This guide has been tested and works with the latest version of Pentaho BI Server 3.6.

Updated 28/02/2010

This guide has been tested and works with the latest version of Pentaho BI Server 3.5.2.

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).

Last year I created a tutorial on how to install Pentaho Business Intelligence Server 2.0 with MySQL on Linux and the response was overwhelming with the amount of people who found the tutorial helpful.

I have taken the suggestions and feedback and have updated the tutorial for 3.5 and added PostgreSQL 8+ and Oracle 10g (XE and 11g) to the list, all the tutorials are split up for Windows and Linux operating systems.

Can’t wait? Head over to the Pentaho project page and start downloading!

Scenario.

I have two separate data sources, the first data source (ds01) has information about my employees i.e. employee code, office location, created date. My second data source (ds02) has satisfaction survey responses for each employee which was provided by an external company i.e. employee code, question title, response. I would like to retrieve for each employee the question and response from the satisfaction survey but only for employees who were created in the last month.

Flow.

The flow of the Jobs and Transformations which will make up this ETL process are:

• Job : Process employee satisfaction
  • Transformation : Get employee details
    • Get system data : Get last months date
    • Table input : Get employee data
    • Copy rows to result
  • Transformation : Get employee satisfaction
    • Get rows from result
    • Table input : Get satisfaction data
    • Excel output : Store results

Data sets.

The first data set ds01 (employee data) looks like this:

The second data set ds02 (satisfaction data) looks like this:

Step 1. Create the parent Job.

The first step is to create the parent Job, Process employee satisfaction. Once PDI has started to create a New Job you can either click on the File > New > Job option or use the CTRL + ALT + N shortcut.

Save the Job (using the File > Save option or CTRL+S shortcut) and name the file Process employee satisfaction.

Step 2. Create the Shared Database connections.

The next step is to create two shared database connections one for ds01 the other for ds02. While the Process employee satisfaction job is open make sure the View tab is visible (in the left hand side pane) and right click on the Database connections item and select the New option.

The Database Connection window will appear. You will then to fill out the available options for your database connection, as an example ds01 uses a MySQL database so my options after they were filled out looked like this:

• Connection Name : Name of your connection i.e. ds01
• Host Name : Host of your database server i.e. localhost
• Database Name : Name of the database which holds your information i.e. employees
• Port Number : Port which your database is listening on i.e. 3306
• Username : User to access the database i.e. root
• Password : Password to access the database

For ds02 my connection options looked like this:

• Connection Name : Name of your connection i.e. ds02
• Host Name : Host of your database server i.e. localhost
• Database Name : Name of the database which holds your information i.e. satisfaction
• Port Number : Port which your database is listening on i.e. 3306
• Username : User to access the database i.e. root
• Password : Password to access the database

After filling out the required fields you should always test your connection by clicking the Test button, you should receive a success message similar to the one below:

Repeat the steps above for the second database connection ds02. When you are done you should have both ds01 and ds02 database connections listed under the Database connections folder:

The last step is to share both the database connections so that they can be used throughout any other jobs and transformations which are created. Right click on the ds01 database connection and click the Share option:

Repeat the above step for ds02, you should now see both database connections in bold:

Now that the database connections have been created and shared save the Job and restart Kettle. In the following steps you will create the transformations.

It is important that you restart Kettle so that the shared database connections can be used within the transformations.

Step 3. Create the Transformations.

1. Get employee details.

The first transformation that you will need to create will require the following steps:

1. Get System Data : Get last month date
2. Table input : Get employee data
3. Copy rows to result

The first step is to create the Transformation, Get employee information. To create a new Transformation you can either click on the File > New > Transformation option or use the CTRL + N shortcut.

Save the transformation and name it Get employee information.

The first step will retrieve last month’s date using the Get System Data step. Drag and drop the Get System Data (under Inputs) step from the left hand side onto the workspace and double click on it to edit the options. After making the changes the Get System Data step now look like this:

After clicking the OK button the workspace now looks like this:

The next step, Get employee data uses a Table input (under Inputs) step which also utilises the previous steps (Get last month date) value as a variable in the WHERE clause. Drag and drop the Table input step from the left hand side pane onto the workspace and create a Hop between the Get last month date and the Table input step.

To create Hops click on the first step, hold down the SHIFT button and drag the arrow to next step.

Double click on the Table input step to change the options, after making the changes the options now look like this:

• Step name : Name of the step i.e. Get employee data
• Connection : The connection which the step is using i.e. ds01
• SQL : SQL statement used to retrieve the information, in this example we are retrieving employee codes who were created in the last month (which has been replaced with a ? to make it dynamic)
• Replace variables in script : Checked, we are using variables from the previous step which I have represented with a ? in the SQL statement
• Insert data from step : Selected the previous step, Get last month date as this contains the variable needed in the SQL statement

You can read more into how to use variables in Table input steps on the Pentaho Wiki.

After clicking the OK button the workspace now looks like this:

You can make sure that the variable replacement is working you can preview the output of the Get employee data step by clicking on the step and then the preview (icon) or right clicking on the step and selecting the Preview option. This will open up a Transformation debug dialog window:

Click the step which you would like to preview which in this example is Get employee data and click the Quick launch button, you should now be shown a preview of the data set from the Get employee data step:

The last step is a Copy rows from result step, this will copy the output from the previous step Get employee data to the result (memory). Drag and drop the Copy rows from result step (under Job) from the left hand side pane on to the workspace and create a Hop between the Get employee data and the Get rows from result step.

Save the transformation.

2. Get employee satisfaction.

The second transformation you will need to create will require the following steps:

1. Get rows from result
2. Table input : Get satisfaction data
3. Excel output

The first step is to create the Transformation, Get employee information. To create a new Transformation you can either click on the File > New > Transformation option or use the CTRL + N shortcut.

Save the Transformation and name it Get employee satisfaction.

The first step will retrieve the data which is stored in the result (memory) by the Copy rows to result step in the previous transformation using the Get rows from result step. Drag and drop the Get rows from result (under Jobs) step from the left hand side onto the workspace and double click on it to edit the options. After making the changes to the Get rows from result step the options now look like this:

Make sure you enter the exact name of the fields that you copied to the result which in this example was from the Table input step Get employee data, these were named emp_code.

The next step Get satisfaction data will be use Table input (under Scripts) step which will utilise the values of the previous step, Get rows from result in the WHERE clause. Drag and drop the Table input step from the left hand side pane onto the workspace and create a Hop between the Get rows from result and the Table input step:

Double click on the Table input step to change the options, after making the changes the options now look like this:

• Step name : Name of the step i.e. Get satisfaction data
• Connection : The connection which the step is using i.e. ds02
• SQL : SQL statement used to retrieve the information, in this example we are retrieving employee satisfaction results for each employee code (which has been replaced with a ? to make it dynamic) stored in the result (memory) from the Get rows from result step
• Replace variables in script : Checked, we are using variables from the previous step which I have represented with a ? in the SQL statement
• Insert data from step : Selected the previous step, Get rows from result as this contains the variable needed in the SQL statement
• Execute for each row? : Check, in this example we need to run this query for each row stored in the result (memory)

Click OK your workspace will now look like this:

The last step is to create an Excel Output step which will store the results from the Get satisfaction data step. Drag and drop the Excel Output step from the left hand side pane onto the workspace and create a Hop between the Get satisfaction data and Excel Output step.

Double click on the Excel Output step to change the options, after making the changes the options now look like this:

• File tab
  • Filename : Name and location of where the Excel file will be stored i.e. /Users/prashantraju/Desktop/result
  • Extension : Extension of the file i.e. .xls
• Content tab
  • Append : Append the results to the file, in this example the output will run for each row in the result (memory) so you will need to append the results to the file otherwise you will only see the last row from the ETL process
  • Header : Include the header in the output, in this example that is emp_code, emp_name, question_title and response
• Fields tab
  • The fields which will be outputted into the Excel sheet, in this example it is only emp_code, question_title and response

Click OK to save the step and also save the Transformation.

Step 4. Complete the Job.

The last and final step is to complete the Job which we created in Step 1, the job will require four steps:

1. START
2. Transformation: Get employee information
3. Transformation: Get satisfaction information
4. Success

Open the Process employee satisfaction job and drag and drop a START step (under General), two Transformation steps (under General) and a Success step (also under General) onto the workspace and create a Hop between each of them so that your workspace now looks like this:

You will need to make changes to both Transformation steps so that they point to the Get employee information and Get employee satisfaction transformations which were created in Step 3. Double click on the first transformation and change the options so that they now look like this:

Click OK to save the step.

Repeat the above steps but for the Get employee satisfaction step.

Click OK to save the step and also save the Job. Now you are ready to test the Job.

Step 5. Test the Job.

To run the ETL process make sure you have the Process employee satisfaction job open and click on the (run) icon to run the Job, this will display a Execute a job window after changing the options i.e. log detail etc:

After clicking the Launch button and opening the result.xls file on my Desktop the output shows for each employee code the question and response:

Downloads.

Final Notes.

This example may not be the best way to represent the use of Table inputs and variables but hopefully the detail and the inclusion of storing rows in results, using system variables and debugging steps can help you with your PDI learning curve (not that that there is a big one anyway!).

As always, enjoy!

Scenario.

I wanted to create a bar chart which has a dynamic width (expand or contract) depending on the amount of categories a user selected from a multi value list parameter. This would ensure that the chart didn’t become squashed and unreadable. in this tutorial I will be using a data set which represents population by countries.

Data Set.

Below is an example of the data set I will be using for this tutorial, as you can see each country has a population (you can download a spreadsheet version of the sample data at the end of this tutorial).

* Population is calculated in the millions

Step 1 – Data Source.

Start PRD and create a new report. Right click on the Data Sets icon and select the JDBC option from the menu.

After selecting the JDBC option a JDBC Data Source window will appear. I have already created a connection to my database which includes the data that I will be working on, in this example it is called Geography.

Once you have a working connection to your database you are now ready to create your queries.

Step 2 – Queries.

This report contains two separate queries:

1. qCountries : Retrieves a distinct list of countries, this will be used for the countries parameter
2. qDataset : Retrieves the population for the countries selected by a user

pCountries.

The qCountries query needs to return a distinct list of countries, the SQL query looks like this:

SELECT   DISTINCT COUNTRY
FROM     dataset

A screen shot of the JDBC Data Source window of the qCountries query looks like this:

qDataset.

The qDataset query needs to return the population for countries which the user has selected, the SQL query looks like this (this query will need to use a parameter which I will add in later):

-- Use a sub query to calculate the total amount of countries selected
SELECT    t1.COUNTRY AS COUNTRY,
               SUM(t1.POPULATION) AS POPULATION,
               SUM(t2.COUNTRY_COUNT) AS COUNTRY_COUNT
FROM      dataset t1,
          (
              SELECT COUNT(*) AS COUNTRY_COUNT
              FROM dataset
              GROUP BY COUNTRY
          ) t2
GROUP BY COUNTRY

A screen shot of the JDBC Data Source window with the qDataset query looks like this:

Step 3 – Parameter.

There is only one (multi value list) parameter in this report which will display a distinct list of countries and be populated by the qCountries query. To create a new parameter right click on the Parameters option under the Data tab and click the Add Parameter… option:

This will bring up the Add Parameter window. After filling out all the options the Add Parameter window now looks like this:

Where the options and values are:

• Name : This is the name of the parameter, this is used within report queries i.e. the WHERE clause of qDataset
• Label : The text which sits next to the parameter on the report i.e. Select one or more countries
• Value Type : The data type of the sCountries value i.e. COUNTRY is a String
• Mandatory : For the report to run a parameter value must be selected i.e. Checked (true)
• Display Type : The parameter type i.e. Multi Value List
• Value : The parameters value which will used within queries etc. i.e. the field COUNTRY
• Display Name : What the user will see the parameter value as i.e. the field COUNTRY
• Visible items : The amount of items which are shown to the user in the multi value list parameter i.e. 3

Click OK to save the parameter, it should now be visible under the Parameters item under the Data tab.

After adding the sCountries parameter the next step is to use the parameter as part of the qDataset WHERE clause. Right click on the qDataset item under the Data tab and click the Edit Query option:

Modify the qDataset query so that it now includes the sCountries parameter:

-- Use a sub query to calculate the total amount of countries selected
SELECT    t1.COUNTRY AS COUNTRY,
               SUM(t1.POPULATION) AS POPULATION,
               SUM(t2.COUNTRY_COUNT) AS COUNTRY_COUNT
FROM      dataset t1,
          (
              SELECT COUNT(*) AS COUNTRY_COUNT
              FROM dataset
              WHERE COUNTRY IN (${sCountries})
              GROUP BY COUNTRY
          ) t2
WHERE COUNTRY IN (${sCountries})
GROUP BY COUNTRY

Step 4 – Bar Chart.

The next step is to create a bar chart whose width is dynamic based on the amount of countries a user selects. To get started drag and drop the chart object onto the report header.

