BestPracticesforChoosingContentReportingToolsandDatasourcesAndrewGrohePentaho DirectorofServicesDelivery,HitachiVantara

Agenda

DiscussbestpracticesforchoosingcontentwithPentahoBusinessAnalyticsPlatform.ThissessionwillalsocoverthevariousdatasourceoptionsforPentahocontent.

• PentahoContentCreationOptions• ToolReview• ToolOptionDecisionTree• PentahoContentDatasourceOptions

ReportingContentCreationOptions

• Browser-SelfService• Client-Workstation

BrowserAuthoringTools

PentahoAnalyzer

• Analyzercreatescrosstabularreportsorcharts• Exclusivedatasource isMondrianmetadatamodel

• Analyzerishighlyinteractivewithdrill-down,draganddrop

• Colorschemescanbecustomizedtomatchyourstyle

• Onlyonetableorachartcanbeshownatonce(multi-chart)

• Formattingislimitedtofieldnames,widthandnumeric

• Promptscanonlybeachievedviainclusioninadashboard

InteractiveReporting

• Onlytabularreportscanbecreated.NoCharts

• Bestusedondetailrow-leveldata

• Exclusivedatasource isPentahometadatamodel

• PIRishighlyinteractivewithdraganddropandfiltering

• Colorschemescanbecustomizedtomatchyourstyle

• Onlyonetabulardatasetcanbeshownatonce

• Formattingislimitedtocolumnheaders,widthandnumeric

DashboardDesigner

• Dashboarddesignercancreatetabularreportsorcharts

• Exclusivedatasource isMondrianmetadatamodel

• Recommendedtousedotherreportsvscreatingindashboard

• Allowsmanytablesorchartscanbeshownatonce

• PDDishighlyinteractivewithdraganddropandprompting

• Formattingislimitedtowidgettitlesandsizing

• Colorschemescanbecustomizedtomatchyourstyle

• Promptsareavailabletosendparameterstoreports

DashboardEditor

• DashboardEditorcancreatetabularreports,chartsandmaps

• Datasources canbeMondrian,Metadata,PDI,SQLorcustom

• Recommendedtousewhenhighlyinteractiveoraspecificstyleisrequired

• Allowsmanytablesorchartstobeshownatonce

• CDEcanbebuilttodoalotorlittleinteractivity

• FormattingisunlimitedandcanuseCSS

• Colorschemescanbecustomizedtomatchyourstyle

• Promptsareavailabletosendparameterstoreports

ClientAuthoringTools

ReportDesigner

• Bandedreportdesignerthatcanalsocreatecharts

• Canincludemanywidgetsovermanypages

• Datasources includeMDX,MQL,PDIandSQL

• Chartsandtablescanbeplacedside-by-sideandtopbottom

• InteractivityislimitedtohyperlinksandcanbeextendedviaJavaScript

• Formattingisnearlyunlimitedtoallfieldproperties

• Colorschemescanbecustomizedtomatchyourstyle

• Promptscanbeautomaticallygeneratedbasedonmetadata

• Pre-definedoutputformattingforPDF,XLS,HTML,CSV,RTF

PentahoDataIntegration

• PDIisnotareportwriterbutcanoutputdata• OutputformatsincludeXLS,CSVandTXT

• Exceltemplatescanbeusedduringoutput

• PDIcanalsorunReportDesignerorothercontentreportsandemailresults

• PDItransformationscanbecalledviathePentahoserverRESTAPI

• Typicalusecasesinvolveproducinglargedatasetsand/ormulti-tabexcelsheets

ContentAuthoringDecisionTree

ReportingDecisionTree

• Onlyonetableorvisualization– PIR,PAZ,PRD– PIRandPAZdonotsupportmultiplevisualizations

• Ischartingrequired?– PAZ,PRD,CDE,PDD– PIRdoesnothavecharting

• Isinteractivityrequired?– PAZ,PIR,CDE– PRDisstaticwithinteractivitylimitedtohyperlinks

• Isself-servicerequired?– PAZ,PIRandPDD– PRDrequireslocalinstallationandisnotself-service

PentahoContentDatasourceOptions

ContentDatasources

• PentahoMetadata

• MondrianSchema

• StructuredQueryLanguage(SQL)• PentahoDataIntegration

PentahoMetadata

• Provideanabstractionlayerbetweenthedatabaseandconsumerofthemodel

• Generallyusedfordetailorientedreports

• Metadatamodelscanbeplacedonrelationalordimensionaldatabaseschemas

• Databasecolumnsexposedviathemodelshouldonlybethoseusefulinreports

• Modelsshouldbekeptassmallaspossibleandunder10MB

• ModelscanbeusedinPIR,PRD,PDDandCDA

• SecuritycanbedefinedcentrallyinthemodelorinacustomjavaSQLGeneratorimplementation

• ReportingtoolsexpressqueriesintermsofMQL.MQLissenttoserverwhereitistranslatedintooneSQLstatementbyaSQLGenerator.Resultsetsarestreamedbacktotheclient

Mondrian

• Provideanabstractionlayerbetweenthedatabaseandconsumerofthemodel

• Exclusivelyusedwithsummary/aggregatedata(sum,avg,min,max,etc..)

• Mondrianallowsforcomplexcalculationstobeperformedontopofaggregates

• Mondrianschemaworkbestondimensionalmodels

• MondrianschemascanbeusedinPAZ,PRD,CDE,CDF

• SecuritycanbedefinedcentrallyviaGrantsorinaCustomRoleDelegate(CRD)orDynamicSchemaProcessor(DSP)

• ReportingtoolsexpressqueriesintermsofMDX.MDXissenttoserverwhereitistranslatedintooneormoreSQLstatements.SQLisoptionaliftheresultdataresidesincache.Resultsetsarestreamedbacktotheclient.

SQL

• Directaccesstounderlyingdatastructures• Generallyusedotherlayersdonotsatisfyrequirements

• SQLcanbeusedtoprovideadvancedqueriesforreports• Itistypicallybestusedforoperationalschemas

• Securityhastobeimplementedforeachreport

• ReportDesigneristheonlyreportingtoolthatallowsSQL• NocachingisprovidedforSQLdatasources• SQLcanprovidedetailandsummaryreports

PentahoDataIntegration(PDI)

• ProvidesGUIforadvancedtransformationsandblendingofdatainrealtime

• Thosetransformationscanbeprovidedataforreports

• Itistypicallyusedtojoinmultipledatasets

• Securityhastobeimplementedforeachreport

• ReportDesignerandCDAallowforPDIdatasources• CachingisprovidedforPDIdatasourcesusedinDataServices• PDIcanprovidedetailandsummaryreports

CommunityDataAccess(CDA)

• CDAqueriesaredefinedandexecutedontheserver• CDAcanprovideanadditionalcachinglayerforreports• CDAcantieintoPentahoSecurityforreport• ThesameCDAfile/querycanbeusedinCDF/CDEandPRD

• CDAcanjointogetherdisparatedatasets

ReportingToolsandDatabaseAccess

SQL

SQL

SQL

SQL

Metadata

Mondrian

KTR

CDA

MQL

MDX

ReportViewer

DB

InteractiveReports

DashboardDesigner

Analyzer

DashboardEditor

Security

Summary

Summary

Whatwecoveredtoday:

• DiscussedthevarietyoftoolsPentahoprovidestocreatecontent• ReviewedaDecisionTreetohelpinmakingadecision

• OutlinedtheoptionsforprovidingdatainPentahoBusinessAnalytics

NextSteps

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