Getting Started With Pentaho

Getting Started with Pentaho

This document is copyright © 2009 Pentaho Corporation. No part may be reprinted without written permissionfrom Pentaho Corporation. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About This DocumentIf you have questions that are not covered in this guide, or if you find errors in the instructions or language,please contact the Pentaho Technical Publications team at [email protected]. The Publicationsteam cannot help you resolve technical issues with products.

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For information about how to purchase support or enable an additional named support contact, please contactyour sales representative, or send an email to [email protected].

For information about instructor-led training on the topics covered in this guide, visithttp://www.pentaho.com/training.

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ContentsWelcome .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition Features .................................................................................... 3Finding More Resources ..................................................................................................................... 4

Before You Begin ...................................................................................................................................... 5Knowledge Requirements ................................................................................................................... 5Components Included in this Release ................................................................................................ 5System Requirements ......................................................................................................................... 6

Installing the Pentaho BI Suite .................................................................................................................. 7Verifying Your Installation ................................................................................................................... 8Introduction to the Pentaho User and Enterprise Consoles ............................................................... 9

Creating an Ad Hoc Report ..................................................................................................................... 11

Creating an Analysis View ...................................................................................................................... 14

Creating a Dashboard ............................................................................................................................. 18Working with Filters .......................................................................................................................... 20Saving Your Dashboard .................................................................................................................... 23Displaying Your Dashboard .............................................................................................................. 23

Creating a Report Using Report Designer .............................................................................................. 24Designing Your Report ...................................................................................................................... 27Refining Your Report ........................................................................................................................ 29

Adding a Chart to Your Report ....................................................................................................... 32Adding Parameters to Your Report ................................................................................................ 34

Publishing Your Report ..................................................................................................................... 35

Adding Your Data Source ....................................................................................................................... 38Adding a JDBC Driver ...................................................................................................................... 39Defining a Data Source in Report Designer ..................................................................................... 39

Troubleshooting Your Installation ............................................................................................................ 41

From Evaluation to Implementation ......................................................................................................... 42

Getting Started with Pentaho 2

Welcome

Thank you for considering Pentaho as your Business Intelligence solutions provider. If you arereading this guide, you have chosen to download, install, and evaluate Pentaho BI Suite EnterpriseEdition, version 3.0. The purpose of this document is to provide you with instructions for using thegraphical installer, a wizard that walks you, step-by-step, through a typical installation of Pentaho BISuite Enterprise Edition, 3.0 on Windows devices.

This guide also provides you with basic instructions for verifying your installation of Pentaho BI SuiteEnterprise Edition (from now on referred to as the Pentaho BI Suite). Post installation exerciseswalk you through designing a simple report, analysis view, and dashboard. Once you complete theinstallation and related tasks, you will be able to start taking advantage of many of the features thatare included in this release of the Pentaho BI Suite.

Note: The scope of this document is limited to the topics described in the paragraph above. If youneed further information deploying the Pentaho BI Suite or have custom configuration requirements,contact your Pentaho Sales Representative or send an email to Support .



Below is a brief description of each section in this document:

Section Description

Before You Begin on page 5 Provides a quick description of each componentincluded in this release of Pentaho BI SuiteEnterprise Edition; also included are hardware andsoftware requirements

Installing the Pentaho BI Suite on page 7 Walks you through installation of the product

Creating an Ad Hoc Report on page 11 Provides you with instructions for creating a simple adhoc report in the Pentaho User Console

Creating an Analysis View on page 14 Provides you with instructions for working withinteractive and dynamic analysis views

Creating a Dashboard on page 18 Provides instructions for creating a simple dashboardusing sample data

Creating a Report Using Report Designer onpage 24

Provides instructions for creating a report using basicReport Designer features

Adding Your Data Source on page 38 Provides instructions for adding your own data sourceconnection

From Evaluation to Implementation on page42

Provides you with instructions for contacting PentahoSales

Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition Features

Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition allows you to deploy the BI suite components with confidence,security, and far lower total cost of ownership than proprietary alternatives. Pentaho BI SuiteEnterprise Edition provides additional capabilities including a comprehensive professional technicalsupport program, access to an extensive product-related knowledge base, software maintenance,enhanced software functionality, certified software, product expertise, and the best softwareassurance program in the industry that provides intellectual property indemnification and warrantyfor services.

