A Comparison of Open SourceReporting Tools for the Enterprise
Rod Cope, CTOOpenLogic
www.openlogic.com
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Agenda
IntroductionBackgroundBIRT, JFreeReport, OpenReport, DataVision OpenReports PentahoJasperSummaryConclusion
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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 toolsFocus on enterprise caliber utilitiesFree webinar, not a deep dive whitepaperAttributes 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 2007Wraps other report engines
Jasper, JFreeReport (Pentaho), BIRT, JXLS
Provides scheduling, security, adminInteresting, but not updated since January 2008
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OpenReports
J2EE, Hibernate, Quartz, SpringTechnology
Jasper, Pentaho, BIRTReport Compatibility
OpenReport Professional (proprietary)Dashboard, drilldown charts, stats$500/server
Commercial Options
OpenReports
SOAP APIIntegration
N/AInstallation / Configuration / Footprint
Yes, through standard app server clusteringClusterability
HighSchedulability
N/ASecurity
Web, emailReport retrieval
Relies on other reporting toolsReport designing
Admin, report retrieval, parameter supportWeb capabilities
PDF, HTML, CSV, XLS, RTF, ImageExport formats
N/APerformance
N/AEase of use
OLAP (Mondrian)Functionality
GPL 2License
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Pentaho
Sponsored by PentahoName: 5 founders want to retire in Lake Tahoe
Version tested: 1.7, May 2008Good feature set, well-supported, UI's need workBusiness Intelligence suite includes
Reporting (Report designer and viewer)Analysis (OLAP)Dashboards (Portal, metrics, alerts)Data Mining (Relationship and trend discovery)
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Pentaho
J2EE, CAS, ACEGI, JBoss PortalTechnology
Pentaho (should work with Jasper and BIRT, but not officially supported)Report Compatibility
Pentaho ProfessionalSSO, LDAP, MSADClustering, report versioning, audit trail
Commercial Options
Web service APIIntegration
Easy / Difficult / 325MBInstallation / Configuration / Footprint
Yes, through standard app server clusteringClusterability
Yes, but admin can only edit existing schedules, not create new onesSchedulability
User/group/role, restrict access to reportsSecurity
Web, email, web service, task bar notificationReport retrieval
Visual report designer, stand-alone clientReport designing
Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext linksWeb capabilities
PDF, HTML, XLS, RTF, textExport formats
GoodPerformance
Medium, occasionally disjointed and non-intuitiveEase of use
Audit trail, performance monitoring, web-based ad hoc reporting wizard, conditional report distribution, OLAP (Mondrian)Functionality
Several components: GPL 2, LGPL, MPL (Mozilla Public License)License
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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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Jasper
J2EE, iReport, LiferayTechnology
JasperReportsReport Compatibility
JasperReport ProfessionalEnd-user ad hoc querying and reportingEasy end-user dashboards and mashups
Commercial Options
SOAP API, any J2EE server, any JDBC driverIntegration
Easy / easy / 500MBInstallation / Configuration / Footprint
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
Clusterability
High and easy to configure through UISchedulability
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
Security
Web site, email delivery of scheduled reportsReport retrieval
Visual iReport designer, stand-alone or NetBeans plug-inReport designing
Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext linksWeb capabilities
PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV, RTF, TXT, XML, FlashExport formats
Good if attention is paid to optimization (e.g., http://www.javalobby.org/articles/hibernatequery103/)Performance
High – best user interface of the groupEase of use
Drilldown charts, I18N, L10N, OLAP (Mondrian), audit trail, email distribution, report versioning, Hibernate queries, custom expressions in Java or Groovy, crosstabs
Functionality
GPL 2License
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Pentaho and Jasper
The Mondrian project (OLAP tool) is used by both Pentaho and JasperBoth support integration with Mondrian
OLAP schema design toolJPivot for interacting with Mondrian through a web UI
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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
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