The document provides a comparison of leading open-source reporting tools for enterprises, focusing on their features such as licensing, functionality, ease of use, and security. Key tools discussed include Pentaho, Jasper, BIRT, and others, emphasizing strengths like data integration, reporting capabilities, and user interface. The conclusion highlights Jasper for core reporting ease and Pentaho for enterprise integration and data transformation capabilities.

1. A Comparison of Open Source Reporting Tools for the Enterprise Rod Cope, CTO OpenLogic www.openlogic.com

2. Agenda Introduction Background BIRT, JFreeReport, OpenReport, DataVision OpenReports Pentaho Jasper Summary Conclusion

3. Introduction OpenLogic, Inc. SLA support, security updates, and indemnification for over 400 Open Source packages Dozens of Global 2000 customers OSS Census (osscensus.org) Global, community effort to catalog enterprise use of open source

4. Background Comparison of leading Open Source reporting tools Focus on enterprise caliber utilities Free webinar, not a deep dive whitepaper Attributes of interest: license, functionality, compatibility, technology, ease of use, performance, export formats, web capabilities, report designing, report retrieval, security, schedulability, clusterability, installation, configuration, integration, and footprint

5. Other Reporting Tools BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting Tools) Part of Eclipse project, initially donated by Actuate Focus is on report designer, debugger, and end-user tools Enterprise deployment only available through proprietary iServer product from Actuate JFreeReport Now the foundation of Pentaho, to be covered later OpenReport and DataVision Low level tools for developers, not enterprise ready

6. OpenReports oreports.org (not OpenReport at openreport.org) Version tested: 3.0, December 2007 Wraps other report engines Jasper, JFreeReport (Pentaho), BIRT, JXLS Provides scheduling, security, admin Interesting, but not updated since January 2008

7. OpenReports J2EE, Hibernate, Quartz, Spring Technology Jasper, Pentaho, BIRT Report Compatibility OpenReport Professional (proprietary) Dashboard, drilldown charts, stats $500/server Commercial Options OpenReports SOAP API Integration N/A Installation / Configuration / Footprint Yes, through standard app server clustering Clusterability High Schedulability N/A Security Web, email Report retrieval Relies on other reporting tools Report designing Admin, report retrieval, parameter support Web capabilities PDF, HTML, CSV, XLS, RTF, Image Export formats N/A Performance N/A Ease of use OLAP (Mondrian) Functionality GPL 2 License

8. Pentaho Sponsored by Pentaho Name: 5 founders want to retire in Lake Tahoe Version tested: 1.7, May 2008 Good feature set, well-supported, UI's need work Business Intelligence suite includes Reporting (Report designer and viewer) Analysis (OLAP) Dashboards (Portal, metrics, alerts) Data Mining (Relationship and trend discovery)

9. Pentaho J2EE, CAS, ACEGI, JBoss Portal Technology Pentaho (should work with Jasper and BIRT, but not officially supported) Report Compatibility Pentaho Professional SSO, LDAP, MSAD Clustering, report versioning, audit trail Commercial Options Web service API Integration Easy / Difficult / 325MB Installation / Configuration / Footprint Yes, through standard app server clustering Clusterability Yes, but admin can only edit existing schedules, not create new ones Schedulability User/group/role, restrict access to reports Security Web, email, web service, task bar notification Report retrieval Visual report designer, stand-alone client Report designing Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext links Web capabilities PDF, HTML, XLS, RTF, text Export formats Good Performance Medium, occasionally disjointed and non-intuitive Ease of use Audit trail, performance monitoring, web-based ad hoc reporting wizard, conditional report distribution, OLAP (Mondrian) Functionality Several components: GPL 2, LGPL, MPL (Mozilla Public License) License

10. Pentaho: Report Designer

11. Pentaho Server: Solutions Page

12. Pentaho Server: Report View

13. Jasper Sponsored by JasperSoft Version tested: 3.0.0, June 2008 Mature, fairly robust, well-supported Business Intelligence suite includes JasperReports (Report designer and viewer) JasperServer (Admin, scheduler, ad hoc queries) JasperAnalysis (OLAP) JasperETL (Data integration) Most modern reporting web application Still a bit rough around the edges

14. Jasper J2EE, iReport, Liferay Technology JasperReports Report Compatibility JasperReport Professional End-user ad hoc querying and reporting Easy end-user dashboards and mashups Commercial Options SOAP API, any J2EE server, any JDBC driver Integration Easy / easy / 500MB Installation / Configuration / Footprint Yes, through standard app server clustering (note that you may have to use pinned sessions): http://www.jasperforge.org/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&func=view&id=39248&catid=10 Clusterability High and easy to configure through UI Schedulability SSO, external auth via LDAP/MSAD/custom, user/group/role, row and cell security for OLAP (part of Mondrian), User/group/role, restrict access to reports Security Web site, email delivery of scheduled reports Report retrieval Visual iReport designer, stand-alone or NetBeans plug-in Report designing Admin, report retrieval, parameter support, drill-through, hypertext links Web capabilities PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV, RTF, TXT, XML, Flash Export formats Good if attention is paid to optimization (e.g., http://www.javalobby.org/articles/hibernatequery103/ ) Performance High – best user interface of the group Ease of use Drilldown charts, I18N, L10N, OLAP (Mondrian), audit trail, email distribution, report versioning, Hibernate queries, custom expressions in Java or Groovy, crosstabs Functionality GPL 2 License

15. Jasper: Report Designer

16. JasperServer: Home

17. JasperServer: Report View

18. Pentaho and Jasper The Mondrian project (OLAP tool) is used by both Pentaho and Jasper Both support integration with Mondrian OLAP schema design tool JPivot for interacting with Mondrian through a web UI

19. Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool

20. Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Schema Tool

21. Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP Web View

22. Pentaho and Jasper: OLAP View with Chart

23. Summary Jasper Heavy focus on reporting and analysis Better server UI (web 2.0), easier to use Better marketing, sites, and documentation Easier to research and find what you need Paid version: ad hoc query web UI, dashboard creation web UI Pentaho Better data integration, ETL, and workflow automation Very powerful, but harder to use Weaker documentation Bonus: data mining and iPhone integration Paid version: LDAP integration, SSO, auditing

24. Conclusion If your focus is core reporting and analysis, ease of use Jasper If your focus is enterprise integration, data transformation, workflow Pentaho Competition driving Jasper and Pentaho hard Look for rapid improvements in functionality, ease of use They've leapfrogged each other in the past, it may happen again

25. Contact Information For more information, please visit: www.openlogic.com Call us at 888-OpenLogic Send an email to: [email_address]