As you can see the width is fixed at the moment but before I start to make any changes to the chart’s width I will need to configure my chart to display our data and see how it becomes unreadable when we increase the amount of categories on the x axis. Double click on the chart and to bring up the Edit Chart window.

By default the chart is set to a bar chart and without going through every available option I made the following changes to represent my data set:

• chart-title : Chart title i.e. Population of Countries (optional)
• gridlines : Are the vertical and horizontal grid markers i.e. Set to False (optional)
• x-axis-title : Label of the x-axis i.e Countries
• x-axis-label-rotation : Rotation of the x-axis label i.e. 90
• y-axis-title : Label of the y-axis i.e. Population (millions)
• category-column : Field which will be on the x-axis i.e. COUNTRY
• value-columns : Field which populates the y-axis i.e. POPULATION
• series-by-field : Field which defines the series i.e. COUNTRY

After previewing the chart with all the countries selected you can see that the output is squashed and unreadable.

One way around this is to make the width (or height) of your chart dynamic by the amount of countries the user selects from the multi value list parameter. Select the chart and on the right hand side under the Style tab locate the size & position option and click the icon under the Formula column. This will display an Expression window, click on the icon which will then open the Formula Editor window.

The formula below retrieves the COUNTRY_COUNT field and multiplies it by the width of the chart which suits one category (country) on the x axis, which in this example is 150.

# If there is only one country selected then use default width otherwise calculate width
=IF([COUNTRY_COUNT]=1;150;[COUNTRY_COUNT]*150)

Save the formula. Now you are ready to preview the report.

Step 5 – Preview.

Click on the preview icon and select one country from the multi value list parameter, as you can see the width is set to our default width, 150.

Selecting two countries from the multi value list parameter will expand the width to 300.

Selecting four countries from the multi list parameter will expand the width to 600.

So that is how you create a chart which can expand or contract depending on the amount of categories displayed on the x axis.

Downloads.

Final Notes.

A couple of things to note about the method I used:

• The query to generate the amount of selected countries uses a sub query and could cause performance issues with large data sets etc.
• This method can be used for both the width and height and on any other object within PRD i.e. shapes, labels, pictures etc.

Hopefully this comes in handy when you start handling large data sets and charts!

Enjoy!

• Login page and dialog
• Messages
• Main toolbar, menu bar and logo panel
• Launch page (covered in this post)

In this post I will show you how to customise the launch page.

The Launch Page

The launch page is the default page that is displayed when you log into the PUC, below is a screenshot of the launch page:

launch.jsp

The contents of the launch page are generated by the launch.jsp file which is located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/launch/ directory, the images which are used for the launch page are located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/launch/images directory.

The contents of the launch.jsp are:

<%@ taglib prefix='c' uri='http://java.sun.com/jstl/core'%><%@
    page
  language="java"
  import="java.io.InputStream,
      java.util.Locale,
      java.util.PropertyResourceBundle,
      java.util.ResourceBundle,
      java.util.regex.Pattern,
      java.util.regex.Matcher,
      org.pentaho.platform.util.messages.LocaleHelper,
      org.pentaho.platform.api.engine.IPentahoSession,
      org.pentaho.platform.api.engine.IPluginManager,
      org.pentaho.platform.api.repository.ISolutionRepository,
      org.pentaho.platform.engine.core.system.PentahoSystem,
      org.pentaho.platform.engine.core.system.StandaloneSession,
      org.pentaho.platform.util.logging.Logger,
      org.pentaho.platform.web.jsp.messages.Messages,
      org.pentaho.platform.web.http.PentahoHttpSessionHelper,
      org.apache.commons.lang.StringEscapeUtils"%>
<%
  /*
   * Copyright 2006 Pentaho Corporation.  All rights reserved.
   * This software was developed by Pentaho Corporation and is provided under the terms
   * of the Mozilla Public License, Version 1.1, or any later version. You may not use
   * this file except in compliance with the license. If you need a copy of the license,
   * please go to http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/MPL-1.1.txt. The Original Code is the Pentaho
   * BI Platform.  The Initial Developer is Pentaho Corporation.
   *
   * Software distributed under the Mozilla Public License is distributed on an "AS IS"
   * basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or  implied. Please refer to
   * the license for the specific language governing your rights and limitations.
   *
   * @created Jul 23, 2005
   * @author James Dixon
   *
   */
%>
 
<%@page import="org.pentaho.ui.xul.XulOverlay"%>
<%@page import="org.pentaho.platform.api.engine.IPluginManager"%><html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
 
 
<title><%=Messages.getString("UI.PUC.LAUNCH.TITLE")%></title>
 
<style type="text/css">
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  background-color: #FFFFFF;
  margin: 0px;
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p {
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}
 
A:link,A:visited,A:hover {
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}
 
A:hover {
  color: #ca6333;
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}
 
.launchPanel {
  background-color: white;
  background-image: url(images/quicklaunch_bg.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: center;
  height: 100%;
}
 
.ql_container {
  width: 620px;
  margin-bottom: 50px;
}
 
.ql_icon_bar_left {
  width: 41px;
  height: 147px;
  vertical-align: top;
  padding-top: 25px;
}
 
.ql_icon_bar_middle {
  background-image:
    url(images/ql_icon_bar_middle.png);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
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}
 
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  width: 41px;
  height: 147px;
  vertical-align: top;
  padding-top: 25px;
}
 
.ql_spacer {
  width: 20px;
}
 
.ql_btn {
  width: 167px;
}
 
.ql_btn_left {
  width: 41px;
  height: 56px;
}
 
.ql_btn_middle {
  background-image: url(images/ql_btn_middle.png);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  width: 100%;
  font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 1.25em;
  line-height: 20px;
  font-weight: 300;
  text-align: center;
  vertical-align: top;
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}
 
.ql_btn_right {
  width: 41px;
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}
 
.ql_btn_left_hover {
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}
 
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}
 
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  width: 120px;
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  padding-bottom: 13px;
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}
 
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  width: 120px;
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  padding-bottom: 13px;
  cursor: pointer;
}
 
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}
 
.button {
  cursor: pointer;
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  padding: 0px;
  spacing: 0px;
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}
 
.btn_left {
  background-image: url("images/ql_btn_left.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 56px;
  width: 22px;
}
 
.btn_right {
  background-image: url("images/ql_btn_right.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 56px;
  width: 22px;
}
 
.btn_center {
  background-image: url(images/ql_btn_middle.png);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  width: 100%;
  font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
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  line-height: 20px;
  font-weight: 300;
  text-align: center;
  vertical-align: top;
  white-space: nowrap;
  padding-top: 5px;
}
 
.btn_left_hover {
  background-image:
    url("images/ql_btn_left_hover.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 56px;
  width: 22px;
}
 
.btn_right_hover {
  background-image:
    url("images/ql_btn_right_hover.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 56px;
  width: 22px;
}
 
.btn_center_hover {
  background-image:
    url(images/ql_btn_middle_hover.png);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  width: 100%;
  font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-size: 1.25em;
  line-height: 20px;
  font-weight: 300;
  text-align: center;
  vertical-align: top;
  white-space: nowrap;
  padding-top: 5px;
}
-->
</style>
 
<script type="text/javascript">
Button = function(label, container){
 
    var btn = document.createElement("input");
    btn.setAttribute("type","button");
 
 
    table = document.createElement("table");
    document.getElementById(container).innerHTML="";
    document.getElementById(container).appendChild(table);
 
    table.setAttribute("cellpadding","0");
    table.setAttribute("cellspacing","0");
    table.setAttribute("border","0");
    table.className="button";
    table.setAttribute("height","56");
    table.setAttribute("width","167");
    table.cellSpacing = "0px";
    table.cellPadding = "0px";
 
    var tbody = document.createElement("tbody");
 
    var tr = document.createElement("tr");
 
    var left_td = document.createElement("td");
    left_td.className="btn_left";
    left_td.innerHTML = "<img src='images/ql_spacer.png'/ width='22' height='1'/><br/>";
    tr.appendChild(left_td);
 
    var center_td = document.createElement("td");
    center_td.setAttribute("width","100%");
    center_td.className="btn_center";
    center_td.onselectstart=function(){return false;}
    center_td.style.MozUserSelect='none';
    center_td.innerHTML = label;
    tr.appendChild(center_td);
 
    var right_td = document.createElement("td");
    right_td.innerHTML = "<img src='images/ql_spacer.png'/ width='22' height='1'/><br/>";
    right_td.className="btn_right";
    tr.appendChild(right_td);
    tbody.appendChild(tr);
 
    table.appendChild(tbody);
 
    table.onmouseover=function(){
      window.selectedButton = this;
      left_td.className="btn_left_hover";
      right_td.className="btn_right_hover";
      center_td.className="btn_center_hover";
    };
    this.reset = function(){
      left_td.className="btn_left";
      right_td.className="btn_right";
      center_td.className="btn_center";
    }
 
    table.onmouseout = this.reset;
 
    this.onClick=function(onClick){
      if(window.parent && window.parent.mantle_initialized){
        table.onclick = function(){eval("window.parent." + onClick)};
      }
    };
}
 
window.onresize = function(){
  if(window.selectedButton){
     window.selectedButton.onmouseout();
  }
 
 
  // IE_6_FIX: When resized by PUC, IE will display rendering issues. This is accounted for by the code below. 
  if(window.isIE6){
 
    // IE6 has a rate limit on the number of resize events that it will fire. This means we cannot rely on the
    // resize event alone to determine when the reisize is complete. The timer ensures that the layout is
    // recomputed after PUC is done resizing the iframe.
    setTimeout(function(){
      window.tableWrapperDiv.style.top = "1px";
      window.tableWrapperDiv.style.top = "0px";
    }, 350);
 
  }
 
}
 
function loader(){
 
  // IE_6_FIX: We're using a CSS filter to enable transparany in IE 6. This has the side-effect of trapping mouse events in the
  // filtered area. The standard workaround is to wrap that area in two divs, one absolutely positioned inside a relative one.
 
  var navAgent = window.navigator.userAgent;
  window.isIE6 = false;
  var reg = new RegExp("MSIE ([0-9]{1,}[\.0-9]{0,})").exec(navAgent)
  if (reg != null) {
    var version = parseFloat( RegExp.$1 );
    window.isIE6 = version >= 6.0 && version < 7.0;
  }
 
  // The following wrapps the button table with two DIVs, one positioned relative and the other absolute.
  if(window.isIE6){
    var buttonTable = document.getElementById("buttonTable");
    var parent = buttonTable.parentNode;
    window.tableWrapperDiv = document.createElement("div");
    var absDiv = document.createElement("div");
 
    with(tableWrapperDiv.style){
      position = "relative";
      width = "100%";
      height = "100%";
    }
    with(absDiv.style){
      position = "absolute";
      top = "0px";
      left = "0px";
    }
 
    parent.removeChild(buttonTable);
    parent.appendChild(tableWrapperDiv);
    tableWrapperDiv.appendChild(absDiv);
    absDiv.appendChild(buttonTable);
    tableWrapperDiv.id = "buttonWrapperDiv";
  }
  // End IE_6_FIX
 
    new Button("<%=Messages.getString( "UI.PUC.LAUNCH.NEW_REPORT" )%>", "launch_new_report").onClick("openWAQR()");
    new Button("<%=Messages.getString( "UI.PUC.LAUNCH.NEW_ANALYSIS" )%>", "launch_new_analysis").onClick("openAnalysis()");
<%!
  private static ResourceBundle getBundle(String messageUri) {
    Locale locale = LocaleHelper.getLocale();
    IPentahoSession session = new StandaloneSession( "dashboards messages" ); //$NON-NLS-1$
    try {
        if (messageUri.startsWith("content/")) {
          messageUri = "system/" + messageUri.substring(8); //$NON-NLS-1$
        }
      InputStream in = PentahoSystem.get(ISolutionRepository.class, session).getResourceInputStream(messageUri, true, ISolutionRepository.ACTION_EXECUTE);
      return new PropertyResourceBundle( in );
    } catch (Exception e) {
      Logger.error( Messages.class.getName(), "Could not get localization bundle", e ); //$NON-NLS-1$
    }
    return null;
  }
%><% 
  boolean pluginButton = false;
  String buttonLabel = "";
  String buttonCommand = "";
  String buttonImage = "";
  IPluginManager pluginManager = PentahoSystem.get(IPluginManager.class, PentahoHttpSessionHelper.getPentahoSession(request)); //$NON-NLS-1$
    if (pluginManager != null) {
        for(XulOverlay overlayObj : pluginManager.getOverlays()) {
          if (overlayObj.getId() != null && overlayObj.getId().equals("launch")) {
      ResourceBundle bundle = getBundle(overlayObj.getResourceBundleUri());
        // replace I18N parameters
        Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\$\\{([^\\}]*)\\}");
        Matcher m = p.matcher(overlayObj.getOverlayXml());
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        while (m.find()) {
          String param = m.group(1);
          m.appendReplacement(sb, bundle.getString(param));
        }
        m.appendTail(sb);
        String overlay = sb.toString();
 
      if (overlay.indexOf("id=\"manage_content\"") >= 0) {
        int startButtonLabel = overlay.indexOf("label=\"");
        int endButtonLabel = overlay.indexOf("\"", startButtonLabel + 7);
        buttonLabel = overlay.substring(startButtonLabel + 7, endButtonLabel);
 
        int startButtonImage = overlay.indexOf("image=\"");
        int endButtonImage = overlay.indexOf("\"", startButtonImage + 7);
        buttonImage = overlay.substring(startButtonImage + 7, endButtonImage);
 
        int startButtonCommand = overlay.indexOf("command=\"");
        int endButtonCommand = overlay.indexOf("\"", startButtonCommand + 9);
        buttonCommand = overlay.substring(startButtonCommand + 9, endButtonCommand);
        pluginButton = true;
        break;
      }
          }
      }
    }
  if (pluginButton) {
%>    new Button("<%=buttonLabel%>", "manage_content").onClick("<%= buttonCommand%>");
<%
  } else {
%>    new Button("<%=Messages.getString( "UI.PUC.LAUNCH.MANAGE_CONTENT" )%>", "manage_content").onClick("openManage()");
<%  }  %>
    fixPNGs();
}
 
