Posted under Pentaho, Tutorials
Updated 09/02/2010
All the guides have been updated as well as the MySQL and PostgreSQL SQL Packs. I have made a bunch of fixes to grammatical and spelling errors (ouch!), cleaned up the layout and process flow, extended the Java and Tomcat-Apache sections and added SMTP and Publishing sections (all changes are listed on the front page of each guide).
Posted under Open Source, Visualisation
Sparklines are an invention by Edward Tufte and are a great way to provide a bare-bones and space efficient time-series context for measures (Few, Stephen. 2006. Information Dashboard Design). If you would like to read more up on Sparklines I suggest you get Edward Tuftes book Beautiful Evidence – there is a whole chapter dedicated to Sparklines.
Below is a list of open source and free tools which support or are dedicated to creating Sparklines or Microcharts.
Posted under News, Visualisation
In December 2009 the Victorian Government released a “proof of concept” mashup with demographic and government services data known as VisualPlace.
VisualPlace is a six month Proof of Concept testing innovative ways of capturing, exploring and visualising government information and services through maps. VisualPlace brings together information from a wide variety of sources from service locations to demographic data to allow you to create custom maps.
Posted under Open Source, Pentaho, Tutorials
Pentaho Report Designer 3.5 came with nine new pre built parameters. Below is a quick overview of the nine parameters. Each overview includes:
Posted under Open Source, Pentaho, Tutorials
With the release of Pentaho Report Designer 3.5 users can create parameters through the designer rather than having to build a xaction which at times could be messy and confusing. Here is a tutorial on how you can create a basic parameter with Pentaho Report Designer 3.5.
If you aren’t already aware Doug Moran (Pentaho’s Community Leader) has already created a set off screen casts showing off features of Pentaho Report Designer 3.5.
Posted under Open Source, Pentaho, R
I’m not sure if everyone is aware of this as the recording was released last year but the team at OpenBI have been able to integrate R and Pentaho Business Intelligence Server. The screen cast, which you can view here, was demoed with version 2.0 of the server but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with version 3.5 (correct me if I’m wrong). The screen cast goes into detail on how the connection between Pentaho and R-Project works and what packages/libraries you will need to get it setup and running.
For those of you who don’t know:
R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS
Along with Weka, R is definitely a tool that I believe all analysts should have handy when performing statistical related tasks.
Enjoy.
Posted under News
With all the recent media coverage of Prince Willam visiting Australia it got me thinking more on what steps do we need to take as a nation to becoming a republic and why?
The Australian Republic Movement sums it up pretty well:
An Australian republic will embrace our egalitarianism and the concept of a fair go. It will honour and acknowledge our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and cherish its culture, with its timeless connection to the Australian land and sea. It will recognise our British heritage and acknowledge its gifts, including our political and legal institutions. An Australian republic will celebrate our immigrant heritage of opportunity and endeavour and its contribution to our national identity. It will unite all Australians behind an Australian Head of State.
You can help the Australian Republic Movement by Joining, Donating, Volunteering or Attending meetings.
We might even get another holiday out if it.
Posted under Pentaho, Tutorials
For those starting out with Pentaho it can be confusing on how to publish content (reports, ETL jobs etc.) to Pentaho Business Intelligence (BI) server. I have put together a guide which outlines the steps you will need to enable publishing and also an example of how you can use Pentaho Report Designer (PRD) to publish reports.
Posted under MySQL
Interested in a free front end tool to use with MySQL – why not test Quest’s Toad for MySQL:
Quest Software’s Toad for MySQL leverages Quest Software’s database expertise to empower MySQL developers and administrators, of varying skill levels, to rapidly create and execute queries, automate database object management and develop SQL code more efficiently.
Toad for MySQL provides utilities to compare, extract and search for objects, manage projects, import/export data and administer the database, while increasing your productivity and delivering access to an active user community.
It is packed with features and benefits but unfortunately can only run on Windows work PCs only. I have been using it pretty heavily for the past month and it hasn’t let me down once!
Enjoy.
Posted under Pentaho
I was about to do a chapter by chapter review of Roland Bouman and Jos van Dangen’s masterpiece “Pentaho Solutions – Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing with Pentaho and MySQL” but since I started reading it I haven’t been able to put it down. It is definitely a must for anyone who is interested or currently working with Pentaho.
Because this book just oozes with awesomeness I have been able to shorten my review to three words “buy it now“.