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Hello Guys,

Here is a small document prepared on differentiating Pentaho Open source Vs Jasper Professional.

Based on the below information one can take decision on tool selection for BI needs.

I would like to present a clear picture with insight & readers of this document are encouraged to add your points in the comment box..

IMP NOTE:  Remember , I am comparing the Pentaho Open source(Community) 5.0.1 stable  with Jasper Professional(licensed) 5.5 

Dashboards :

Key feaute	Pentaho Open source Dashboard	Jasper Professional dashboard
Tool	Community Tools(C-Tools) – Server plug ins CDE(Community Dashboard Editor) CDF(Community Dashboard Framework) CDA(Community Data Access)	iReport/Jasper Studio Desktop stand alone tools
Development of Reports done at	Fly on the server itself	Depends on stand alone designing tools & need to publish to the server and again need to design the dashboard
Responsiveness /Mobile support	Responsiveness is achievable using bootstrap css framework	Lack of responsiveness even though there is Proprtional property of the dashboard designer
Dashboards output end view-able devices	Compatible with Mobile/iPad/laptop/Desktop/TV like big screens	Compatible with laptop/desktop
Charts	Protovis charts implemented, extend able to D3 charts.. can integrate fusion and HTML charts also.	Embedded charts engines – Jfree, Fusion & HTML5 charts. Can integrate protovis/D3 charts using html component of iReport/Jasper Studio
Loading of charts on the dashboard	Will take lesser time using Pentahos powerful caching mechanism	Will take longer time to load the charts on the dashboard
Embedding BI	Achievable using iframe tags	Achievable using iframe tags
Community support	Active	Active as it is a professional .. general community is not so active
Interactivity/Drill down/ Inter charts(frames) communication	Achievable	Achievable
Multi-tenancy	Need to check (will update on this)	Achievable
Customization	Developer friendly	Not developer friendly
Download here	Pentaho Maket Place or install using ctools-installer.sh http://community.pentaho.com/	Purchase license https://www.jaspersoft.com/jaspersoft-business-intelligence-software-trial

Key feature	Pentaho Open source Analysis	Jasper Opensource/Pro Analysis
Desktop Stand alone Development Tool	Pentaho Schema workbench	Schema Workbench
Front End tool to view the output	Pviot4J Analytics (or) Saiku Analytics (or) JPivot View (or) BTable (or) Ivy Schema Editor	JPivot View
Ad-hoc Reporting on Cube ouptut	Yes, using Saiku Analytics	Ad-hoc Editor (For jasper pro & enterprise it is an add-on feature. http://www.jaspersoft.com/editions
Query Language	MDX ( Multi Dimensional Expression)	MDX (Mullti Dimensional Expression)
Caching	Enabled – Very fast access of data	Enabled – some what less speed when compared with pentaho server
Community Support	Very Active – Quick Responses	Not so active as it is not a owned product of jasper/tibco
Documentation	Online documentation available with examples	Online pdf documentation is available with Examples

Key feature	Pentaho Open source Ad-hoc	Pentaho Enterprise Ad-hoc	Jasper Pro Ad-hoc
Source for ad-hoc reporting	Meta data layer creation	Meta data layer creation	Create topics OR Create Domains
Tool	Pentaho Meta Data Editor(PME) (Stand alone desktop tool) (OR ) Create JOINS on the fly on the server and use it for ad-hoc reporting	PME	No desktop tool.. directly in the server create Domains OR topics
Output Server tools	WAQR – Web Ad-hoc Query and Reporting (OR) Saiku Reporting compatible with 4.8 server as of now	Interactive Reporting - Advanced of WAQR But WAQR is not supported by any more Interactive reporting is an extension of WAQR in Enterprise Version of pentaho	Jasper Ad-hoc Editor
Support	Deprecated – No longer supported by penatho	On demand support	On demand – Need to be jasper customer
Visualization of Data in the form of charts	No	No	Yes .. using Ad-hoc report output visualization of data in the form of selected charts .

Here is a small workout on giving access of CUBES, Hierarchies,members to different users based on roles assigned to them.

