Analyse This

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.

Modify publisher_config.xml

To get started you will need to edit the publisher_config.xml file located under the /opt/biserver-ce/pentaho-solutions/ directory, once open locate the following piece of code:

<publisher-config>
<publisher-password></publisher-password>
</publisher-config>

Enter a password between the publisher-password tags (this password will be the same for all users) so that the piece of code looks similar to the example below – in this example the publisher password is publishthis:

<publisher-config>
<publisher-password><strong>publishthis</strong></publisher-password>
</publisher-config>

Save and close this file.

From now on when any users try and publish content to Pentaho BI server they will need to specify this password.

Login to Pentaho BI server

In this example I’m going to publish a report which I created in my survey scale chart tutorial to Pentaho BI server. Within PRD click on File > Publish (or use the CTRL+SHIFT+P shortcut) which will display a Login window:

You will need to specify user credentials in this window to authenticate with Pentaho BI server, the available fields and options are:

• URL : URL of Pentaho BI server (in this example it is hosted locally)
• Timeout : Amount of seconds the connection will last with the server until it times out
• Username : Username of the user publishing to the server (this is the username you use to login to Pentaho User Console (PUC))
• Password : Password of the user publishing to the server (this is the password you use to login to PUC)

The user specified above which is logging into Pentaho BI Server will inherit all access and permissions. Therefore the user will only be able to publish to folders (solutions) which the user has access to.

After filling out the required fields and clicking on OK a Login to server progress bar will appear while PRD connects to Pentaho BI Server:

Publish to Pentaho BI server

After a successful connection a Publish To Server window will appear:

Below is an explanation of all available fields and options from the Publish To Server window:

• Report Name : Name of the report being published
• Report Description : Description of the report being published
• Location : The folder (solution) on the server you would like to publish the report to
• : Open the parent folder
• : Opens up a browse window to browse through or create new folders (solutions)
• Output Type : Default output type of the report which users will see in PUC
• Lock : Lock the report format within PUC to the Output Type
• Publish Password : Publisher password (in this example it is publishthis)

For this example I would like to publish my report into a new folder (solution) named blog. To do this first click on the (browse) icon which will open up a Browse window.

Click on the (new folder) icon which will prompt you to create a new folder:

After entering a Name and Description click on OK. Now the new folder (solution) will appear in the Browse window along side other folders (solutions):

Click on the folder (solution) (which you would like to publish the report into) to make it active and click OK. To finish publishing this report complete all necessary fields and options in the Publish To Server window. In this example we will only need to complete 5 fields:

1. Name : Name of the report
2. Description : Description of the report
3. Location : The folder (solution) we are publishing the report to is /blog
4. Output Type : I have decided that my report can only be viewed as a PDF
5. Lock : I have checked this option to make sure that the report can only be viewed as a PDF and in no other formats

Click OK once your are ready to publish your report. If the report was successfully published you will be shown the following prompt:

Click on YES to run your report straight away.

Run your report

After clicking YES the PUC login screen will be launch in a new window or tab with your default browser. After logging in the report is automatically displayed as a PDF (remember I chose the output type to be a PDF and to be locked):

To launch the report within PUC first click on the folder (solution) name in the Solution Browser which contains the report which was just published – in this example it is blog:

After clicking on a folder (solution) all available reports within this folder (solution) will be displayed in the frame below it – in this example there is only one report Survey_Scale_Chart_Example, double click on the name of the report which was just published.

As you can see my report automatically ran as a PDF (remember I chose the output type to be a PDF and to be locked):

Hopefully these steps can help you in publishing content to Pentaho BI server.

This post will be added as a chapter to current Pentaho documentation.

Enjoy.