Reporting Tool Comparison

A Comparison of Open SourceReporting Tools for the Enterprise

Rod Cope, CTOOpenLogic

www.openlogic.com

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Agenda

Introduction

Background

BIRT, JFreeReport, OpenReport, DataVision

OpenReports

Pentaho

Jasper

Summary

Conclusion

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Introduction

OpenLogic, Inc.SLA support, security updates, and indemnification for over 400 Open Source packagesDozens of Global 2000 customers

OSS Census (osscensus.org)Global, community effort to catalog enterprise use of open source

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Background

Comparison of leading Open Source reporting tools

Focus on enterprise caliber utilities

Free webinar, not a deep dive whitepaper

Attributes of interest:license, functionality, compatibility, technology, ease of use, performance, export formats, web capabilities, report designing, report retrieval, security, schedulability, clusterability, installation, configuration, integration, and footprint

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Other Reporting Tools

BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting Tools)Part of Eclipse project, initially donated by ActuateFocus is on report designer, debugger, and end-user toolsEnterprise deployment only available through proprietary iServer product from Actuate

JFreeReportNow the foundation of Pentaho, to be covered later

OpenReport and DataVisionLow level tools for developers, not enterprise ready

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OpenReports

oreports.org (not OpenReport at openreport.org)

Version tested: 3.0, December 2007

Wraps other report enginesJasper, JFreeReport (Pentaho), BIRT, JXLS

Provides scheduling, security, admin

Interesting, but not updated since January 2008

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OpenReportsOpenReports

License GPL 2

Commercial Options OpenReport Professional (proprietary)Dashboard, drilldown charts, stats

$500/server

Report Compatibility Jasper, Pentaho, BIRT

Technology J2EE, Hibernate, Quartz, Spring

Functionality OLAP (Mondrian)

Ease of use N/A

Performance N/A

Export formats PDF, HTML, CSV, XLS, RTF, Image

Web capabilities Admin, report retrieval, parameter support

Report designing Relies on other reporting tools

Report retrieval Web, email

Security N/A

Schedulability High

Clusterability Yes, through standard app server clustering

Installation / Configuration / Footprint N/A

Integration SOAP API

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Pentaho

Sponsored by PentahoName: 5 founders want to retire in Lake Tahoe

Version tested: 1.7, May 2008

Good feature set, well-supported, UI's need work

Business Intelligence suite includesReporting (Report designer and viewer)Analysis (OLAP)Dashboards (Portal, metrics, alerts)Data Mining (Relationship and trend discovery)

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PentahoLicense Several components: GPL 2, LGPL, MPL (Mozilla Public License)

Commercial Options Pentaho Professional

SSO, LDAP, MSAD

Clustering, report versioning, audit trail

Report Compatibility Pentaho (should work with Jasper and BIRT, but not officially supported)

Technology J2EE, CAS, ACEGI, JBoss Portal

Functionality Audit trail, performance monitoring, web-based ad hoc reporting wizard, conditional report distribution, OLAP (Mondrian)

Ease of use Medium, occasionally disjointed and non-intuitive

Performance Good

Export formats PDF, HTML, XLS, RTF, text

Web capabilities Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext links

Report designing Visual report designer, stand-alone client

Report retrieval Web, email, web service, task bar notification

Security User/group/role, restrict access to reports

Schedulability Yes, but admin can only edit existing schedules, not create new ones

Clusterability Yes, through standard app server clustering

Installation / Configuration / Footprint Easy / Difficult / 325MB

Integration Web service API

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Pentaho: Report Designer

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Pentaho Server: Solutions Page

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Pentaho Server: Report View

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Jasper

Sponsored by JasperSoftVersion tested: 3.0.0, June 2008Mature, fairly robust, well-supportedBusiness Intelligence suite includes

JasperReports (Report designer and viewer)JasperServer (Admin, scheduler, ad hoc queries)JasperAnalysis (OLAP)JasperETL (Data integration)

Most modern reporting web applicationStill a bit rough around the edges

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JasperLicense GPL 2

Commercial Options JasperReport Professional

End-user ad hoc querying and reporting

Easy end-user dashboards and mashups

Report Compatibility JasperReports

Technology J2EE, iReport, Liferay

Functionality Drilldown charts, I18N, L10N, OLAP (Mondrian), audit trail, email distribution, report versioning, Hibernate queries, custom expressions in Java or Groovy, crosstabs

Ease of use High – best user interface of the group

Performance Good if attention is paid to optimization (e.g., http://www.javalobby.org/articles/hibernatequery103/)

Export formats PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV, RTF, TXT, XML, Flash

Web capabilities Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext links

Report designing Visual iReport designer, stand-alone or NetBeans plug-in

Report retrieval Web site, email delivery of scheduled reports

Security SSO, external auth via LDAP/MSAD/custom, user/group/role, row and cell security for OLAP (part of Mondrian), User/group/role, restrict access to reports

Schedulability High and easy to configure through UI

Clusterability Yes, through standard app server clustering (note that you may have to use pinned sessions): http://www.jasperforge.org/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&func=view&id=39248&catid=10

Installation / Configuration / Footprint

Easy / easy / 500MB

Integration SOAP API, any J2EE server, any JDBC driver

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Jasper: Report Designer

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JasperServer: Home

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JasperServer: Report View

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Pentaho and Jasper

The Mondrian project (OLAP tool) is used by both Pentaho and Jasper

Both support integration with MondrianOLAP schema design toolJPivot for interacting with Mondrian through a web UI

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Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool

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Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool

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Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Web View

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Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP View with Chart

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Summary

JasperHeavy focus on reporting and analysisBetter server UI (web 2.0), easier to useBetter marketing, sites, and documentationEasier to research and find what you needPaid version: ad hoc query web UI, dashboard creation web UI

PentahoBetter data integration, ETL, and workflow automationVery powerful, but harder to useWeaker documentationBonus: data mining and iPhone integrationPaid version: LDAP integration, SSO, auditing

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Conclusion

If your focus is core reporting and analysis, ease of useJasper

If your focus is enterprise integration, data transformation, workflow

Pentaho

Competition driving Jasper and Pentaho hardLook for rapid improvements in functionality, ease of useThey've leapfrogged each other in the past, it may happen again

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Contact Information

For more information, please visit:

www.openlogic.com

Call us at 888-OpenLogic

Send an email to:

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