Software and Services Community Edition Enterprise Edition

Reporting Open Source Certified

Analysis Open Source Certified

Dashboards Open Source Certified

Data Integration / ETL Open Source Certified

Business IntelligencePlatform

Open Source Certified

Data Mining Open Source Certified (Add On)

Community ForumsInteraction

Yes Yes


Software and Services Community Edition Enterprise Edition

Community WebDocumentation (Wiki)

Yes Yes

Professional Support No Yes

Software Maintenance By In-House Staff By Pentaho Engineers

Enhanced Functionality No Yes

Certified Software No Yes

Product Expertise No Yes

Software Assurance No Yes

Finding More Resources

We, at Pentaho, understand that business intelligence implementations can be complex. For thisreason, we provide you with tools that support you through your evaluation period and beyond. Yourtrial evaluation entitles you with access to the Pentaho Knowledge Base where you can find articles,manuals, and tech tips that cover basic and advanced topics associated with implementing thePentaho BI Suite. In addition, the Pre-Sales portal provides you with access to recorded Webcaststhat give you basic understanding of the features and functionality offered by the Pentaho BI Suite.

Note: Refer to your Welcome email for details about how to access the Knowledge Base and Pre-Sales portal.

Successful implementations start with training and support. Pentaho trainers are experts in theindustry and offer a wide range of affordable classroom, online, and on-site training services to meetyour knowledge requirements. Our support team will help you become productive quickly.


Before You Begin

The sections that follow provide you with knowledge requirements, Pentaho components included inthis release, and system requirements.

Knowledge Requirements

To install the Pentaho BI Suite, you must be familiar with system administration and operationsassociated with network services, such as modifying your firewall to open specific ports and addingservices to the system startup and shutdown scripts. In most installation scenarios, this meansyou must be comfortable using your operating system's command line interface. You must havethe ability to install software, open firewall ports, and start and stop system services on the deviceon which you are performing the installation. If you need to access a remote database, make sureyou have the level of permission necessary to do so from your test machine. If you don't have therequired access or permissions, contact your system or database administrator.

Components Included in this Release

This release includes the complete Pentaho BI Suite, the BI server, and all client tools as describedin the list below:

Component Name Description

Pentaho BI Server The BI Server is an enterprise-class BusinessIntelligence (BI) platform that supports Pentaho's end-user reporting, analysis, and dashboard capabilitieswith back-end security, integration, scheduling, andworkflow capabilities.

Pentaho Enterprise Console The Pentaho Enterprise Console is a standaloneutility distributed with the BI Platform that providesadministrators with a thin-client interface foradministering users, roles, data sources, schedulingand more.

Pentaho Design Studio (client tool) The Pentaho Design Studio is a collection of editorsand viewers integrated into a single application thatprovides a graphical environment for building andtesting action sequence documents.

Pentaho Metadata Editor (client tool) The Metadata Editor (PME) is a tool that buildsPentaho metadata domains and models. A Pentahometadata model maps the physical structure of yourdatabase into a logical business model.

Report Designer (client tool) The Report Designer is the primary tool for creatingand publishing Pentaho Reports. It provides agraphical interface allowing users to connect to theirdata, design and preview reports, and publish thereports to the Pentaho BI Platform.


Pentaho Schema Workbench (client tool) The Schema Workbench is the primary toolfor designing, editing, and publishing PentahoAnalysis(Mondrian) OLAP schemas.

Pentaho Aggregation Designer (client tool) Pentaho Aggregation Designer is a graphicalenvironment used to increase query performance ofa Mondrian OLAP schema through the creation ofaggregate tables.

Pentaho Data Integration (client tool) Pentaho Data Integration is a graphical, drag-and-drop design environment for delivering Extraction,Transformation and Loading (ETL) capabilitiesusing a metadata-driven approach. The extensiblestandards based architecture avoids the adoption ofproprietary methodologies into your ETL solution.

System Requirements

The tables below contain system requirements for each Pentaho component included in thisrelease:


Installing the Pentaho BI Suite

It is assumed that you will follow the default installation instructions and that you are installing to alocal device (localhost). If you have have custom configuration requirements, such as installing thePentaho BI Suite on a remote server, contact your Pentaho Sales Representative send an email to Support .

Follow the instructions below as you go through each step in the installation wizard. See Troubleshooting Your Installation on page 41 in the unlikely event you run into port conflictissues.

Note: You must disable any anti-spyware software before installing the Pentaho BI Suite. Sometypes of software firewalls and anti-virus scanners may also block the BI Server or prevent it fromoperating normally.

1. Read and accept the License Agreement.2. Accept the default selections in the Pentaho Applications page.

Note: To get a brief description about the components that are being installed, click eachselection to display details.

3. Accept the default in the Sample Content page.

Note: The quickest and easiest way to familiarize yourself with the power of the Pentaho BISuite is to begin by reviewing the sample content.

4. Specify the location on which to install the Pentaho BI Suite or accept the default.5. Set the MySQL root user password. For the purposes of this evaluation, type "password" in

both fields.

Note: MySQL is the database that contains the solution repository (reports, users, analysisviews, and more); it includes a default user account called, “root.” You must provide apassword for the default user account so that you can administer the solution repository usingthe MySQL tools.

