InetSoft Technology: Business Intelligence Concepts

We will begin with an introduction to the tools available in InetSoft. Later in this chapter we discuss the object oriented design patterns used in Style Intelligence.

• To allow easy construction of reports, the InetSoft package includes a number of adapters which are used to wrap an object so that it conforms to the predefined API.
• The decorator design pattern is a powerful way to add or modify the attributes of an object. The factory design pattern is used by Style Intelligence to provide platform- and JDK version-independent ways to create certain types of objects.
• The builder design pattern is used in InetSoft products for importing and exporting reports to and from external formats.
• A singleton is a type of object that always has one instance in every Java virtual machine. Users of the object share the same instance across a single process.

Report Application Development Tools

InetSoft BI products include a number of tools for report application development. We will examine the major BI functions and features in this section, describing their core capabilities.

Dashboard Designer

Available in Style Report and Style Intelligence products, the Designer allows for the creation of dashboard and report templates. A report template represents the markup describing the layout of a report. Using the intuitive visual GUI interface, developing reports is a process of setting up a page layout and placing elements, such as text, charts, sections, or tables on the template.

Using the integrated Data Source and Data Modeler it is possible to bind queries to report elements, so that they are populated with data when the report is executed. It is possible to create dynamic content by using the Scripting facility. The scripting language is based on standard ECMA JavaScript.

The InetSoft Enterprise products' Designer includes controls for server side and web based reporting including parameter handling, hypertext links and interactive form controls.

Reporting API

Style Report Pro/EE and Style Intelligence offer the flexible reporting API. This includes a layout engine, a data binding API to associate data with report elements, and specialized support for client side printing. This feature provides developers with maximum control over report creation and printing.

“We evaluated many reporting vendors and were most impressed at the speed with which the proof of concept could be developed. We found InetSoft to be the best option to meet our business requirements and integrate with our own technology.” - John White, Senior Director, Information Technology at Livingston International

Interactive Server Side Reports

Style Report Enterprise Edition and Style Intelligence provide the ability to create interactive server side reports, which are maintained in a centralized repository and can be viewed in a browser. Also supplied is the Enterprise Manager, an administration tool that allows for easy configuration and management of the report server. A report Scheduler allows batch jobs to execute at specified times or events. When a task is executed, the reports can be sent by mail, delivered to printers, or saved in PDF format in an archive.

The Enterprise Edition also provides a role based security implementation, i.e. the ability to tie security into an LDAP server.