Pentaho Introduces Web-Based Ad Hoc Query and Reporting

JavaScriptSearch
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; 02:10 AM

Pentaho Corp., creator of a popular open source business intelligence (BI) suite, announced new web-based ad hoc query and reporting capabilities for the Pentaho Reporting module of Pentaho’s BI suite. The new functionality utilizes an innovative new open source metadata layer that facilitates self-service query and reporting by shielding end users from the complexities of underlying databases and thereby lowering the technical barriers to customized report creation.

With Pentaho’s new open source metadata capabilities, administrators can define a layer of abstraction that presents database information to business users in familiar business terms. Administrators identify relationships between tables in the database, create business-language definitions for complex or cryptic database tables and columns, set security parameters to limit data access to appropriate users, specify default formatting for data fields, and provide additional translations for business terms for multi-lingual deployments. Business users can then use Pentaho’s new ad hoc query capabilities to choose the specific elements they would like to include in a given report, such as order quantities and total spending by customer grouped by region.

The new web-based query interface uses AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology to provide a highly interactive, easy to use, scalable front end. The application’s metadata layer was built using the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) standard created by the Object Management Group (OMG) designed to allow for interoperability with existing metadata stores as well as third-party databases, metadata repositories, and ETL tools. Pentaho’s metadata-driven query engine uses JDBC and ANSI standard SQL to allow for the broadest possible choice of proprietary and open source databases including Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and others. Pentaho’s metadata will also be accessible in the near future from Pentaho’s open source graphical report designer, and the Pentaho Design Studio.

Pentaho now provides tailored reporting capabilities for application developers, power users, and business users alike within a common architecture and report format. In the first half of this year, Pentaho delivered report authoring capabilities for developers via tight integration with the popular Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE), as well as a graphical Report Designer that gave power users a drag-and-drop report authoring environment. This latest capability now makes Pentaho Reporting more accessible to casual and business users who want self-service reporting via the web.

“Bringing web-based ad hoc query and reporting to the Pentaho suite has been one of our top priorities,” said Richard Daley, CEO of Pentaho. “Our new metadata functionality is a major step in expanding the market for open source BI and equipping organizations of all sizes with the tools they need to understand their business performance and opportunities quickly, flexibly and cost-effectively.”