6. Set the publish password used to publish content from client tools such as Report Designer,Metadata Editor, and Schema Workbench. For the purposes of this evaluation, type"password" in both fields.

Note: The publish password is a security measure that helps prevent malicious content frombeing published to the BI Server. If you do not set a publish password, you will not be able topublish from client tools to the BI Server.

7. Set the user name and password for the Administrator account. For the purposes of thisevaluation, accept the default user name, "admin," and type "password" in Password andConfirm Password fields.

Note: The BI Server provides you with an administrator account that is used to manage users,roles, data sources, and more. You must have this password available when you log on to thePentaho Enterprise Console.

8. Verify your installation options and click Next to start installing the Pentaho components youselected.

9. Once the installation is complete, you can choose to launch the Pentaho User Console and thePentaho Enterprise Console. Accept the default to launch both consoles.



The Pentaho User Console and Pentaho Enterprise Console home pages appear. Someinstallations may prevent the browser from opening. In these instances, you must open theconsoles manually. See instructions for starting the consoles under Verifying Your Installation on page 8 . Keep your consoles open and available as you step through the exercises inthis document.

Verifying Your Installation

Now that you have successfully installed the Pentaho BI Suite, this section steps you throughverifying your installation.

Note: As you start and stop the consoles and other Pentaho components, you may see blackcommand prompt windows open or close. These windows display the scripts that run the BI Suitecomponents. You can minimize the command prompt windows so they do not clutter your desktop

Making sure the BI Server and MySQL have started

If you selected to launch the User Console or Enterprise Console, the installer automatically startsthe BI Server, Solution Repository, and Enterprise Console. You can check to see if the PentahoBI Server and the MySQL database that contains the Pentaho Solution Repository have started bylaunching “Services” from the Control Panel.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Alternatively, you can typeservices.msc in the Run command on the Start menu. Under local Services scroll down toPentaho BI Server. In the image below, the Pentaho BI Server is started on Tomcat. The PentahoSolution Repository (MySQL) is also started.

Note: Right-click on the BI Server or Solution Repository in the Services window to start or stopthem. Alternatively, you can start the BI Server by navigating to Start -> Programs -> PentahoEnterprise Edition -> Server Management -> Start BI Server. The MySQL database startsautomatically when you log on to your device.


Starting the Pentaho Enterprise Console

Step Description

Step 1 Go to Start -> Programs -> PentahoEnterprise Edition -> Enterprise ConsoleLogin

Step 2 If required, open a browser andnavigate to http://localhost:18088/ orhttp:yourhostname:18088

Step 3 Enter your credentials (admin/password) toopen the Pentaho Enterprise Console homepage.

Starting the Pentaho User Console

Step Description

Step 1 Go to Start -> Programs -> PentahoEnterprise Edition -> Server Management ->Start BI Server.

Step 2 If required, open a browser andnavigate to http://localhost:18080/ orhttp:yourhostname:18080.

Step 3 Enter the credentials (joe/password) to openthe Pentaho Enterprise Console home page.Joe is a sample user with administrativeprivileges to the Pentaho User Console.

Alternatively, (after you started the BI Server), go to Start -> Programs -> Pentaho EnterpriseEdition -> User Console Login.

Starting the Sample Data Database

The Sample Data database contains sample content associated with the fictitious company, "SteelWheels." You will need to access to the Sample Data database to complete some of the exercisesdescribed in this document. To start the Sample Database manually, go to Start -> Programs ->Pentaho Enterprise Edition -> Server Management -> Start Sample Database.

Note: The Sample Database starts automatically, if you chose to allow the installer to launch theUser Console and Enterprise Console.

Introduction to the Pentaho User and Enterprise Consoles

The Pentaho User Console (shown below) provides centralized access to reports, analysis, anddashboards. You and your users can interact with, share, or create new BI content with the PentahoUser Console. To look at sample reports, dashboards, analysis views, and more, open the SteelWheels folder. To learn more about the Pentaho User Console, go to Help -> Documentation. Clickthe Toggle Browser button (shown below) to display the samples directory.


The Pentaho Enterprise Console (shown below) provides you with a central location from which toadminister your Pentaho deployments. The console simplifies many common administrative taskssuch as setting up user authentication, monitoring performance, managing connections, testing

configuration, configuring LDAP, and much more. Click (Help) -> Documentation to learn moreabout the Pentaho Enterprise Console.


Creating an Ad Hoc Report

Ad Hoc Reporting allows you and your users to create a basic data-driven report quickly andefficiently. With Ad Hoc Reporting, users do not need to know the structure of the database, nordo they need to know any SQL. A metadata model created with the Pentaho Metadata Editor, (agraphical user interface for creating user friendly metadata models), acts as a buffer between usersand the complexities of relational data sources. The Pentaho BI Suite comes with three pre-builtbusiness models (datasets).