</script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="../pngfix.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript">
      PngFix.spacerURL = "images/ql_spacer.png";
  </script>
</head>
 
<body onLoad="loader()">
 
<div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;">
<table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" class="launchPanel" id="launchPanel"
  cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td style="vertical-align: middle;" align="center">
 
    <table width="564" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0"
      cellspacing="0" class="ql_container">
      <tr>
        <td colspan="3" align="center"><img
          src="images/ql_logo.png" alt="Pentaho.com"
          class="ql_logo" /></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td class="ql_icon_bar_left"><img
          src="images/ql_icon_bar_left.png" width="41"
          height="147" /></td>
        <td class="ql_icon_bar_middle" >
 
            <table id="buttonTable" width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
              height="100%">
              <tr>
                <td align="center" valign="top" onClick="window.parent.openWAQR()"><img
                  src="images/btn_ql_newreport.png"
                  class="ql_new_report" /></td>
                <td align="center" valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
                <td align="center" valign="top"
                  onClick="window.parent.openAnalysis()"><img
                  src="images/btn_ql_newanalysis.png"
                  class="ql_new_analysis" /></td>
                <td align="center" valign="top">&nbsp;</td>
<% if (pluginButton) { %>
                <td align="center" valign="top"
                  onClick="window.parent.<%=buttonCommand %>"><img
                  src="../../<%=buttonImage %>"
                  class="ql_manage" /></td>
<% } else { %>
                <td align="center" valign="top"
                  onClick="window.parent.openManage()"><img
                  src="images/btn_ql_manage.png"
                  class="ql_manage" /></td>
<% } %>
              </tr>
              <tr>
                <td id="launch_new_report" height="100%"><!--  container for New Report Button -->
                </td>
                <td><img src="images/ql_spacer.png"
                  class="ql_spacer" /></td>
                <td id="launch_new_analysis"><!--  container for New Analysis Button -->
                </td>
                <td><img src="images/ql_spacer.png"
                  class="ql_spacer" /></td>
                <td id="manage_content"><!--  container for manage content Button -->
                </td>
              </tr>
          </table>
 
        </td>
        <td class="ql_icon_bar_right"><img
          src="images/ql_icon_bar_right.png"
          width="41" height="147" /></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
</div>
 
</body>
</html>

Before you make any changes to launch.jsp make sure you keep a backup copy.

Example 1

The launch.jsp page is like any other JSP (or HTML) page. For example, if I wanted to make the launch.jsp page display my blog’s logo all I need to do is change the contents of the launch.jsp file so that they now look like this:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Launch</title>
</head>
<body>
<div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;">
<table style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" class="launchPanel" id="launchPanel" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr>
    <td style="vertical-align: middle;" align="center">
      <img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Logo"/>
    </td>
    </table>
  </tr>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

I have placed the logo.jpg image under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/launch/images/ directory.

After refreshing the browser the new launch.jsp now looks like this:

Example 2

You could also embed information from other sites i.e. intranet home page etc. by using an iframe. For example, to include Google News instead of the default launch page I will need to make changes to the launch.jsp page so that it now looks like this:

<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Launch</title>
</head>
<body>
<iframe src="http://www.google.com/news" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0">
  <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p>
</iframe>
</body>
</html>

After refreshing the browser the new launch.jsp now looks like this:

Example 3

Another example would be to add a list of links to key reports, analysis views and/or dashboards using xactions. Just say I would like to create a list which are links for the following:

• Area Chart Example (Steel Wheels > Charts)
• Marketing Analysis by Year (Steel Wheels > Analysis)

After making changes the launch.jsp file now looks like this:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>Launch</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Steel Wheels Launch pad</h1>
<p>Maybe one of these reports/analysis/dashboards can help you:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://localhost:8080/pentaho/ViewAction?&solution=steel-wheels&path=charts&action=areachart_data.xaction">Area Chart Example</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://localhost:8080/pentaho/ViewAction?&solution=steel-wheels&path=analysis&action=analysis_customers.analysisview.xaction">Marketing Analysis by Year</a></li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>

After refreshing the browser the new launch.jsp now looks like this:

Example 4

You can also redirect the launch.jsp page to a xaction, to do this change the contents of the launch.jsp file so that they now look like this:

<%
    // xactionPath is the xaction path
    String xactionPath = "http://localhost:8080/pentaho/ViewAction?&solution=steel-wheels&path=analysis&action=analysis_customers.analysisview.xaction";
    response.sendRedirect(xactionPath);
%>

After refreshing the browser the new launch.jsp will automatically redirect to the xaction specified.

Final Notes

If you want to embed or replace the launch.jsp with xactions, dashboards, reports etc. I believe that you should use the startup-urls option instead, this option is covered in my previous post Customising the Pentaho User Console – Part 3.

Do you have any other examples? Post a comment or drop me an email and I’ll add it to this post.

Enjoy.

The Scenario.

I need to create a public schedule which will run out of business hours. Coincidently after creating the public schedule I’m approached by a Sales Manager who requests that I run the Top N Analysis report which is needed for tomorrow’s weekly meeting. As this particular report takes a while to run I will assign it to public schedule (created earlier) which will run the report out of business hours and email to the Sales Manager before his/hers weekly meeting.

Step 1 – Setup SMTP.

The first step is to make sure you have setup the Pentaho BI Server to talk to your SMTP server correctly. The configuration file for the SMTP server is email_config.xml which is located under the /pentaho-solutions/system/smtp-email/ directory. The contents of the email_config.xml looks like this:

<email-smtp>
  <!-- The values within <properties> are passed directly to the JavaMail API.
       For a list of valid properties see http://java.sun.com/products/javamail/javadocs/index.html -->
	<properties>
		<!-- This is the address of your SMTP email server for sending email. e.g. smtp.pentaho.org -->
		<mail.smtp.host></mail.smtp.host>
		<!--  This is the port of your SMTP email server. Usually this is 25. For GMail this is 587 -->
		<mail.smtp.port>25</mail.smtp.port>
		<!--  The transport for accessing the email server. Usually this is smtp. For GMail this is smtps -->
		<mail.transport.protocol>smtp</mail.transport.protocol>
		<!--  Usually this is 'false'. For GMail it is 'true' -->
		<mail.smtp.starttls.enable>false</mail.smtp.starttls.enable>
		<!-- Set to true if the email server requires the sender to authenticate -->
		<mail.smtp.auth>true</mail.smtp.auth>
		<!--  This is true if the email server requires an SSL connection. Usually 'false'. For GMail this is 'true' -->
		<mail.smtp.ssl>false</mail.smtp.ssl>
  	<!--  Output debug information from the JavaMail API -->
   	<mail.debug>false</mail.debug>
    <!-- For GMail this is 'false' -->
    <!--mail.smtp.quitwait>false</mail.smtp.quitwait-->
	</properties>
	<!-- The is the address of your POP3 email server for receiving email. e.g. pop.pentaho.org -->
	<!-- It is currently not used -->
	<mail.pop3></mail.pop3>
	<!-- This is the default 'from' address that emails from the Pentaho BI Platform will appear to come from e.g. joe.pentaho@pentaho.org -->
	<mail.from.default></mail.from.default>
	<!-- This is the user id used to connect to the email server for sending email
       It is only required if email-authenticate is set to true
       This is never sent or shown to anyone -->
	<mail.userid></mail.userid>
	<!-- This is the password used to connect to the email server for sending email It is only required if email-authenticate is set to true
       This is never sent or shown to anyone -->
	<mail.password></mail.password>
</email-smtp>

Below is the email_config.xml settings I used for my GMail account:

<email-smtp>
	<properties>
		<!-- This is the address of your SMTP email server for sending email. e.g. smtp.pentaho.org -->
		<mail.smtp.host>smtp.gmail.com</mail.smtp.host>
		<!--  This is the port of your SMTP email server. Usually this is 25. For GMail this is 587 -->
		<mail.smtp.port>587</mail.smtp.port>
		<!--  The transport for accessing the email server. Usually this is smtp. For GMail this is smtps -->
		<mail.transport.protocol>smtps</mail.transport.protocol>
		<!--  Usually this is 'false'. For GMail it is 'true' -->
		<mail.smtp.starttls.enable>true</mail.smtp.starttls.enable>
		<!-- Set to true if the email server requires the sender to authenticate -->
		<mail.smtp.auth>true</mail.smtp.auth>
		<!--  This is true if the email server requires an SSL connection. Usually 'false'. For GMail this is 'true' -->
		<mail.smtp.ssl>true</mail.smtp.ssl>
    <!-- For GMail this is 'false' -->
    <mail.smtp.quitwait>false</mail.smtp.quitwait>
	</properties>
	<!-- The is the address or your POP3 email server for receiving email. e.g. pop.pentaho.org -->
	<!-- It is currently not used -->
	<mail.pop3></mail.pop3>
	<!-- This is the default 'from' address that emails from the Pentaho BI Platform will appear to come from e.g. joe.pentaho@pentaho.org -->
	<mail.from.default>prashant.g.raju@gmail.com</mail.from.default>
	<!-- This is the user id used to connect to the email server for sending email
       It is only required if email-authenticate is set to true
       This is never sent or shown to anyone -->
	<mail.userid>prashant.g.raju@gmail.com</mail.userid>
	<!-- This is the password used to connect to the email server for sending email 
       It is only required if email-authenticate is set to true
       This is never sent or shown to anyone -->
	<mail.password><!-- passoword --></mail.password>
</email-smtp>

You can test if you have configured Pentaho BI Server to talk to the SMTP server correctly by running the Burst Sales Report which is located under the BI Developer Examples/Reporting/ solution folder.
Click on the report and fill out the prompts including your email address:

After clicking the Run button you should receive an email for each employee and the report as a PDF attachment.

Step 2 – Create a Public Schedule.

The next step is to create a Public Schedule. To do this you must have access to the Pentaho Administration Console (PAC), after logging into PAC click on the Administration menu item and then the Scheduler tab:

To create a new schedule click on the icon (Create schedule), this will display a Schedule Creator window with the Schedule tab active:

• Public Schedule – Allow users access to the schedule : Check this option to make this schedule public
• Name : Name of your schedule i.e. Ad hoc Reports
• Group : Group which your schedule belongs to i.e. Ad hocs
• Description : Description of your schedule i.e. Use this schedule to run lengthy ad hoc reports out of business hours
• Recurrence : How often do you want the schedule to run i.e. Daily
  • Recurrence pattern : On which days you want the schedule to run (this will be different for Monthly, Yearly etc. recurrences) i.e. On weekdays
  • Range of recurrence : The date the schedule is to start and end i.e. The schedule is start on the 2nd of March 2010 till no end date

After filling out the options the Schedule Creator window now looks like this:

You can also assign files directly to this schedule by clicking on the Selected Files tab:

Within the Selected Files tab you are able to assign reports (and xactions) to the schedule, in this example I will not be assigning any reports to this schedule. If you want to add reports click the icon (Add item) and use the file browser to locate your report:

When you have found your report click on the Select button to add it to the schedule.

After completing all the options available on the Schedule tab click the OK button. You should now see the Ad hoc reports schedule in the schedule list:

Step 3 – Setup and Email the Report.

