Open Source Reporting Tool Comparison

A Comparison of Open SourceReporting Tools for the Enterprise

Rod Cope, CTOOpenLogic

www.openlogic.com

OpenLogic Company Confidential

Agenda

IntroductionBackgroundBIRT, JFreeReport, OpenReport, DataVision OpenReports PentahoJasperSummaryConclusion


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


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


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


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


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


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)


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


Pentaho: Report Designer


Pentaho Server: Solutions Page


Pentaho Server: Report View


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


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

http://www.jasperforge.org/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&func=view&id=39248&catid=10

http://www.javalobby.org/articles/hibernatequery103/


Jasper: Report Designer


JasperServer: Home


JasperServer: Report View


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


Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool


Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool


Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Web View


Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP View with Chart


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


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


Contact Information

For more information, please visit:

www.openlogic.com

Call us at 888-OpenLogic

Send an email to:

[email protected]

http://www.openlogic.com/

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