Note: What is metadata? Quite simply, metadata is "data about data." For example, a librarycatalog is considered "metadata" because it contains information about books and otherpublications. A metadata model, is a collection of related categories of data.

Ad Hoc Reporting Interface provides...

• Interactive ”drag and drop” web interface for business user self-service report creation• Wizard-driven authoring supporting report templates, metadata-based query creation, sorting,

and filtering• Interoperability with Pentaho Report Designer allowing ad hoc reports to be “promoted” for

fine-tuning by IT professionals• Single reporting engine for ad hoc and pixel-perfect reports for lowest possible total cost of

ownership

To create an ad hoc report, you must logged onto the Pentaho User Console.

1. In the Pentaho User Console click Create New Report.

The ad hoc query wizard starts.2. In the first step of the wizard, select Orders in the Business Model Details pane.

A business model is another term for dataset.


3. In the Apply a Template field, select a predefined report template.

A thumbnail preview of the template appears in the Template Details field. A templatespecifies a variety of properties in the report that affect its appearance, like font size andbackground colors for various report elements.

4. Click Next.5. In the Available Items list, click the Territory business column and drag it to the upper right

into the Level 1 box.

This determines how the data is grouped.6. Drag and drop the Amount and Buy Price into the Details box on the right.

This determines which fields to display for the given groups.7. Click Go to preview how these new items have affected the report, then close the preview tab

when you're done.8. Click Next.9. Click the Territory item in the Groups list.

A list of general options appear on the right.10. Click Center.

This centers the territory name above each table, making it easier to read.11. Click Amount, then click Add in the Sort Detail Columns area on the right.

This sorts the sales amounts from lowest to highest.12. Click Go to test the new change, or Next to continue to the next part of the wizard.13. To set the header, footer, description, paper type, and page orientation, change the on-screen

values for these elements accordingly.

PDF is the only output type that has a concept of a page, so the Page portion of the Headerand Footer sections only applies to PDFs.

14. Click the blue Save button in the top toolbar to save your report. In the ensuing file dialog,navigate to the location you want to save the report to, and type in a filename for the report.

You can continue to modify your report after it's been saved; just click Save to update thereport file after you've made changes.

You now have a report that shows how much revenue is coming from each sales territory,and the itemized price of each purchased product. As you can see, ad hoc reporting providesbusiness users with a quick and simple solution for building basic reports. For report designerswho need access to more advanced features like pixel perfect layout, conditional formatting, orparameterization Pentaho provides the full-client Report Designer.


Creating an Analysis View

Analysis views are similar to reports, except they are designed to be totally interactive and dynamic.While reports tend to be static or minimally interactive after they are created, analysis viewsallow you to dynamically explore your data and drill down into it to discover previously hiddendetails. Analysis views presents data multi-dimensionally and lets you select what dimensions andmeasures you want to explore.

In this exercise, you will try to find out which product line is responsible for the highest number ofcancelled orders.

1. In the File menu, select the New sub-menu, then click New Analysis View....

This is one of several ways to create a new analysis view; all methods lead to the same pagein the Pentaho User Console.

2. Select the SteelWheels schema and SteelWheels Sales cube from the drop-down lists.

3. Click OK to continue.

An analysis view opens in a new tab.

4. Open the OLAP Navigator by clicking the cube icon in toolbar as shown in the image above.

A new table appears above the analysis view fields. The default basis for comparison isMeasures, though that is not very useful for finding returned products.

5. In the Rows section, click the two-tone square next to Product. This moves it under to theColumns section.


6. In the Columns section, click the funnel icon next to Measures. This will move it down to theFilters section.

7. Click OK to modify the analysis view.8. Click the + next to All Products to drill down into it.

9. Click the + next to All Status Types to drill down into it.


Clearly the ships category has the most cancelled orders.10. Drill down further into ships by opening the OLAP Navigator again.11. Click Product in the Columns section.12. Disable all products except Ships.

13. Click OK.14. Click Order Status.15. Disable all statuses except Cancelled.

16. Click OK, then OK again to close the OLAP Navigator and refine the analysis view.17. Click the + next to Ships to display its constituent product lines.


18. Notice that the Carousel DieCast Legends series has the highest number of cancelledorders.

Note: Click (Swap Axes) to change the results view.


Creating a Dashboard

A dashboard is a management tool that helps you measure your company's "vital signs" quickly andefficiently. Instead of relying on outdated paper reports to make important business decisions, adashboard delivers current and relevant information to employees through the use of a combinationof graphs, scorecards, and report components. Because dashboards tend to be highly visual, theyare easy to read and interpret providing employees quick access to information that helps themanswer critical questions about the performance of their specific departments. With just a few mouseclicks, employees will know if a plan they are implementing is effective, how it compares to thecompetition, and any other metrics you define. Best of all, they can access this type of informationeasily — from any location around the world over the Web.