The next step is to assign the report to the schedule, setup the parameters (including the email address) and schedule the report all from the PUC. Log into the PUC with a user who has access to the report (Top N Analysis) and can schedule reports – in this example I’m using the user Joe. The report that needs to be sent out is Top N Analysis which is located under the /Steel Wheels/Reporting/ solutions folder. Right click on the report under the Files section and select the Share option:

Within the Properties window click the Advanced tab and check the Use Public Schedules option and move the Ad hoc Reports option under the Available: list to the Current: list using the > arrow and click the OK button:

Right click on the report again and select the Schedule… option:

After clicking the Schedule… option the Top N Analysis report will open up in a new tab:

The Report Parameters section is where you define the default parameters for this report. The Sales Manager has requested that the report parameters are:

Before entering this parameters make sure you uncheck the Auto Submit option

• Product Line : Classic Cars
• Region : APAC
• Year : 2003
• Top N Customers : 10
• Output Type : PDF

The Schedule Report section is the new improvement with Pentaho’s BI Server 3.5.2:

• Report Name : The title of the report this is also displayed in the Email subject line i.e. Top 10 Classic Car Customers for APAC
• E-mail To : The report recipient’s email addresses i.e. prashant.g.raju@gmail.com. If you would like to specify more than one address seperate the emails with a , (comma) i.e. prashant.g.raju@gmail.com,prashant@analysethis.com.au
• Subscription : Which public subscription this report belongs to i.e. Ad hoc

After filling out all the options click the View Report button to preview the report before you schedule it:

Once you are happy with the report preview click the Schedule button. If successful you should receive the following message:

Step 4 – Check the Report Schedule.

You can check the status of the report by clicking on the icon (Workspace) on the main toolbar. You are able to see the status of the Ad hoc public schedule under the All Schedules (Admin Only) section and the status of the Top 10 Classic Car Customers for APAC under the Public Schedules section:

Step 5 – The Email.

When the sales manager receives the email it will look similar to this:

Step 6 – Delete the Scheduled Report.

After the report has successfully run and has been emailed to the Sales Manager you will need to remove it from the Ad hoc schedule (if you don’t the Sales Manager will keep receiving this email on weekdays out of business hours). Click on the icon (Workspace) on the main toolbar and click on the Delete link next the report under the Public Schedules section:

Final Notes.

I’m not sure that the example I provided is a viable solution as in most cases the users can log in and run the report themselves. I personally see this functionality beneficial when running large reports which need to be run and sent out of business hours i.e. extracts.

Enjoy.

• Login page and dialog
• Messages
• Main toolbar, menu bar and logo panel (covered in this post)
• Launch page

In this post I will show you how to customise the main-toolbar, menu-bar, logo-panel and other features for the PUC.

The Pentaho User Console

Below is a screenshot with overlays that highlight the different areas of the PUC:

Table of Contents

This tutorial has been tested with Pentaho BI Server 3.5.0 and 3.5.2.

I have split the tutorial into 4 different sections which involve making modifications to .PROPERTIES, .XUL, .PNG files and checking out and building the source code. Here is a ‘table of contents’ for this tutorial:

• MantleSettings.properties
  • Displaying Tabs when PUC Launches
  • Show/Hide the menu-bar, main-toolbar and logo-panel
  • Other Options
• Change the Default logo-panel Logo
• main_toolbar.xul
  • Show/Hide Buttons on the main-toolbar
• Modifying the Source Code
  • Requirements
  • Checking Out the Source Code
  • Examples
    • Show/Hide menu-bar Items
    • Change the URL of the logo-panel
    • Add a Logout Button to the main-toolbar
  • Building the source

MantleSettings.properties

The MantleSettings.properties file is located inside the mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar file under the /tomcat/webapps/pentaho/WEB-INF/lib/ directory.

To make modifications to the MantleSettings.properties you will need to have an archive tool installed i.e. WinZip, WinRAR etc. in this example I will be using WinZip. Right click on the mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar file and click the Open With > WinZip option:

Once you have opened the mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar file with your archive tool find the MantleSettings.properties file which is located under the org\pentaho\mantle\server\ directory and open it with a text editor – in this example I will be using PSPad. Right click on the MantleSettings.properties and click the Open With > PSPad editor option:

You should now be able to see the contents of the MantleSettings.properties file:

show-explorer-view-on-startup=true
show-advanced-features=false
# startup urls (each displays in its own tab)
num-startup-urls=0
startup-url-1=/pentaho/welcome/welcome.html
startup-name-1=Welcome
startup-url-2=http://www.pentaho.com
startup-name-2=Pentaho Business Intelligence
startup-url-3=/pentaho/ViewAction?solution=samples&path=/reporting&action=JFree_Quad.xaction
startup-url-4=/pentaho/SampleDashboard
# plugin perspectives
num-plugin-perspectives=0
plugin-perspective-url-1=/pentaho/adhoc/waqr.html
plugin-perspective-name-1=Ad hoc Reporting
plugin-perspective-url-2=/pentaho/interactive-reporting/index.html
plugin-perspective-name-2=Interactive Reporting
# ui customization settings (if menu/toolbar are disabled, the logo panel is disabled automatically)
show-menu-bar=true
show-main-toolbar=true
show-logo-panel=true

After you save any changes you make to the MantleSettings.properties your archive tool should prompt you to update the mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar archive. For example WinZip displays the following prompt box after I save any changes to the MantleSettings.properties file:

Displaying Tabs when PUC Launches

The startup-urls option provides functionality to tell the PUC to open tabs with predefined content when it launches i.e. welcome, intranet pages etc. The following section within the MantleSettings.properties file is where you define these options:

# startup urls (each displays in its own tab)
num-startup-urls=0
startup-url-1=/pentaho/welcome/welcome.html
startup-name-1=Welcome
startup-url-2=http://www.pentaho.com
startup-name-2=Pentaho Business Intelligence
startup-url-3=/pentaho/ViewAction?solution=samples&path=/reporting&action=JFree_Quad.xaction
startup-url-4=/pentaho/SampleDashboard

• num-startup-urls : The amount of URLs you would like to load when PUC launches
• startup-url-x : The location of the content which will appear in the tab (x is a user defined unique id) i.e. a webpage or xaction
• startup-name-x : The title of the tab which will contain the content you specified in the startup-url-x option (x is a user defined unique id) i.e. Welcome or Sales Dashboard

In this example I would like to load two tabs when a user logs into the PUC:

1. A tab titled Welcome which will display the /pentaho/welcome/welcome.html page
2. A tab titled Pentaho Business Intelligence which will display the /pentaho/ViewAction?solution=samples&path=/reporting&action=JFree_Quad.xaction xaction

After making changes to the MantleSettings.properties file the startup-urls section now looks like this:

# startup urls (each displays in its own tab)
num-startup-urls=2
startup-url-1=/pentaho/welcome/welcome.html
startup-name-1=Welcome
startup-url-2=http://www.pentaho.com
startup-name-2=Pentaho Business Intelligence
startup-url-3=/pentaho/ViewAction?solution=samples&path=/reporting&action=JFree_Quad.xaction
startup-url-4=/pentaho/SampleDashboard

Restart your Apache-Tomcat server and clear your browsers cache. When you launch the PUC two tabs are loaded automatically (with the titles and content defined above):

Show/Hide the menu-bar, main-toolbar and logo-panel

The show-menu-bar, show-main-toolbar and show-logo-panel options can show/hide the menu-bar, main-toolbar or logo-panel. If you decide to hide the menu-bar or main-toolbar the logo-panel is automatically hidden.

The following section within the MantleSettings.properties file is where you define these options:

# ui customization settings (if menu/toolbar are disabled, the logo panel is disabled automatically)
show-menu-bar=true
show-main-toolbar=true
show-logo-panel=true

Below are the different options and screenshots in action (after making any changes make sure you restart your Apache-Tomcat server and clear your browsers cache):

Show All

show-menu-bar=true
show-main-toolbar=true
show-logo-panel=true

show-menu-bar=false

show-menu-bar=false
show-main-toolbar=true
show-logo-panel=true

show-main-toolbar=false

show-menu-bar=true
show-main-toolbar=false
show-logo-panel=true

show-logo-panel=false

show-menu-bar=true
show-main-toolbar=true
show-logo-panel=false

Other Options

You may have noticed other options available in the MantleSettings.properties file:

show-explorer-view-on-startup=true
show-advanced-features=false
...
# plugin perspectives
num-plugin-perspectives=0
plugin-perspective-url-1=/pentaho/adhoc/waqr.html
plugin-perspective-name-1=Ad hoc Reporting
plugin-perspective-url-2=/pentaho/interactive-reporting/index.html
plugin-perspective-name-2=Interactive Reporting
...

Below is my attempt of trying to explain these options (if you have more information on these options please let me know):

show-explorer-view-on-startup=false

When this option is set to false the default solution browser is disabled and is replaced in the main content area with the old version (1.7) solution browser.

show-advanced-features=true

When this option is set to true advanced options are enabled on the menu-bar. These advanced options include Favourite solution folders and User Preferences.

plugin perspectives

I believe this has to do with Pentaho’s BI Server new plugin architecture and works similar to the startup-urls option, if I set the num-plugin-perspectives option from 0 to 2 the Ad hoc Reporting and Interactive Reporting items the View menu item.

Change the Default logo-panel Logo

To change the default logo seen on the logo-panel you will need to modify or replace the logo.png file which is under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle directory.

The new or modified logo.png image must be:

• 152 pixels wide
• 70 pixels high
• A transparent .PNG image (optional)

For example I would like to replace the logo.png image with the following image:

After replacing the logo.png with the above image the logo-panel now looks like this:

There is no need to restart your Apache-Tomcat server to reflect this change however if no change is apparent clear your browsers cache.

main_toolbar.xul

The main-toolbar is built using XUL mark up (XUL was created by Mozilla and you can read up more on it here). At the moment only the main-toolbar uses XUL mark-up (to make modifications to the menu-bar you will need to modify the source code). The main_toolbar.xul file is located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/xul/ directory.

You can open the main_toolbar.xul file with a text editor, the contents of this file look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?>
<window width="400" height="275" title="Placeholder"
  xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"  xmlns:pen="http://www.pentaho.org/2008/xul" onload="mainToolbarHandler.init()">
  <toolbar id="mainToolbar">
    <toolbarspacer width="10"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="openButton" image="mantle/images/open_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.openClicked()" tooltiptext="${openEllipsis}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="newAdhocButton" image="mantle/images/new_report_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.newAdhocClicked()" tooltiptext="${newAdhocReport}"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="newAnalysisButton" image="mantle/images/new_analysis_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/new_analysis_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.newAnalysisClicked()" tooltiptext="${newAnalysisView}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="editContentButton" image="mantle/images/editContent_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/editContent_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.editContentClicked()" tooltiptext="${editContent}" disabled="true" type="toggle" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarspacer id="editButtonSpacer" width="20" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveButton" image="mantle/images/save_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/save_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveClicked()" tooltiptext="${save}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveAsButton" image="mantle/images/saveAs_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/saveAs_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveAsClicked()" tooltiptext="${saveAs}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="printButton" image="mantle/images/print_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/print_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.printClicked()" tooltiptext="${print}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="workspaceButton" image="mantle/images/workspace_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.workspaceClicked()" tooltiptext="${workspace}"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="showBrowserButton" image="mantle/images/browser_show_32.png" downimage="mantle/images/browser_hide_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.showBrowserClicked()" tooltiptext="${toggleSolutionBrowser}"/>
  </toolbar>
</window>

Here are descriptions of the key elements and attributes which make up this file:

• toolbarspacer : This element creates a blank space on the main toolbar
  • width : Is an attribute of the toolbarspacer element and defines how wide the blank space on the main toolbar is i.e. 20 is equivalent to 20 pixels wide
• toolbarbutton : This element creates a button on the main toolbar
  • id : A unique identifier of the button – this is set for any JavaScript interaction
  • image : The image of the button, these images are located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/images directory
  • disabledimage : The image which is displayed when the button is disabled (this happens when you set the disabled element to true), these images are located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/images directory
  • onclick : The function to call when the button is clicked
  • tooltiptext : The tooltip text to display when a user hovers over the button, most of these are setup in the messages_xx.properties file (this was covered in this post)
  • downimage : The image which is displayed when the button is toggled
  • type : The button type – for example if the button is a toggle button
  • disabled : When this option is set to true the button will be disabled and the disabledimage image will be displayed

The image below describes how the above mark up contributes to the main-toolbar:

Show/Hide Buttons on the main-toolbar

In this example I would like to remove a spacer, New Adhoc Report and New Analysis buttons from the main-toolbar, you can do this by deleting or commenting out lines from the main_toolbar.xul file (I will be removing the lines). The lines of code which I will to need remove are:

<toolbarspacer width="20"/>
<toolbarbutton id="newAdhocButton" image="mantle/images/new_report_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.newAdhocClicked()" tooltiptext="${newAdhocReport}"/>
<toolbarbutton id="newAnalysisButton" image="mantle/images/new_analysis_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/new_analysis_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToo

After making the changes the main_toolbar.xul file now looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?>
<window width="400" height="275" title="Placeholder"
  xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"  xmlns:pen="http://www.pentaho.org/2008/xul" onload="mainToolbarHandler.init()">
  <toolbar id="mainToolbar">
    <toolbarspacer width="10"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="openButton" image="mantle/images/open_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.openClicked()" tooltiptext="${openEllipsis}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="editContentButton" image="mantle/images/editContent_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/editContent_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.editContentClicked()" tooltiptext="${editContent}" disabled="true" type="toggle" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarspacer id="editButtonSpacer" width="20" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveButton" image="mantle/images/save_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/save_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveClicked()" tooltiptext="${save}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveAsButton" image="mantle/images/saveAs_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/saveAs_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveAsClicked()" tooltiptext="${saveAs}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="printButton" image="mantle/images/print_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/print_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.printClicked()" tooltiptext="${print}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="workspaceButton" image="mantle/images/workspace_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.workspaceClicked()" tooltiptext="${workspace}"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="showBrowserButton" image="mantle/images/browser_show_32.png" downimage="mantle/images/browser_hide_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.showBrowserClicked()" tooltiptext="${toggleSolutionBrowser}"/>
  </toolbar>
</window>

Save the main_toolbar.xul file, restart your Apache-Tomcat server and clear your browsers cache. The main-toolbar now looks like this:

Modifying the Source Code

The following section assumes that you have experience in Java, Subversion and the Eclipse IDE.

