. Now you can add levels. Right click on the hierarchy and select Add level. Enter the name, column and correct level type. The procedure is the same for all dimensions. Cube Right click on the PlayPen, select New Cube , and click on the PlayPen again Enter the Cube name and select the fact table (public.orderfact in my example) Add the dimensions to the cube. Click on (Dimension Usage), then on dimension and finally on the cube....

The open source business intelligence reporting tool Wabit added support for Mondrian in it's newest release 0.97. Users can now either connect to the integrated Mondrian server or to any available XMLA datasource. In the OLAP query, measures and dimensions can easily dragged into the query which automatically updates the results. It is the first version including the OLAP functionality so there are still some features missing, including filters, calculated members, saving of manually created MDX queries but Wabit already shows some nice results. With it's upcoming release 0.98 - scheduled for September 09 - most missing OLAP features will be added and Wabit should be a nice AND feature rich reporting application for Mondrian and all other OLAP engines supporting XMLA.

UPDATE : Nach neusten Infos scheint das Release der neuesten Version des Palo OLAP Servers auf Januar 2009 verschoben. Am Donnerstag & Freitag durfte ich dank einer Einladung der Jedox AG auf der Palo User Conference und dem Partner Tag sein, wo die neue Version des Palo OLAP Servers und der neue Palo Worksheet Server vorgestellt wurde. Während es beim OLAP Server hauptsächlich Verbesserungen in der Perfomance (unter anderen dank Multiprozessorunterstützung) gibt, hat sich beim Worksheetserver enorm viel getan. Der Server wurde komplett neu entwickelt (die Core in C++) und das Look & Feel lässt einen fast vergessen, dass es sich um eine Webanwendung handelt und nicht um Excel handelt. In der neuen Version kann man sowohl die Modellierung der Palo OLAP Datenbank als auch die Reporterstellung durchgängig im Server durchführen, sodass Excel gar nicht mehr benötigt wird. Auch ansonsten wurde sich bemüht, alle relevanten Funktion von Excel zu übernehmen, von der Zellenformatierung ...