Dashboard Designer is a plug-in to the Pentaho User Console that empowers business users tocreate rich, interactive dashboards with little or no training. Creating a Dashboard is as simple asselecting your layout, theme, and the content you want to display. This content can include reports,charts, or even interactive analysis views. Dashboard Designer also provides you with the ability toadd dynamic filter controls making it easy for dashboard consumers to filter the entire contents oftheir dashboard using a simple pick list

In this exercise, you will build a dashboard using existing content. You must be logged on to thePentaho User Console.

1. In the Pentaho User Console quick launch bar, click New Dashboard. Alternatively, you

can click File > New > Dashboard or click (New Dashboard) in the tool bar. The NewDashboard page appears.

2. In the edit pane (lower portion of the page), click Properties, and enter a title for yourdashboard page in the Page Title text box. Type Territory Sales Performance.

The name you entered appears on the top left corner of the dashboard. This name helps youidentify the page if you want to edit, copy, or delete it later.

3. In the edit pane, click Templates and select the two-column dashboard layout.

A blank dashboard with the layout you selected appears.4. In the edit pane, click Theme and select the Cool Blue theme for your dashboard.


The theme you selected is applied to your dashboard.5. In the edit pane, under Objects, select a panel, Untitled 1, from the list.6. In the text box, under Title, type, Yearly Sales Trend; this is the label for the panel.7. Click the ellipsis (...) next to Select Content to browse for the appropriate content file that

contains the data you want to display in the panel you selected in the previous step. In theSelect Content dialog box, open Steel Wheels -> Dashboards -> Widget Library -> KPIs.Select Sales Year/Year. Click Apply.

A bar chart appears in the panel.

8. Repeat steps 2 through 5 for the second panel (Untitled 2) in your dashboard.9. Title your second panel, Product Share.

10. Click the ellipsis (...) next to Select Content to browse for the appropriate content file thatcontains the data you want to display in the panel. In the Select Content dialog box, openSteel Wheels -> Dashboards -> Widget Library -> KPIs. Select Productline Mix - SalesTotals and click Apply.

A pie chart appears in the panel.


11. Now you are ready to create filters for the bar chart. See Working with Filters on page 20 for instructions.

If you want to pause before you continue the exercise, you must save your file. See SavingYour Dashboard on page 23 for instructions.

Working with Filters

Filters allow you to display a subset of data based on the dashboard user's point of view. Forexample, the dashboard user's point of view of Region may be "East;" his or her point of view ofTime may be, "Fourth Quarter." Pentaho Dashboards allows you to designate a point of view basedon the filters in your source data. Dynamic filters make it easy for dashboard users to customizethe information that they want to see; static filters display specific information by default. TheDashboard Designer also allows an administrator or design engineer to use a SQL-based querythat dynamically retrieves a list of display names and corresponding values directly from a relationaldatabase as shown in the example below. In this example, users of the dashboard are able to viewdata associated with customer ID numbers below 130:

Important: If you saved your file (step 11 in the previous exercise), you must open the file and editit. In the toolbar click the Edit Content icon (shown in the image below) and select Product Salesfrom the list under Dashboards.


Note: If you don't see the Product Sales listed under Dashboards, go to the Tools menu and clickRefresh Repository Cache.

In this exercise, you will create a filter list for the Yearly Sales Trend bar chart:

1. In the edit pane, under Objects, select Filters.

The Filter Editor appears on the right. No filters are listed if this is the first time you areassigning filters.

2. To display a filter toolbar to users of the dashboard, enable Show Filter Toolbar.

A placeholder for the filter toolbar appears at the top of the dashboard.3.

Click (Add) to start adding filters.

The Filter Properties dialog box appears.4. In the Filter Properties dialog box, type Territory in the Name text box. This is display name

for the control label.5. Enable Display Name as Control Label if you want users to see the display name in the filter

toolbar.6. In the ID text box, type region. This is an ID associated with the control label and is an internal

name that is not displayed.

7.In the Filter Properties dialog box, click (Add).

The List Value dialog box appears.8. In the List Value dialog box, type North America in the Label text box and NA in the Value

text box, then click Add.


9. In the List Value dialog box, type Europe in the Label text box and EMEA in the Value textbox, then click Add.

10. In the List Value dialog box, type Asia Pacific in the Label text box and APAC in the Valuetext box, then click Add and close the List Value dialog box.

The filter properties should look like the example below:

11. Click Close.12. Click OK in the Filter Properties dialog box.

The filter list is created.

13. In the edit pane, under Objects, click Yearly Sales Trend.14. Next to the Region parameter, under Source, select Dynamic from the list.

Note: This step ensures that the correct values associated with a region or territory displaywhen users select a filter.