Requirements

Some of the excerpts below have been taken from this wiki entry.

Before you get started you must have the following tools installed:

• Eclipse IDE
• Ant
• IvyDE
• Subclipse

Eclipse IDE

The Eclipse platform is the IDE of choice at Pentaho

To download the latest version of the Eclipse IDE for your operating system click here – I use the Eclipse IDE for Java Developers version.

If you are using Windows there is no installation package or wizard so extract the file to a working location i.e. C:\eclipse. If you are using a Linux workstation i.e. Ubuntu or Fedora you should be able to use the software package managers to install the Eclipse IDE.

The first time you start up Eclipse you will be prompted to set your default Workspace – this is where you will be checking out all the required folders to build the Pentaho BI Server.

Ant

Ant is a Java-based build tool that Pentaho uses to build the server platform, among other projects

By default Apache Ant is pre-packaged with Eclipse IDE but if you would like to install/setup Apache Ant manually follow the guide posted on this wiki entry.

IvyDE

IvyDE is an IDE that lets you manage your dependencies declared in an ivy.xml file in your Java Eclipse projects

To install IvyDE click on this link. Once the file has downloaded extract its contents to your Eclipse home directory i.e. C:\eclipse, it will extract files into the features/ and plugins/ directories.

For more detailed instructions or if you already have a version of IvyDE installed click here.

Subclipse

Subclipse is an Eclipse plugin that enables Subversion access from within the Eclipse environment

To install Subclipse follow the instructions on this wiki entry.

You can also install Subclipse manually by downloading the latest version here (the latest version at the time of writing this was 1.6.8) and extracting its contents to your Eclipse home directory i.e. C:\eclipse, it will extract files into the features/ and plugins/ directories.

The next step is to configure Eclipse to use Subclipse for all SVN related tasks. Once you have installed Subclipse start Eclipse and click on the Windows > Preferences option to display the Preferences window. Expand the Team item from left frame and click the SVN option. In the right frame make sure the SVN Interface is set to SVNKit (Pure Java) SVNKit … and click the OK button.

Checking out the Source Code

Create a New Project

The first step before you start to check out any code is to create a new project. Start up Eclipse and click on File > New > Project option from the menu bar:

This will launch a New project wizard. Expand the General folder and select the Project option and click the Next > button:

The next window will ask you to setup your Project resource. Enter pentaho for the Project name and leave the Use default location check box checked and click the Finish button:

You should now be able to see the project pentaho under the Package Explorer tab:

Checkout All Necessary Folders

The next step is to checkout all the folders which are required to build the Pentaho BI Server from source. You will need to checkout these 4 folders:

• svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/bi-platform-v2/tags/3.5.0-GA
• svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/legacy/pentaho-xul/trunk
• svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/pentaho-commons/pentaho-gwt-modules/trunk
• svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/pentaho-open-admin-console/tags/3.5.0-GA

You can browse the repository with your browser by visiting this URL: http://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/.

You will need to repeat the steps seen below for each folder, I have used the first folder as an example (3.5.0-GA).

The first step is to import the svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/bi-platform-v2/tags/3.5.0-GA (bi-platform-v2/tags/3.5.0-GA) into the pentaho project which we created earlier. Right click on the pentaho project under the Package Explorer tab and click on the Import… option:

An Import window will appear asking you for the source of the import, expand the SVN folder and click the Checkout Projects from SVN option and click the Next > button:

The next window will ask you if you would like to Create a new repository location or Use existing repository location, click the Create a new repository location option and click the Next > button:

The next window will ask you the location of the repository, enter in the URL for the folder if you are doing this for the first time enter svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/bi-platform-v2/tags/3.5.0-GA as the URL and click the Next > button:

The next window will ask you which folder you would like to check out, as you need all folders under each listed URL – select the root folder which in this example can be seen listed as svn://source.pentaho.org/svnroot/bi-platform-v2/tags/3.5.0-GA and click the Next > button:

The next window will ask you how you want to check out the folder. Click on the Check out as a project in the workspace option and leave the Project name to the populated name, leave the rest of the options to the defaults and click the Next > button:

The last window will ask you where you would like to check out the folder to, uncheck the Use the default workspace location option and make sure the Location points to the pentaho project’s folder under your workspace i.e. C:\Users\prashant\workspace\pentaho\3.5.2.stable\mantle\dist then click the Finish button:

After the checking out is complete (it may take a while depending on your internet connection) you will see the project listed under the pentaho/project on the Package explorer tab:

Repeat the above steps for the next 3 URLs, after you have completed this you should now see the following projects under your pentaho project on the Package explorer tab:

While you are checking out folders IvyDE will automatically retrieve any dependencies which the source code needs – this may take a while as it downloads packages etc. so just keep an eye on the bottom right hand corner to make sure that all the dependencies have downloaded for all the folders you have checked out:

Now you are ready to start modifying the source code.

Examples

As you can almost do anything when modifying the source code I decided to keep the examples to minor changes to the PUC user interface – hopefully these examples can give you a head start with any modifications you need to do.

Show/Hide menu-bar Items

To change the items which are appear on the menu-bar you will need to edit the MantleApplication.java file within Eclipse, this file is located under the pentaho/3.5.0-GA/mantle/org/pentaho/mantle/client/ directory (pentaho is the name of the project).

To understand how menu items are added to the menu bar below is a high level breakdown of the code.

The following piece of code:

1. Creates the Save menu item
2. Assigns the save message defined in the messages_xx.properties file
3. Assigns the SaveCommand function to the Save menu item
4. Assigns save as an element id

saveMenuItem = new PentahoMenuItem(Messages.getString("save"), new SaveCommand(solutionBrowserPerspective, false)); //$NON-NLS-1$
saveMenuItem.getElement().setId("save");

The following piece of code:

1. Adds the Save menu item to the File menu item
2. Adds a separator (horizontal bar) to the File menu

fileMenu.addItem(saveMenuItem);
fileMenu.addSeparator();

In this example I want to hide the Help menu item, to do this you will need to comment out the following line of code:

menuBar.addItem(helpMenuBar);

After commenting the above line looks like this:

//menuBar.addItem(helpMenuBar);

If you were going to make this change permanent I would suggest you remove all instances of the Help menu item and sub items.

Save the file and rebuild the pentaho project and copy over the new directories and files, after this is complete the new menu-bar now looks like this:

Another example is if I wanted to remove the following menu items (which are part of the File menu item):

• File
  • New (remove including sub items)
  • — (remove)
  • Save (remove)
  • Save As… (remove)
  • — (remove)

First locate the following lines of code within the MantleApplication.java file:

fileMenu.addItem(newMenuBar);
...
fileMenu.addSeparator();
fileMenu.addItem(saveMenuItem);
fileMenu.addItem(saveAsMenuItem);
fileMenu.addSeparator();

After commenting out the above lines of code they now look like this:

//fileMenu.addItem(newMenuBar);
...
//fileMenu.addSeparator();
//fileMenu.addItem(saveMenuItem);
//fileMenu.addItem(saveAsMenuItem);
//fileMenu.addSeparator();

If you were going to make this change permanent I would suggest you remove all instances of these menu items and sub items.

Save the file and rebuild the pentaho project, after this is complete the new menu-bar now looks like this:

Change the URL of the logo-panel

To change the URL which the logo-panel points to you will need to edit the MantleApplication.java file in Eclipse which is located under the pentaho/3.5.0-GA/mantle/org/pentaho/mantle/client/ directory (pentaho is the name of the project). First locate this line of code:

logoPanel = new LogoPanel("http://www.pentaho.com/"); //$NON-NLS-1$

At the moment it is pointing to Pentaho’s homepage, in this example I would like to have the URL point to my blog’s homepage, the line of code now looks like this:

logoPanel = new LogoPanel("http://www.prashantraju.com/"); //$NON-NLS-1$

Save the file and rebuild the pentaho project, after this is complete when a user clicks on the logo-panel they are directed to my blog’s homepage:

Add a Logout Button to the main-toolbar

To add a logout button to the main-toolbar you will need to first create a function which you will be able to call from the main_toolbar.xul file. Open the MainToolbarController.java file in Eclipse which is located under the pentaho/3.5.0-GA/mantle/org/pentaho/mantle/client/toolbars/ directory.

The next step is to import the commands/LogoutCommand.java file, to do this add the following line to the header of the MainToolbarController.java file where the other imports are located:

import org.pentaho.mantle.client.commands.LogoutCommand;

The header section of the MainToolbarController.java file now looks like this:

package org.pentaho.mantle.client.toolbars;
 
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
 
import org.pentaho.mantle.client.commands.ShowBrowserCommand;
import org.pentaho.mantle.client.commands.ToggleWorkspaceCommand;
import org.pentaho.mantle.client.commands.LogoutCommand;
import org.pentaho.mantle.client.perspective.solutionbrowser.SolutionBrowserPerspective;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.EventMethod;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.binding.BindingFactory;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.components.XulToolbarbutton;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.gwt.binding.GwtBindingFactory;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.impl.AbstractXulEventHandler;
import org.pentaho.ui.xul.stereotype.Bindable;
 
import com.google.gwt.core.client.JavaScriptObject;
...

The second step is to add the following function, logoutClicked() to the AbstractXulEventHandler() function, locate the following section of code:

@Bindable
public void showBrowserClicked(){
  ShowBrowserCommand showBrowserCommand = new ShowBrowserCommand(solutionBrowser);
  showBrowserCommand.execute();
  model.setShowBrowserSelected(solutionBrowser.isExplorerViewShowing());
}

Underneath the above section of code copy and paste the following function:

@Bindable
public void logoutClicked(){
 LogoutCommand logoutCommand = new LogoutCommand();
 logoutCommand.execute();
}

Save the file and rebuild the pentaho project and copy over the new directories and files. You will now need to make changes to the main_toolbar.xul file which is located under the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/mantle/xul/ directory. Open up the file in a text editor and add the following line of code:

<toolbarspacer width="10"/>
<toolbarbutton id="logoutButton" image="mantle/images/home_back_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.logoutClicked()" tooltiptext="${logout}"/>

• toolbarspacer : Add a space of 10 pixels between the logout button and the solution browser toggle button
• id : A unique identifier for the button (optional) i.e. logoutButton
• image : The image which will be displayed for the logout button – I used this (WooFunction Icons released under GNU GPL)
• onclick : The function to call when the logout button is clicked – this is the function we created in the previous step logoutClicked(), this must be part of the mainToolbarHandler
• tooltiptext : The tooltip which is displayed when the user hovers over the logout button – in this case there is already a logout message defined so I have reused this

The main_toolbar.xul file now looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="chrome://global/skin/" type="text/css"?>
<window width="400" height="275" title="Placeholder"
  xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"  xmlns:pen="http://www.pentaho.org/2008/xul" onload="mainToolbarHandler.init()">
  <toolbar id="mainToolbar">
    <toolbarspacer width="10"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="openButton" image="mantle/images/open_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.openClicked()" tooltiptext="${openEllipsis}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="newAdhocButton" image="mantle/images/new_report_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.newAdhocClicked()" tooltiptext="${newAdhocReport}"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="newAnalysisButton" image="mantle/images/new_analysis_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/new_analysis_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.newAnalysisClicked()" tooltiptext="${newAnalysisView}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="editContentButton" image="mantle/images/editContent_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/editContent_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.editContentClicked()" tooltiptext="${editContent}" disabled="true" type="toggle" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarspacer id="editButtonSpacer" width="20" pen:visible="false"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveButton" image="mantle/images/save_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/save_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveClicked()" tooltiptext="${save}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="saveAsButton" image="mantle/images/saveAs_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/saveAs_32_disabled.png"  onclick="mainToolbarHandler.saveAsClicked()" tooltiptext="${saveAs}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="printButton" image="mantle/images/print_32.png" disabledimage="mantle/images/print_32_disabled.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.printClicked()" tooltiptext="${print}" disabled="true"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="20"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="workspaceButton" image="mantle/images/workspace_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.workspaceClicked()" tooltiptext="${workspace}"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="showBrowserButton" image="mantle/images/browser_show_32.png" downimage="mantle/images/browser_hide_32.png" type="toggle" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.showBrowserClicked()" tooltiptext="${toggleSolutionBrowser}"/>
    <toolbarspacer width="10"/>
    <toolbarbutton id="logoutButton" image="mantle/images/logout_32.png" onclick="mainToolbarHandler.logoutClicked()" tooltiptext="${logout}"/>
  </toolbar>
</window>

Restart your Apache-Tomcat server and clear your browsers cache. The main-toolbar now looks like this:

When a User clicks on the Logout button they are logged out from the PUC.

