Introduction to Jaspersoft® OLAP

JasperReports® Server builds on JasperReports® Library as a comprehensive family of Business Intelligence (BI) products, providing robust static and interactive reporting, report server, and data analysis capabilities. These capabilities are available as either stand-alone products, or as part of an integrated end-to-end BI suite utilizing common metadata and provide shared services, such as security, a repository, and scheduling. The server exposes comprehensive public interfaces enabling seamless integration with other applications and the capability to easily add custom functionality.

This section describes functionality that can be restricted by the software license for JasperReports Server. If you don’t see some of the options described in this section, your license may prohibit you from using them. To find out what you're licensed to use, or to upgrade your license, contact Jaspersoft.

The heart of the Jaspersoft® BI Suite is the server, which provides the ability to:

• Easily create new reports based on views designed in an intuitive, web-based, drag and drop Ad Hoc Editor.
• Efficiently and securely manage many reports.
• Interact with reports, including sorting, changing formatting, entering parameters, and drilling on data.
• Schedule reports for distribution through email and storage in the repository.
• Arrange reports and web content to create appealing, data-rich Jaspersoft Dashboards that quickly convey business trends.

For users interested in multi-dimensional modeling, we offer Jaspersoft® OLAP, which runs as part of the server.

Jaspersoft OLAP runs within JasperReports Server. JasperReports Server itself builds on JasperReports, the world’s most popular open source Java reporting library. It provides a comprehensive family of Business Intelligence (BI) products, including robust static and interactive reporting, report server, data analysis, and data integration capabilities. You can use Jaspersoft OLAP as a stand-alone product or as part of an integrated end-to-end BI suite that utilizes common metadata and provides shared services, such as a repository, security, and scheduling. JasperReports Server exposes comprehensive public integration interfaces enabling seamless embedding into other applications as well as the capability to easily add custom functionality.

You can use the following sources of information to learn about JasperReports Server:

• Our core documentation describes how to install, administer, and use JasperReports Server and Jaspersoft Studio. Core documentation is available as PDFs in the doc subdirectory of your JasperReports Server installation. You can also access PDF and HTML versions of these guides online from the Documentation section of the Jaspersoft Community website.
• Our Ultimate Guides document advanced features and configuration. They also include best practice recommendations and numerous examples. You can access PDF and HTML versions of these guides online from the Documentation section of the Jaspersoft Community website.
• Our Online Learning Portal lets you learn at your own pace, and covers topics for developers, system administrators, business users, and data integration users. The Portal is available online from the Professional Services section of our website.
• Our free samples, which are installed with JasperReports Library, Jaspersoft Studio, and JasperReports Server, are available and documented online. Please visit our GitHub repository.
• If you have a subscription to our professional support offerings, please contact our Technical Support team when you have questions or run into difficulties. They are available on the web at https://www.jaspersoft.com/support.

JasperReports Server is a component of both a community project and commercial offerings. Each integrates the standard features such as security, scheduling, a web services interface, and much more for running and sharing reports. Commercial editions provide additional features, including Ad Hoc views and reports, advanced charts, dashboards, Domains, auditing, and a multi-organization architecture for hosting large BI deployments.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Community and Commercial Editions
• User Descriptions and Document Maps

Community and Commercial Editions

Jaspersoft OLAP is a component of our community project and commercial offerings. Jaspersoft integrates the standard features of JPivot and Mondrian with additional features, including an enhanced user interface, streamlined tool bars and icons, fast expand and collapse features, and consistent option panes. The commercial editions also include row-level data security, performance tuning, and profiling reports and views to identify optimization candidates.

This guide discusses all editions. Sections of the guide that apply only to the commercial editions are indicated with a special note.

User Descriptions and Document Maps

Because this ultimate guide is a comprehensive resource for users with many different needs, it includes information that may not apply to you or to your edition of Jaspersoft OLAP. The following audience descriptions and document maps can help you find the information that is most important to you.

Technical Business Analyst

Technical Business Analysts know their business, data, and processes. They are power users who generate business intelligence for others.

If you are a Technical Business Analyst, refer to the following sections of this document:

• On-Line Analytical Processing
• Analyzing Data in a View
• Securing Data in Jaspersoft OLAP
• Understanding the Design Concepts

System Developer

System Developers leverage Jaspersoft OLAP functionality in their own products. They extend and change its code, system configurations, and other low-level options.

If you are a System Developer, refer to the following sections of this document:

• On-Line Analytical Processing
• Analyzing Data in a View
• Integrating Jaspersoft OLAP in the Enterprise’s Data Flow

System Administrator and Database Administrator

System Administrators install, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot Jaspersoft OLAP along with other systems in their environment.

Database Administrators (DBAs) administer database management systems (DBMS), and are familiar with both relational and On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) databases. They plan, configure, tune, and maintain the schemas that store business data.

If you are a System Administrator or DBA, refer to the following sections of this document:

• Getting Started
• Analyzing Data in a View
• Administering Jaspersoft OLAP