15. If you haven't already, save your dashboard. See Saving Your Dashboard on page 23 forinstructions.

Saving Your Dashboard

Follow the instructions below to save your dashboard:

1. In the toolbar, click (Save) to open the Save dialog box.2. In the File Name text box, type Product Sales.3. Save your file in the .../steel-wheels/dashboards directory. You can do this by double

clicking the Steel Wheels folder the Dashboards folder.

4. Click Save.

Displaying Your Dashboard

After you save your dashboard go to the Tools menu and click Refresh Repository Cache. Yourdashboard appears in the User Console under Dashboards.


Creating a Report Using Report Designer

Pentaho Reporting provides unmatched deployment flexibility. Whether you’re looking for astandalone desktop reporting tool, Web-based reporting, or comprehensive business intelligence(BI) including reporting, analysis, and dashboards, Pentaho Reporting allows you to “start small” andscale up if your reporting needs grow in the future.

The Pentaho Report Designer provides you with the following features:

• Drag-and-drop graphical designer that gives users full control of data access, layout, grouping,calculations, charting and formatting for pixel-perfect reports

• Integrated, step-by-step wizard that guides report designers through the design process• Report templates that accelerate report creation and provide consistent look-and-feel

The Report Designer allows you to create a report by following a four step wizard; however, to showyou a larger range of features, the exercises that follow walk you through the manual proceduresfor creating a simple report. Keep in mind that is basic tutorial and will not provide details aboutadvanced Report Designer features.

1. Start the Report Designer. Go to Start -> Programs -> Pentaho Enterprise Edition ->Design Tools -> Report Designer.

The Report Designer home page appears.2. Click Design in the lower left portion of the page.

The design workspace appears.3. Under Structure, right-click Data Sources and select Add a Data Source.


The Configure dialog box appears.

4. For the purpose of this exercise, click Edit.

The details associated with SampleData data source appears.5. Click Test.

The Connection Successful message appears.6. In the Configure dialog box, click Query Designer on the lower right corner.7. Under Choose Schema select Public.

The SQLeornardo Query Builder window appears. The Query Builder provides you with agraphical environment that allows you to work with the data even if you don't understand SQL,the standard programming language for retrieving content from databases.


8. Double-click ORDERFACT so that the table appears in the workspace as shown in the imageabove.

9. In the Query Builder workspace, right-click "ORDERFACT" and choose deselect all.

10. Now, select the following fields in the ORDERFACT table: ORDERNUMBER,QUANTITYORDERED, PRICEEACH, and ORDERDATE.


11. Double-click the PRODUCTS so that the table appears in the workspace.

Notice that there is a line that joins the ORDERFACT and PRODUCTS tables together.12. Deselect all PRODUCTS table fields, except for PRODUCTNAME and PRODUCTLINE.

13. For the purpose of this exercise, click Syntax in the lower left portion of the Query Builderworkspace to display a simple SQL statement associated with the tables. Notice that PRODUCTCODE is the common field between the ORDERFACT and PRODUCTS tables.

14. Click OK in the Syntax window to return to the Configure page. Notice that the SQL statementappears on the right under Query Details.

15. In the Configure dialog box, click OK to return to the Design page.

Notice that the fields associated with your tables are listed under Properties in the Designpage. You are now ready to start designing your report on page 27 .


Designing Your Report

This exercise walks you through the process of designing the look-and-feel of your report.

Important: When you click a field name, the properties associated with that specific field appear. Ifyou want to see the other fields, click Data Source default JNDI:SampleData to redisplay them.

1. In the Design page, under Properties, double-click and drag the ORDERNUMBER field intothe Item Band. Make sure that the top line of the field name and the top line of the item bandmatch up.

2. Place the ORDERDATE, PRODUCTNAME, QUANTITYORDERED, and PRICEEACH fieldsinto the Item Band. Take care not to overlap the fields or your report will not display correctly.

3. Use the resizing handles to make the PRODUCTNAME field larger and theQUANTITYORDERED field smaller as shown in the example below:

4. You have created your first report. Click Preview to examine your report.


But, wait... There's a problem. Without headers, report users will have a hard timeunderstanding its content. You need to continue refining your report on page 29 .

Refining Your Report

You've created a report in the previous exercise but now you need to make the report moredescriptive so that users can understand the content in the report. Follow the instructions below torefine your report.

1. Click Design to return to the Design page.2. Under Palette, click and drag a Label into the middle of the Page Header band. Notice how

Report Designer keeps track of the report structure (shown on the right).

3. Click inside the Label item and type Order Report


4. Double-click inside the Order Report label to select the text, then in the toolbar, select a largerfont size (18 point) and apply boldface.

The changes are applied to the text; however, now that the text is bigger you may not see all ofit, so use your resizing handles and enlarge the label until you can see all of the text.