Building the Source Code

To build the modified source code you will need to use Ant, as I mentioned early Ant comes packaged with Eclipse which makes it a lot easier to use. To start the build process right click on the build.xml file under the pentaho/3.5.0-GA/bi-platform-build/ directory and click the Run As > 1 Ant Build option:

After clicking the 1 Ant Build option Eclipse will start the build process, you can monitor the build progress from the Output tab:

The following message will be displayed in the Output tab when the build process has completed successfully:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 10 minutes 4 seconds

It can take over 20 minutes to build the source code for the first time and consequent builds can take between 5 to 15 minutes – this depends on your system setup, internet connection etc.

Once the build process has finished you will need to copy the following directories and file over to your Pentaho BI Server installation:

• mantle/
• mantleLogin/
• mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar

These directories and files are found under the pentaho/3.5.0-GA/mantle/dist/ directory. Before you copy these files over make sure you stop your Apache-Tomcat server and rename the current mantle/, mantleLogin/ and mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar so that they don’t cause any conflicts, in this example I renamed them to mantle.old/, mantleLogin.old/ and mantle-3.5.0.stable.old.jar.

The new mantle/, mantleLogin/ directories are inside the mantle-package-3.5-SNAPSHOT.zip file, extract the contents of this file into the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/ directory.
The new mantle.3.5.0.stable.jar file is also under the same directory but is named mantle-3.5-SNAPSHOT.jar, rename this file to mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar and copy it to the tomcat/webapps/pentaho/WEB-INF/lib/ directory.

After you have extracted and copied the new directories and file your tomcat/webapps/pentaho/ directory structure should now look like this:

• tomcat/webapps/pentaho/
  • mantle/
  • mantle.old/
  • mantleLogin/
  • mantleLogin.old/
  • WEB-INF/
    • lib/
      • mantle-3.5.0.stable.jar
      • mantle-3.5.0.stable.old.jar

Do not overwrite original directories and files!

If you are using a more recent version of Pentaho BI Server i.e. 3.5.2 the .JAR file will have a different name i.e. mantle-3.5.2.stable.jar

Start your Apache-Tomcat server, clear your browsers cache and view the modifications you have made to source code.

Final Notes

I didn’t try and go into too much detail with the “Modifying the Source Code” section as I could of have written a whole book on it! Hopefully the examples I have provided give you a bit of a kick start with any modifications you need to make to customise the PUC user interface however the best way to learn is by trial and error. This is the approach I took and I have never touched Java before I started using Pentaho!

Good luck and enjoy.

In this example I will be using the Steel Wheels sample data to create a report which will display a list of customers using two parameters: a drop down parameter which will contain a distinct list of countries which will then filter another drop down parameter which contains cities which belong to the country.

The Scenario

The current report displays customers information (includes the customer number, name, city and country). I would like to create parameters which will enable users to filter the list of customers by a country and then the cities which belong to that country.

Below is a screen shot of my initial report structure and preview screen:

Step 1. Build the Parameter Queries

I will need to build two parameter queries, the first will need to display a distinct list of countries and the second will need to display a distinct list of cities which belong to the country.

To get started I will need to add a new query to the data source which I created to connect to the sample data, from the screen shot below you can see I already have a query named customerList which the current report uses to display customer information.

To create a new query click on the icon (add a new query) and enter a SQL statement which will retrieve a distinct list of countries – make sure you don’t forget to name your query (in this example my country parameter query is named countryList):

Here is the above query in a format which you can copy and paste:

SELECT
 DISTINCT `customers`.`COUNTRY`
FROM
 `customers`

The next step is to preview the query – as you can see from the screen shot below the countryList parameter query is retrieving a distinct list of countries:

Now we will need to add the second parameter which will display a distinct list of cities based on the value of the country parameter. Close the preview window and click on the icon (add a new query) and enter a SQL statement which will retrieve a distinct list of cities – make sure you don’t forget to name your query (in this example my city parameter query is named cityList):

Here is the above query in a format which you can copy and paste:

SELECT
 DISTINCT `customers`.`CITY`

FROM
 `customers`

Preview this query. At the moment the above query is only retrieving a distinct list of every city. I need to make sure that this query retrieves a list of cities based on the country parameter:

For this query to only show a list of cities based on the value of the country parameter I will need to add the country parameter name to the WHERE clause of the cityList query. As I have not yet created the country or city parameters I will need to make note of the country parameter name I will be specifying in the cityList query – I have chosen to call the country parameter sCountryName. The new cityList query now looks like this:

Here is the above query in a format which you can copy and paste:

SELECT
 DISTINCT `customers`.`CITY`
FROM
 `customers`
WHERE
 `customers`.`COUNTRY` = ${sCountryName}

I have now created both parameter queries – I will need to revisit this area later on to modify the report query customerList but for now click on the OK button to close the JDBC Data Source window.

Step 2. Create the Parameters

I will need to create two parameters:

1. A country drop down parameter which is named sCountryName (step 1)
2. A city drop down parameter which will be named sCityName

Creating the sCountryName Parameter

To create a new parameter make sure you have the Data tab active, right click on the Parameters menu item and select the Add Parameter… option:

An Add Parameter… window will pop up. Before you make any changes to the options expand the connection folder on the left and then select the query which will populate the parameter, in this example it is the countryList query. Below is a screen shot of all the sCountryName parameter options completed:

The options above are fairly self explanatory however here are descriptions of the most important options:

• Name: This is the name we specified in step 1, this must match the value of this parameter we put in the cityList WHERE clause
• Type: The type of this parameter is a drop down
• Query: The query that will populate this parameter is the countryList query which was created in step 1
• Value and Display Name: I have set these both to the COUNTRY field as the value is the same as the output I would like displayed in the drop down parameter
• Value Type: The COUNTRY field is a string
• Mandatory: I have checked this option as a user must select a country before running the report – this also ensures that the city parameter will be populated

Click the OK button to save the sCountryName parameter.

Creating the sCityName Parameter

The second parameter I will need to create is for the city drop down. There isn’t much different from this parameter and the sCountryName parameter so I can copy and paste this parameter and then change some options.

To copy the parameter right click on the sCountryName parameter under the Data tab and select the Copy option (alternatively you can use the CTRL+C shortcut):

To paste the parameter right click on the Parameters… item and select the Paste option (alternatively you can use the CTRL+V shortcut):

This will create an identical copy of the sCountryName parameter.

Double click on the sCountryName parameter which is located at the bottom of the Parameters list, this will open the Edit Parameter… window. Before you make any changes to the options expand the connection folder on the left and then select the query which will populate this parameter, in this example it is the cityList query. Below is a screen shot of all the sCityName parameter options completed:

The options above are fairly self explanatory however here are descriptions of the most important options:

• Name: I have decided to name this parameter sCityName
• Type: The type of this parameter is a drop down
• Query: The query that will populate this parameter is the cityList query which was created in step 1
• Value and Display Name: I have set these both to the CITY field as the value is the same as the output I would like displayed in the drop down parameter
• Value Type: The CITY field is a string
• Mandatory: I have checked this option as a user must select a city before running the report

Step 3. Modify the Report Query

Now that the parameters and parameter queries have been created we are now ready to modify the report query (customerList) to use the new parameters. To modify the report query expand the data source connections under the Data tab and double click on the report query, customerList:

This will open the JDBC Data Source window and automatically highlight the customerList query:

To make the customerList query use the two new parameters created in step 2 you will need to add in two new conditions to the WHERE clause:

Here is the above query in a format which you can copy and paste:

SELECT
 `customers`.`CUSTOMERNUMBER`,
 `customers`.`CUSTOMERNAME`,
 `customers`.`CITY`,
 `customers`.`COUNTRY`

FROM
 `customers`
WHERE
 `customers`.`COUNTRY` = ${sCountryName}
AND
 `customers`.`CITY`    = ${sCityName}

Now the report query will use the values of the sCountryName and sCityName parameters in its WHERE clause. Click on the OK button to close the JDBC Data Source window.

Step 4. Preview the Report

The last step is to preview the report, to do this you can click on the (preview icon) found in the top left hand corner or alternatively click on View > Preview menu item.

By default nothing will be displayed in the report and none of the drop down parameters will be populated (if you would like a country to be set when you first run your report set a value for the Default Value option in step 2 for the sCountryName parameter).

To check if the cascading parameters are working pick a country from the first drop down for example Australia:

The city drop down parameter should automatically populate with the cities which belong to Australia (even though I’m not sure if you would classify Glen Waverly as a city):

After selecting a city i.e. Melbourne click on the UPDATE button and now the report is filtered to customers who are located in the country Australia and the city Melbourne:

Downloads

Below is a link to download the Pentaho Report file for this tutorial.

Final Notes

This was tested with PRD 3.5 and should work with PRD 3.6. If you are looking to eliminate the cascading feature you will need to remove the WHERE clause from the cityList parameter query:

• Login page and dialog
• Messages (covered in this post)
• Main toolbar, menu bar and logo panel
• Launch page

In this post I will show you how to customise messages for the login dialog and PUC.

Customising Login Dialog Messages

Messages for the login dialog are displayed as text i.e. “Login” as the title of the login dialog or “Login Error” the error message a user receives when they don’t provide the right credentials:

To modify the messages you need to make modifications to the MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES file, which is located under two different directories:

• \tomcat\webapps\pentaho\mantleLogin\messages\MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES
• \tomcat\webapps\pentaho\mantle\messages\MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES *

* I’m not sure why there is a second copy of the file located under the \mantle\ directory, it could be used when users timeout while still logged into the PUC – as the login dialog pops up – but I’m only guessing (if you do know please let me know).

If you look inside these directories you will see a MantleLoginMessages.PROPERTIES file, when you first load the login page this file is loaded first then the MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES file. This means that we only need to make changes to the MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES file or MantleLoginMessages_xx.PROPERTIES depending on your language setting (in this example I will be using the MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES file). Once you have opened the MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES file you will see a list of messages which can be modified (you should be able to figure out what they relate to from their names):

authFailed=Authentication failed
loginError=Login Error
launchInNewWindow=Launch in new window
login=Login
ok=Ok
cancel=Cancel
username=User Name
password=Password
error=Error
sampleUser=Sample User
selectUser=Select a User
serverError=A critical server error has occurred, check the logs.
popupWarning=We've detected the use of "pop-up blocking" software which prevented<br/>the launch of the Pentaho User Console in a new window.<br/><br/>Disable popup blocking for this site or uncheck<br/> "Launch in new window".

In this example I would like to modify the:

• login message from “Login” to “Login to Steel Wheels”
• username message from “User name” to “Steel Wheels Username”
• sampleUser message from “Sample Users” to “Steel Wheels Sample Users”

After making modifications to both MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES files they now look like this (you do not have to stop your Apache-Tomcat server before making any modifications):

authFailed=Authentication failed
loginError=Login Error
launchInNewWindow=Launch in new window
login=Login to Steel Wheels
ok=Ok
cancel=Cancel
username=Steel Wheels Username
password=Password
error=Error
sampleUser=Steel Wheels Sample Users
selectUser=Select a User
serverError=A critical server error has occurred, check the logs.
popupWarning=We've detected the use of "pop-up blocking" software which prevented<br/>the launch of the Pentaho User Console in a new window.<br/><br/>Disable popup blocking for this site or uncheck<br/> "Launch in new window".

Save and close the file, clear your web browser’s cache and refresh the login page. The modified login dialog now looks like this:

Another example would be to change the default login error message:

I would like to change the:

• error message from “Error” to “Authentication Error”
• loginError message from “Login Error” to “Your username or password was incorrect. Try again.”

After making modifications to both MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES files they now look like this (you do not have to stop your Apache-Tomcat server before making any modifications):

authFailed=Authentication failed
loginError=Your username or password was incorrect. Try again.
launchInNewWindow=Launch in new window
login=Login to Steel Wheels
ok=Ok
cancel=Cancel
username=Steel Wheels Username
password=Password
error=Authentication Error
sampleUser=Steel Wheels Sample Users
selectUser=Select a User
serverError=A critical server error has occurred, check the logs.
popupWarning=We've detected the use of "pop-up blocking" software which prevented<br/>the launch of the Pentaho User Console in a new window.<br/><br/>Disable popup blocking for this site or uncheck<br/> "Launch in new window".

Save and close the file, clear your web browser’s cache and refresh the login page. The modified error message now looks like this:

As I mentioned above if you need to change messages for a specific language you will need to modify both MantleLoginMessages_xx.PROPERTIES files (where xx is the language code). Pentaho Business Intelligence (BI) Platform Version 3.5.0 supports the following languages:

• MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES : English
• MantleLoginMessages_de.PROPERTIES : German
• MantleLoginMessages_es.PROPERTIES : Spanish
• MantleLoginMessages_fr.PROPERTIES : French
• MantleLoginMessages_ja.PROPERTIES : Japanese

Customising User Console Messages

User Console messages are stored in the messages_en.PROPERTIES file which is located under the \tomcat\webapps\pentaho\mantle\messages\ directory.