You may not find what you need exactly in this article but I can say  surely that,  you will get some idea on below topics


1) Creating Users & Roles in the BA Server.
2) Assigning Roles to Users.
3) How BA server will identify the roles created in PSW with the roles in BA Server.
4) Developing a Schema of 2 sample CUBES
5) Scenario on the schema


Software  Setup:
Pentaho BA Server 5.x
PostgreSQL Server 9.x [Food Mart Database]
Pentaho Schema Workbench :3.8.0.0-209
Saiku Analytics : 2.6-PENTAHO5-SNAPSHOT (TRUNK)


Assuming you have initial idea on how to design a sample CUBE..
(For creating sample cubes you can follow this tutorial :
http://pentaho-bi-suite.blogspot.in/2013/12/pentaho-schema-workbench-simple-example.html
)

 Concept : Access Control
Problem Statement : 
1) Give Access of CUBE 1 to User 1 who is assigned with Role 1
       Schema grant, Cube grant, Hierarchy grant, member grant .
2) Give Access of CUBE 2 to User 2 who is assigned with Role 2


Step 1 :  How to built role mapper communication in BA Server for created roles in mondrian ?

• Enable mondrian user/role mapper in pentahoObjects.spring.xml 
• File location : /Pentaho/biserver-ce/pentaho-solutions/system

i.e., Uncomment   below code :

  <!--  This mondrian user/role mapper assumes that roles from the platform also exist in mondrian -->

  <!--
  Disabled by default in 3.5.2. In trunk, this should be enabled.
    -->
   
  <bean id="Mondrian-UserRoleMapper"
        name="Mondrian-One-To-One-UserRoleMapper"
        class="org.pentaho.platform.plugin.action.mondrian.mapper.MondrianOneToOneUserRoleListMapper"
        scope="singleton" />
 
NOTE : If your BA server is already running , just stop and restart it.

Thats it.. Now the Roles assigned in schema will mapped to the roles assigned in BA server.(for users).



Step 2 :  Creating Schema with 2 CUBES
Let us take food-mart database(modelled for multidimensional database) and design below CUBES.

CUBE 1 ---> Sales
CUBE 2----> HR

Cube Design Image is shown below :
Download the schema file here :  Click Me
Open it with your PSW...

The design has the following concepts :
 i) Dimension Usage  : 
Create a dimension outside the CUBES( i.e., Right Click Schema -> Create Dimension) and make use of it in CUBES as Dimension Usage.

(i.e, If 2 CUBES use the same dimension, we need not to create it 2 times. We can create one time and use that dimension which ever the CUBE needs for its specific purpose).

In this example  schema :  I made use of two shared dimensions as Dimension Usage. Those are  Store and Time

ii) Calculated Member(CM).
To calculate the measures.. for example : To find profit in this example.
It will results as a new measure in the output.


Step 3 : How to create Users  & Roles?  
Users :  

• Log-in into your server with Admin/password  first(login as Administrator).
• In BA Server Click on "Administration" from the dropdown Home menu. 
• Create 2 Users as shown in below image.

  
Roles:  
Also create 2 Roles in Manage Roles Tab
Sales User  and
HR User   as shown in below image.

Step 4 : Assign roles to Users
As shown in below image
i) HR user is assigned with "HR user" role.
ii) Sales user is assigned with "Sales user" role.

Scenario : 
CASE1) Give Access to CUBE 1 to User 1 who is assigned with Role1
    i) Schema grant
    ii) CUBE grant
    iii) Hierarchy grant  




Notes : 

• Role Name in PSW should match with the role name in BA Server. 
• Role Creation: In PSW "Sales User" role is created for Sales CUBE.
• Cube Grant: Right click on " Sales User" role and select "Add Cube Grant", give attributes : access =all , Cube=Sales
• Hierarchy Grant: Find below image.

•  Member Grant: access=all , member=[Store].[USA].[CA]
• Another   Member Grant: access=none , member=[Store].[USA].[CA].[Los Angeles]

• USA country in current example is having 3 states, CA,WA,OR.
• Out of these 3 states the access is given to only CA state.
• The cities other othn "Los Angeles" will be displayed with the other member grant. 

Output:
1) login to the BA Server as "Sales" user.
2) New -> Saiku Analytics



CASE2) Give Access of CUBE 2 to User 2 who is assigned with Role2
   
As a demonstration just given CUBE Grant to "HR User".

"HR User" is the role name given in PSW as well role created in BA server.
For this role the user is "HR" in this example. 





References :
1) http://mondrian.pentaho.com/documentation/schema.php#Defining_roles
 
2) http://infocenter.pentaho.com/help/index.jsp?topic=%2Fanalysis_guide%2Ftopic_mondrian_security.html


:-)

Sadakar
BI developer