5. With the Order Report label still selected, click down arrow of the font color icon in the toolbar.It looks like a small uppercase "A." Select a color for your label.

The font color changes. This page header will appear on every page of your report.6. Now, you must create column headers. Click and drag labels for the following columns into

the Page Header band: Order No., Order Date, Product Name, Quan., and Price Each asshown in the example below. Apply boldface to your column header names if you choose.

Note: To align a header and field name perfectly, select the field name then use CTRL+CLICK to select the header. With both selected, right-click and select Align -> Align Left.The items will align perfectly. You may need to play with alignment and resizing to ensure thatyour report displays correctly.

7. Click Preview to display your report.


The report looks good but you may want to make it even easier to read by applying somebanding.

8. In the Design workspace, under Structure, click Item Band.9. Under Properties, select Row Banding and click the ellipsis (...) to open the Row Banding

dialog box.10. In the Row Banding dialog box, click Enabled.11. Click the ellipsis (...) next to Color to display the color palette. Choose a color for your banding

and click OK.

12. Click Preview to display your report.


13. Go to File -> Save to save your report in the ...\pentaho\design-tools\report-designer\samples folder.

Adding a Chart to Your Report

So far you've seen a small subset of features associated with Report Designer. In this exercise, youwill add a chart to your report.

1. Click File -> Open and find the report you just saved. Click OK.2. Click Design to access the Design workspace.3. Under Palette, click and drag Chart into the Report Footer band.


4. Use the resizing handles to center and stretch the chart. You can also adjust the size of theband.

5. Under Properties click Edit Chart.

The Edit Chart dialog box opens.6. The type of chart most appropriate for your report is a pie chart. In the left portion of the Edit

Chart dialog box, select Pie.7. Under Required,double-click not set next to Ttile and type a title for your chart as shown in

the example below.

8. Under Required, (on the right), click not set next to Value Column.9. Click the ellipsis (...) to display the Choose Fields dialog box and select

QUANTITYORDERED. Cick OK.

10. Under Required, (on the right), click not set next to Series Column.11. Click the ellipsis (...) to display the Choose Fields dialog box and select PRODUCTLINE.

Click OK.12. Deselect the Summary Only check box.13. Click Apply in the Edit Chart dialog box.


14. Click Preview.15. When the report displays, click the double arrows to go to the last page.

The chart you created appears on the last page of the report.16. Save your report. You are now ready to add a parameter to your report on page 34 .

Adding Parameters to Your Report

When you set parameters, users are prompted for a value or values when they run the report. Theability to provide parameters is an important part of creating a report.

1. In the Report Designer, click File - > Open to select the report you created.2. Click Design, to access the design workspace.3. Under Structure, click (+) next to Data Sources, then double-click default JNDI:

SampleData.

The Configure dialog box appears.4. In the Configure dialog box, under Query Details, edit the SQL statement so that it looks like

the image below. Click OK.


You can copy and paste the required lines, (shown below) directly into the SQL statement.Important: Make sure to use curly brackets, (not parentheses), before and after {enter_prodline} or the report will not display correctly.

WHEREPRODUCTLINE = '${enter_prodline}'ORDER BY"PRODUCTS"."PRODUCTLINE" ASC

By entering these lines, report users see a prompt when they open the report in the PentahoUser Console that allows them to enter a product line. That way, they can examine ordersby product line as shown in the image below. If you do not add the lines, the report displaysorders for all product lines.

5. You are now ready to publish your report on page 35 .

Publishing Your Report

You have created and formatted a simple report, added a chart, and now you are ready to share thereport with your users.

1. In the Report Designer, click File -> Open to open the report you just created.2. Click File -> Publish to Server

The Repository Login dialog box appears, pre-populated with credentials valid for theevaluation.Important: Make sure that the Server URL is set to http://localhost:18080/pentaho/.


3. In the Repository Login dialog box, enter your Publish Password in the first field.

Note: If you followed the installation instructions, your publish password is "password."4. Enter the following Pentaho credentials, joe/password.

The Publish Report dialog box appears.

5. In the Publish Report dialog box, type in a report name and description into the appropriatefields.

6. Select html as the Report Output Type.7. Enable User Server Data Source (JNDI), and click Publish.

A success messages appears.8. Click Yes to go directly to the Pentaho User Console to view the report you just published.

If you want to access the report later, log into the BI Server by going to http://localhost:18080 in your Web browser, then navigate to the Reporting Examples directory inthe Solution Browser. You should see your published report in the list. If not, click Tools ->Refresh Repository.


9. Log in as Joe. Joe's password is password.10. In the Pentaho User Console enter your product line parameter. You can enter any one of

these items in product line parameter: Planes, Trains, Ships, Motorcycles, Classic Cars,Vintage Cars, Trucks and Buses. Click OK to accept the defaults under Choose ReportFormat and Run in Background.