If you look inside this directory you will see a messages.PROPERTIES file, when you first load the user console this file is loaded first then the messages_en.PROPERTIES file. This means that we only need to make changes to the messages_en.PROPERTIES file or messages_xx.PROPERTIES depending on your language setting (in this example I will be using the messages_en.PROPERTIES file). Once you have opened the messages_en.PROPERTIES file you will see a list of (263) messages which can be modified (I won’t go through each message but you should be able to figure out what they relate to from their names):

productName=Pentaho User Console
file=File
print=Print...
options=Options
view=View
admin=Admin
help=Help
logout=Log Out
welcome=Welcome
refresh=Refresh
toggleSolutionBrowser=Toggle Browser
solutionBrowser=Browser
solutionBrowserRefreshed=Solution Browser refreshed
workspace=Workspace
myDesktop=My Desktop
waqr=Ad hoc Reporting
about=About...
softwareUpdates=Updates...
showSolutionBrowser=Browser
showActualFileNames=Show Actual File Names
showLocalizedFileNames=Show Localized File Names
useDescriptionsForTooltips=Use Descriptions For Tooltips
purgeMondrianDataCache=Purge Mondrian Data Cache
purgeMondrianSchemaCache=Mondrian Schema Cache
mondrianDataCacheFlushedSuccessfully=Mondrian Data Cache Flushed Successfully
mondrianSchemaCacheFlushedSuccessfully=Mondrian Schema Cache Flushed Successfully
executeGlobalActions=Global Variables
refreshReportingMetadata=Reporting Metadata
refreshReportingMetadataSuccess=Reporting metadata refreshed successfully
refreshReportingMetadataFailed=Reporting metadata refresh failed
refreshSystemSettings=System Settings
refreshSystemSettingsSuccess=System settings refreshed successfully
cleanContentRepository=Clean Content Repository
cleanContentRepositorySuccess=Content repository cleaned successfully.
resetRepository=Reset Repository
refreshRepository=Repository Cache
refreshRepositorySuccess=Repository cache refreshed successfully
refreshRepositoryFailed=Repository cache refresh failed
showClassicView=Switch to Classic View
showExplorerView=Switch to Explorer View
classicSolutionBrowserDescription=Below lists collections of logically grouped Pentaho folders and documents called Solutions. By default, the "Sample" Solution is installed and contains working examples demonstrating the functionality of the platform. Once a Solution is chosen, use the file browser to locate and launch a document. To learn more about how to modify the examples or build a Solution, read the <A target="_blank" HREF="http://wiki.pentaho.org/display/PentahoDoc/Creating+Pentaho+Solutions">'Creating Pentaho Solutions'</A> document available at wiki.pentaho.org.<BR><BR>The 'Classic View' is provided for nostalgic purposes only and is not supported by Pentaho.
showHiddenFiles=Show Hidden Files
hideHiddenFiles=Hide Hidden Files
enableSubscription=Use Public Schedules
schedule=Schedule
scheduleEllipsis=Schedule...
newSchedule=New Schedule
available=Available:
current=Current:
add=Add
remove=Remove
addAll=Add All
removeAll=Remove All
close=Close
name=Name
scheduleDate=Schedule/Date
type=Type
size=Size
actions=Actions
run=Run Now
runInBackground=Run In Background
archive=Run and Archive
edit=Edit
editAction=Edit Action
delete=Delete
deleteConfirm=Confirm Delete
deleteQuestion=Do you want to delete {0}?
deleteContentItem=Do you want to delete this content item?
deletePublicSchedule=The selected report and all history will be removed from schedule.
yes=Yes
no=No
share=Share
properties=Properties
propertiesEllipsis=Properties...
files=Files
browse=Browse
documentation=Documentation
documentationEllipsis=Documentation...
tools=Tools
save=Save
saveAsEllipsis=Save As...
saveAs=Save As
_new=New
newAnalysisView=New Analysis View
newAnalysisViewEllipsis=Analysis View...
newAdhocReport=New Report
newAdhocReportEllipsis=New Report...
publicSchedules=Public Schedules
allSchedulesAdminOnly=All Schedules (Admin Only)
mySchedules=My Schedules
waiting=Waiting
complete=Complete
manage=Manage
manageContent=Manage Content
manageContentSelectFunction=Select the Manage function to perform
open=Open
openEllipsis=Open...
openURLEllipsis=Open URL...
openInNewWindow=Open In New Window
noUpdatesAvailable=No updates are available.
link=Link
os=Os
version=Version
softwareUpdateAvailable=Software Update Available
download=Download
globalActionsExecutedSuccessfully=Global actions executed successfully.
enterURL=Enter URL:
ok=OK
cancel=Cancel
info=Info
error=Error
question=Quesion
urlNotSpecified=URL not specified
fileExistsOverwrite=File exists, overwrite?
untitled=Untitled
schema=Schema
cube=Cube
noMondrianSchemas=Could not retrieve mondrian schema and cube info
selectSchema=You must select a schema
selectCube=You must select a cube
preferencesSetSuccess=Preferences set successfully.<BR>You must restart the application for the settings to take effect.
preferencesSetFailed=Preferences were not set successfully
chooseColor=Choose color...
apply=Apply
revert=Revert
revertToDefault=Revert to Default Setting
revertToGlobal=Revert to Global Setting
effectiveValue=Effective Value
defaultValue=Default Value
globalValue=Global Value
userPreferences=User Preferences
userPreferencesEllipsis=User Preferences...
styles=Styles
repository=Repository
favorites=Favorites
windowCloseWarning=Navigating away from this page may terminate your session.
pentahoHomePageName=Pentaho.com
actionSequenceScheduledSuccess=Report scheduled. Note: Only last scheduled report run will be displayed from the Workspace.<BR><BR> To see subsequent scheduled report runs, please use public schedules.
general=General
advanced=Advanced
couldNotGetFileProperties=Could not get file properties
couldNotGetUserSettings=Could not get user settings
analysisViewIsOpen=An analysis view, {0}, is already open.<BR>Select OK to close this view and continue?
loadingEllipsis=Loading...
fileDoesNotExist=Error: The file {0} does not exist. Check the spelling and try again or browse to the file and select it directly.
couldNotLoadBookmarks=Could not load bookmarks
couldNotGetRepositoryDocument=Could not get repository document
couldNotCreateSchedule=Could not create schedule
manageGroups=Manage Groups
favoriteGroups=Favorite Groups
preview=Preview
errorPerformingWAQRPreview=Error occurred while previewing the report
closeTab=Close Tab
closeOtherTabs=Close Other Tabs
closeAllTabs=Close All Tabs
groupName=Group Name
bookmarkTab=Bookmark Tab
reloadTab=Reload Tab
reloadAllTabs=Reload All Tabs
openTabInNewWindow=Open Tab in New Window
deepLink=Deep Link
createDeepLink=Create Deep Link
couldNotDelete=Could not delete {0}, check permissions.
createNewFolderEllipsis=New Folder...
newFolderName=Name:
newFolderDesc=New Folder Description
newFolder=New Folder
couldNotCreateFolder=Could not create folder {0}, check permissions.
noSchedulePermission=You do not have permission to schedule to this action sequence.
allPermissions=All Permissions
create=Create
update=Update
execute=Execute
grantPermissions=Grant Permissions
permissionsColon=Permissions:
addPeriods=Add...
usersAndRoles=Users and Roles:
permissionsFor=Permissions for {0}:
user={0} (User)
role={0} (Role)
lastModified=Last Modified
source=Source
location=Location
report=Report
xaction=XAction
analysisView=Analysis View
folder=Folder
waitMessage=Operation in progress...
pleaseWait=Please wait.
back=Back
featureDisabled=This feature is disabled
description=Description
jobName=Job Name
jobGroup=Job Group
date=Date
state=State
lastRunNextRun=Last Run / Next Run
workspaceMessage=<BR><H3>  My Workspace</H3><BR>  This page shows reports that you have submitted to run in background on the server.<BR>  You can cancel ones that have not run yet, and you can view or delete ones that have.<BR><BR>
viewContent=View Content
deleteContent=Delete Content
cancelExecution=Cancel Execution
suspend=Suspend
couldNotGetLogicalReportPage=Could not get logical report page
suspendThisJob=Suspend This Job
resume=Resume
resumeThisJob=Resume This Job
runThisJob=Run This Job
deleteThisJob=Delete This Job
never=Never
normal=Normal
paused=Paused
running=Running
unknown=Unknown
editingColon=Editing:
backgroundExecutionWarning=Reports that prompt for parameters are not supported with this feature and may result in errors.<BR><BR>  Please check Workspace to view the status of the report.
adhocPreview=Ad Hoc Report Preview
solutions=Solutions
customCRONSchedule=Custom CRON Schedule
appliedSchedulesWillBeLost=All applied schedules will be lost.  Continue?
choiceColon=Choice:
selectionColon=Selection:
pentahoSolutionBrowser=Pentaho Solution Browser
selectUserOrRole=Select User or Role
users=Users
roles=Roles
couldNotGetRoles=Could not get list of roles
couldNotGetUsers=Could not get list of users
pageMustBeBetweenOneAnd=Page must be between 1 and
invalidPageNumberColon=Invalid page number:
page=Page
of=Of
reportParameters=Report Parameters
automaticallySubmitParameters=Automatically Submit Parameters on Selection
submit=Submit
couldNotBackgroundExecute=Background execution failed
reportIsScheduledForBE=Report is scheduled for background execution
couldNotSchedule=Report could not be scheduled for background execution.
couldNotDeleteContentItem=Could not delete content
couldNotFetchWaitingBackgroundItems=Could not fetch waiting background items
couldNotFetchCompletedBackgroundItems=Could not fetch completed background items
couldNotCancelBackgroundJob=Could not cancel background job
couldNotDeleteContentItem=Could not delete content item
couldNotSuspendJob=Could not suspend job
couldNotResumeJob=Could not resume job
couldNotDeleteJob=Could not delete job
couldNotFetchSubscriptions=Could not fetch subscriptions
couldNotFetchMySchedules=Could not fetch schedules
couldNotFetchAllSchedules=Could not fetch all schedules
editEllipsis=Edit...
shareEllipsis=Share...
scheduleEllipsis=Schedule...
cannotEditFileType=Document cannot be edited.
scheduleInvalidFileType=Unable to schedule {0}, invalid file type.
cannotEditFileType=Document cannot be edited.
backgroundJobScheduled=Job is scheduled for background execution.
confirm=Confirm
userParamBackgroundWarning=Reports that prompt for parameters are not supported with this feature. Run in Background may report errors. Click OK to continue.
couldNotDeletePublicScheduleAndContents=Could not delete public schedule & contents.
editContent=Edit Content
invalidLogin=Invalid Login
languages=Languages
loadingConsole=Pentaho User Console is Loading...
pleaseWait=Please Wait

In this example I would like to modify the:

• productName (the page title) message from “Pentaho User Console” to “Steel Wheels Reporting Console”
• loadingConsole (the loading box) message from “Pentaho User Console is Loading…” to “Steel Wheels Reporting Console is Loading…”
• manage (the menu item under the File menu) message from “Manage” to “Manage Steel Wheels Reports”
• openEllipsis (the tooltip when you hover over the open reports icon) message from “Open…” to “Open your reports”
• workspaceMessage (the text displayed on the workspace page) message from the current output to nothing

After making modifications to the messages_en.PROPERTIES file the new messages now like look like this (you do not have to stop your Apache-Tomcat server before making any modifications):

productName=Steel Wheels Reporting Console
loadingConsole=Steel Wheels Reporting Console is Loading...
manage=Manage my reports
openEllisis=Open your reports
workspaceMessage=

Save and close the file, clear your web browser’s cache and refresh the PUC. Below are before and after screenshots of the message changes:

productName

Before the productName message was “Pentaho User Console”:

After the productName message is “Steel Wheels Reporting Console”:

loadingConsole

Before the loadingConsole message was “Pentaho User Console is Loading…”:

After the loadingConsole message is “Steel Wheels Reporting Console is Loading…”:

manage

Before the manage message was “Manage”:

After the manage message is “Manage my reports”:

openEllisis

Before the openEllisis message was “Open…”:

After the openEllisis message is “Open your reports…”:

workspaceMessage

Before the workspaceMessage message can be seen below:

After the workspaceMessage message is removed:

As I mentioned above if you need to change messages for a specific language you will need to modify both messages_xx.PROPERTIES files (where xx is the language code). Pentaho Business Intelligence (BI) Platform Version 3.5.0 supports the following languages:

• MantleLoginMessages_en.PROPERTIES : English
• MantleLoginMessages_de.PROPERTIES : German
• MantleLoginMessages_es.PROPERTIES : Spanish
• MantleLoginMessages_fr.PROPERTIES : French
• MantleLoginMessages_ja.PROPERTIES : Japanese

Stay tuned for the next part in this series which outlines how to change menu bars (includes both menu bars) and the logo panel in the PUC.