11. Your report displays in the Pentaho User Console.

You now have a report that users can view at any time.


Adding Your Data Source

The BI Server includes sample data and reports; however, if you are evaluating Pentaho you maywant to use and display your own data. Defining a data source requires JDBC class name for thedatabase driver, data source URL (server name, port number, database name) and the user ID andpassword needed to connect the database. Contact your database administrator to get the specificdetails about your database. To find driver information, see A List of JDBC Drivers .

You must be logged on to the Pentaho Enterprise Console to follow the instructions below. Go toStart -> Programs -> Pentaho Enterprise Edition -> Enterprise Console Login.

1. In the Pentaho Enterprise Console go to Administration > Data Sources.2. Click the General icon to display basic configuration options.3. Click the plus sign (+) (add) if you cannot find your data source in the default list.4. The Add Data Source dialog box appears.5. Type an easy to remember connection name This is the name you give the data source

(sometimes referred to as a Pentaho Data Source Connection. It is also the name you usewhen creating a connection on a client tool, like Report Designer.

6. Type or select the Driver Class from the list. The database driver name you select dependson the type of database you are accessing. For example, org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver is a sampledriver name for a HSQLDB (previously Hypersonic SQL or hsql) database.

If your JDBC driver is not available, see Adding a JDBC Driver.7. Type the User Name and Password required to access your database.8. Type or select the URL from the list. This is the URL of your database; for example,

jdbc:hsqldb:hsql://localhost/sampledata. JDBC establishes a connection to aSQL-based database and sends and processes SQL statements.

9. Click Test.

A success message appears if the connection is established.

http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/28818


10. Click OK to save your entries

Adding a JDBC Driver

In instances in which Pentaho does not supply the correct JDBC driver for your data source, youmust provide your own. If necessary, contact your database vendor for more information if youhave questions about which driver to use. Once you have found the appropriate driver, drop theassociated .jar file in the locations shown below:

...\Pentaho\server\enterprise-console-server\jdbc

...\Pentaho\server\bi-server\tomcat\server\lib

Placing the file in these locations makes the driver available to the Pentaho Enterprise Console andto the BI Server. Restart both the BI Server and the Pentaho Enterprise to make sure your changesare updated.

Defining a Data Source in Report Designer

You've created a report, refined, and published it. If you are ready to start creating reports usingyour own data source, you may need to contact your database administrator to get details (JDBCdriver, connection string, user name and password) for configuring your database. This is the sameinformation you used to add a data source in the Pentaho Enterprise Console.

• An OLAP (Mondrian) Data Source is accessed through JDBC and require a valid MondrianSchema file (.mondrian.xml). MDX is used to query this data source.

• Pentaho metadata data sources are accessed through JDBC and require a valid metadatamodel (.xmi.) The Pentaho MQL is used to query this data source.

• XML Data Sources are accessed through XQuery and require that your data is in one xml file.XQuery is used to query this data source.

Report Designer comes with a group of common drivers for Hypersonic (HSQLDB), MySQL,Postgres, Derby, DB2, H2, Oracle, and more.

You must follow the instructions below if the database driver you require is not available.

1. Contact your database vendor for more information if you have questions about which driver touse.

2. Drop the associated .jar driver file in the following location: ...\client\report-designer\lib\jdbc.

3. In the Report Designer, under Structure, right-click Data Sources and select Add a DataSource.


The connection dialog box appears.4. Enter the appropriate information for connecting to your data source.

JNDI Name An easy-to-remember name that identifies thedata you are accessing; this is the same nameyou used when adding a data source in thePentaho Enterprise Console.

Driver Fully qualified Java class name of the JDBCdriver to be used

Connection String Connection URL to be passed to the JDBCdriver

User Name Database user name to be passed to the JDBCdriver

Password Database password to be passed to the JDBCdriver

5. Click Test to test your connection.

A success message appears if your configuration is correct.6. Click OK to save your entries.


Troubleshooting Your Installation

As stated previously, you must be able to assign ports, if necessary, during installation. Beloware three wizard pages that are associated with port-related conflicts. It is recommended that youcontact your system or database administrator for help when you encounter port-related conflicts.

Refer to the image above as you read the default port information below:

• The Hypersonic (HSQLDB) database contains sample data. The default port for Hypersonic is18001.

• MySQL is a relational database that is used as your solution repository. The default port for theMySQL database is 18306.

• Tomcat is the Java Application Server that hosts the BI Server Web application. The defaultport numbers for Tomcat are 18080, 18005, and 18009.


From Evaluation to Implementation

This document was designed to quickly demonstrate basic Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Editionfeatures and functions. To find out more about the benefits of the Pentaho Enterprise Editionproduct offerings, contact Pentaho Sales .

http://www.pentaho.com/contact/

Getting Started With Pentaho

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