Enjoy.

• Login page and dialog (covered in this post)
• Messages
• Main toolbar, menu bar and logo panel
• Launch page

In this post I will show you how to customise the default login dialog and how to create a new login page.

Customising the Login Dialog

The login dialog is the form which pops up when you click on the Login button. This is part of the default PUC login page.

With modifications to the loginsettings.properties file it is possible to:

• Modify the users of the Sample User select box
• Remove the Sample User select box

Modify Sample Users Select Box

To modify the users which appear in the Sample Users select box first locate the loginsettings.properties file which is found under the \tomcat\webapps\pentaho\mantleLogin\ directory and open up the file in a text editor:

# this file contains settings to configure the login dialog
# flag to turn on/off show users list (overrides pentaho.xml)
#showUsersList=true
# launch PUC in new window (default setting)
openInNewWindow=false
# sample users (be sure that each group has the same # of items as the rest)
userIds=joe, suzy, pat, tiffany
userDisplayNames=Joe (admin), Suzy, Pat, Tiffany
userPasswords=password, password, password, password

At the time of testing this the openInNewWindow option did not work.

To modify the users which appear in the select box you will need to make changes to three lines (you do not need to stop the Apache-Tomcat server before making any modifications):

userIds=joe, suzy, pat, tiffany
userDisplayNames=Joe (admin), Suzy,  Pat, Tiffany
userPasswords=password, password, password, password

For example I would like to:

• Remove all users except for joe (Joe (admin))
• Add a new user with the
  • userId of prashant (the userId which is stored in the Hibernate database)
  • userDisplayName of Prashant Raju (the value displayed in the select box)
  • userPassword of analysethis (the password which is stored in the Hibernate database against the userId prashant)

After making modifications the loginsettings.properties file now looks like this:

# this file contains settings to configure the login dialog
# flag  to turn on/off show users list (overrides pentaho.xml)
#showUsersList=true
# launch PUC in new window (default setting)
openInNewWindow=false
# sample users (be sure that each group has  the same # of items as the rest)
userIds=joe, prashant
userDisplayNames=Joe (admin), Prashant Raju
userPasswords=password, analysethis

Save and close the file, clear your web browser’s cache and refresh the login page. The login dialog now looks like this:

Remove Sample Users Select Box

To remove the Sample Users select box you will need to make modifications to the loginsettings.properties file (you do not have to stop the Apache-Tomcat server). To remove the Sample Users select box you will need to make changes this line:

#showUsersList=true

After making modifications the loginsettings.properties file now looks like this:

# this file contains settings to configure the login dialog
# flag to  turn on/off show users list (overrides pentaho.xml)
showUsersList=false
# launch PUC in new window (default setting)
openInNewWindow=false
#  sample users (be sure that each group has the same # of items as the  rest)
userIds=joe, suzy, pat, tiffany
userDisplayNames=Joe  (admin), Suzy, Pat, Tiffany
userPasswords=password, password,  password, password

Save and close the file, clear your web browser’s cache and refresh the login page. The login dialog now looks like this:

Customising the Login Page

If you would like to modify the look of the login page to look similar to a specific style you will need to modify the PUC_Login.JSP file which is found under the /tomcat/webapps/pentaho/jsp directory.

Before we move onto the code here is a screenshot of the new login page which we will be creating:

You can click here for a HTML/CSS version (JSP code is commented out) of the above screenshot or below is a JSP/HTML/CSS version which you are able to copy and paste – make sure you read through the comments:

<%@ page language="java" import="org.springframework.security.ui.AbstractProcessingFilter,org.springframework.security.ui.webapp.AuthenticationProcessingFilter,org.springframework.security.ui.savedrequest.SavedRequest,org.springframework.security.AuthenticationException,org.pentaho.platform.uifoundation.component.HtmlComponent,org.pentaho.platform.engine.core.system.PentahoSystem,org.pentaho.platform.util.messages.LocaleHelper,org.pentaho.platform.api.engine.IPentahoSession,org.pentaho.platform.web.http.WebTemplateHelper,org.pentaho.platform.api.engine.IUITemplater,org.pentaho.platform.web.jsp.messages.Messages,java.util.List,java.util.ArrayList,java.util.StringTokenizer,org.apache.commons.lang.StringEscapeUtils,org.pentaho.platform.web.http.PentahoHttpSessionHelper" %>
<%
            // If the User is already logged in redirect to PUC Home
            String remoteUser = request.getRemoteUser();
            if (remoteUser != null && remoteUser != "") {
                response.sendRedirect("/pentaho/Home");
            }
%>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <title>Login to Steel Wheels - Pentaho User Console</title>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=<%=request.getLocale()%>">
        <!-- Uncomment to put your own favicon
        <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/pentaho-style/favicon.ico" /> -->
        <style type="text/css" media="screen, projection">
            *{margin:0;padding:0;}
            html{font-size:100%;}
            body{background:#fff;color:#222;font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;text-align:center;font-size:75%;}
            h2{font-size:2em;margin-bottom:0.75em;}
            .error{background:#FBE3E4;border:2px solid #FBC2C4;color:#8a1f11;margin-bottom:1em;text-align:center;width:332px;padding:6px;}
            #login-logo{padding:40px 0;}
            #login-form{background:#fff;border:1px solid #ccc;text-align:left;width:350px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px;-moz-box-shadow:0 1px 3px #ddd;-webkit-box-shadow:0 1px 3px #ddd;margin:0 auto;padding:15px 15px 25px;}
            #login-form h2{text-align:center;padding:5px 0;}
            #login-form .field{width:335px;margin:15px 0;}
            #login-form .field label{color:#777;display:block;font-size:1em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:5px;text-align:left;}
            #login-form .field input{border:1px solid #ccc;font-size:1.2em;width:100%;padding:5px;}
        </style>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            // If the Username and Password values are blank then alert();
            // This can be replaced with an AJAX solution
            function checkForm(form) {
                if(form.j_username.value == "" && form.j_password.value == "") {
                    alert('You can not have a blank Username and Password!')
                    return false;
                }
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <!-- Login Logo -->
        <div id="login-logo">
            <img src="/sw-style/active/sw_logo.jpg" alt="Steel Wheels Logo">
        </div>
        <!-- Login Form -->
        <div id="login-form">
            <!-- Header -->
            <h2>Login to Steel Wheels</h2>
            <!-- If the login_error URL parameter is set then show error box -->
            <% if (request.getParameter("login_error") != null) {%>
            <div class="error">Authentication failed! Please try again!</div>
            <% }%>
            <!-- Form -->
            <form id="sw-login" method="POST" action="/pentaho/j_spring_security_check">
                <!-- Username -->
                <div class="field">
                    <label for="username">Username</label>
                    <input id="username" name="j_username" type="text">
                </div>
                <!-- Password -->
                <div class="field">
                    <label for="password">Password</label>
                    <input id="password" name="j_password" type="password">
                </div>
                <!-- On click on the submit button run the checkFrom function -->
                <input type="submit" value="Login" onclick="return checkForm(form);">
            </form>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

Below I have separated the code (seen above) into important parts, this will help you get a better understanding on the purpose of each section of code.

This section of code uses the getRemoteUser() function to check if the user loading the login page isn’t already logged in – if they are logged in they are redirected to the PUC home URL.

<%
// If the User is already logged in redirect to PUC Home
String remoteUser = request.getRemoteUser();
if (remoteUser != null && remoteUser != "") {
    response.sendRedirect("/pentaho/Home");

}
%>

The following piece of code is a JavaScript function which checks if the Username and Password of the login form are empty and if they are create an alert box to let the user know. This function was used because if a user submits an empty form a 500 error is thrown back by Spring Security – this isn’t as intuitive as an AJAX solution so if you would like to see an AJAX example let me know.

function checkForm(form) {
    if(form.j_username.value == "" && form.j_password.value == "") {
        alert('You can not have a blank Username and Password!')
        return false;
    }
}

To call the above function (checkForm()) it is attached to the onclick event of the submit button:

<input type="submit" value="Login" onclick="return checkForm(form);">

This section of code checks to see if an error has occurred when trying to login i.e. wrong password. When an error occurs it is sent back as a URL parameter login_error, the value of this parameter is a number (in this example I gave a generic error response to any number). If the login_error URL parameter value is not null it then shows the error message (div).

<% if (request.getParameter("login_error") != null) {%>
<div class="error">Authentication failed! Please try again!</div>
<% }%>

The last and most important section of code is the login form. It should be noted that the form action points to the /pentaho/j_spring_security_check URL and the username and password names are j_username and j_password – these are essential as they are needed by Spring Security to authenticate user credentials correctly.

<form id="sw-login" method="POST" action="/pentaho/j_spring_security_check">
    <!-- Username -->
    <div class="field">
        <label for="username">Username</label>
        <input id="username" name="j_username" type="text">
    </div>
    <!-- Password -->
    <div class="field">
        <label for="password">Password</label>
        <input id="password" name="j_password" type="password">
    </div>
    <!-- When the submit button is clicked run the checkForm function -->
    <input type="submit" value="Login" onclick="return checkForm(form);">
</form>

Well that’s it for now. Stay tuned for the next part which outlines how to change the default messages which appear throughout the PUC (including the login dialog, loading bar, titles etc.).

Enjoy.

Below is a list of open source and free tools which support or are dedicated to creating Sparklines or Microcharts.

Jquery Sparkline

This jQuery plugin generates Sparklines (small inline charts) directly in the browser using data supplied either inline in the HTML, or via javascript.

Last updated : 14th of September, 2009
Requirements : jQuery 1.2+
Supported chart types : Line, Bar, Tristate, Discrete, Bullet, Pie, Box

Sparklines for Excel

A set of free User Defined Functions for Excel to create Sparklines. This is probably the most flexible and up to date sparkline implementation for Excel 2003 and 2007.

Last updated : 02/04/2010 (Excel 2003) and 01/25/2010 (Excel 2007)
Requirements : Excel 2003 and 2007
Supported chart types : Line, Area, Bar, Horizon, Vari, Bullet, Scale, Pie, Stacked, Box Plot, Spread, Stripe

Pentaho Report Designer

The ability to create Sparklines is now a feature of Pentaho Report Designer 3.5+.

Last updated : 27/10/2009
Requirements : Pentaho Report Designer 3.5+
Supported chart types : Line, Bar

Google Visulization API

Single or multiple sparklines that are rendered with images using the Google Charts API. The images are contained in a HTML table.

The Google Chart API is an extremely simple tool that lets you easily create a chart from some data and embed it in a webpage. You embed the data and formatting parameters in an HTTP request, and Google returns a PNG image of the chart. Many types of chart are supported, and by making the request into an image tag you can simply include the chart in a webpage.

Last updated : Unknown
Requirements : Flash
Supported chart types : Line

Sparkline PHP Graphing Library

A PHP based graphing library to create Sparklines.

Last updated : 10th of November, 2007
Requirements : PHP 4.0.6+, GD 2.0 built as a PHP module
Supported chart types : Line, Bar

Sparklines for Java

Sparklines for java is a package that contains a Servlet that can be added to a web project to create sparklines based on request parameters. It also includes a taglib for easily formatting the required parameters. There’s also an API to directly create a BufferedImage in any Java code.

Last updated : 3/11/2007
Requirements : Java
Supported chart types : Line, Bar

Sparklines (Ruby)

A library for generating small sparkline graphs from Ruby. Use it in desktop apps or with Ruby on Rails.

Last updated : 17/02/2009
Requirements : Ruby
Supported chart types : Line, Bar, Bullet, Pie, Discrete, Area

NanoCharts

NanoCharts is an Excel 2003 supported add-in where users can add in Sparklines into cells.

Last updated : 08/10/2008
Requirements : Excel 2003
Supported chart types : Line, Bar, Dot

Sparklines Excel Add-in – TinyGraphs

TinyGraphs is an open source add-in for Excel that creates sparklines, mini column graphs, and area graphs from a row of data. It generates beautiful tiny graphics that are as small as a cell and is useful for visualizing large quantities of data, such as stock prices and exchange rates.

Last updated : Unknown
Requirements : Excel 2000, 2003 and 2007
Supported chart types : Line, Bar, Area

Tufte Sparklines Photoshop Script

The Tufte Sparklines Photoshop script automates the production of sparklines. It works by reading a data series from a text file and plotting a sparkline image as a Photoshop path, and then stroking it with the pencil tool. This produces a bitmap image which can then be cut-and-pasted into the target document.

Last updated : 24/02/2008
Requirements : Adobe Photoshop CS, CS2, CS3
Supported chart types : Line

sparklines.js

parklines.js is a simple javascript utility for building sparklines. It has support for displaying lines at percentage points and at fixed values in terms of your data set.

Last updated : Unknown
Requirements : Processing.js 0.4
Supported chart types : Line

Know of anymore? Let me know and I’ll add them to this list.

Enjoy.