Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's?

By: Pounce - pounce
Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's?
2004-04-15 15:02
I'm a noob looking for some intial advice on using Jasper Reports

I am using a product stores "project" data in separate db's (Oracle). Each project has the same schema etc. My objective is to find a reporting tool that can "roll up" metrics from each project or selection of projects. Can Jasper Reports work with 50+ db's at once combining data from each into a single report? How much effort would be involved in implementing Jasper with a dynamic set of db's where I can get the connection strings from a single db?

Can anyone recommend a good alternative to Jasper for this requirement? I've heard Cocoon, Style Reports, JfreeReport etc, but I have not been able to determine as yet which one will handle the connection requirements with the least amount of teeth pulling.

Can anyone throw a bone?

Thanks,
Pounce


By: Peter Severin - peter_p_s
RE: Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's
2004-04-15 23:48
Hi,

I doubt than there are reporting tools that handle this problem. A solution for this is creating a separate database which will consolidate in one place the data from all of your databases. The database must be populated by some periodically running process configuring which is database specific. The consolidation database generally will have its own sql schema which can organize data in a more report firendly structure.

Best regards,
Peter.


By: Teodor Danciu - teodord
RE: Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's
2004-04-16 00:06

Hi,

I'm not sure I understand correctly what you need
to do.

But note that any report or subreport is supplied with
a Connection object or a JRDataSource object
to retrieve the data from it.

This means that you could create a master report
that contains multiple subreports that are filled
with data from different databases, because for
each subreport you pass a different JDBC connection.

I hope this helps.
Teodor



By: Pounce - pounce
RE: Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's?
2004-04-16 10:46
Peter, Thanks for the response. Yes, your suggestion or populating a common db with metrics on some schedule is one that has been considered. However, there are several downsides for this approach due to the nature of the way projects are used and deactived/restored etc. I really wish it was as easy as consolidating.

Teodor, Thanks for your interest. Let me try to explain farther. The product that uses the db's is Mercury Interactive's TestDirector. This is a test management and defect tracking solution. When using this product in the real world for a product release you may have more than one TestDirector project (db) storing your metrics. You may have a project for each phase like SIT and UAT or you may have separate projects for each business project that is part of your overall "Release". The challenge is then being able to report from multiple separate db's that are logically one "Release".

What I need to accomplish is a way of combining the data from multiple db's into a single report rather than multiple subreports. For example. If I was using the approach of several projects (db's) per release I may have 30 separate db's to report from. I would like to be able to report how many tests have run and how many defects have been found for the "Release".

So if I am hearing correctly there isn't really a way of passing more than one connection to the same report as a way of combining the data from both sources.

I have to say that the way this product is architected is a huge source of frustration. The company does have their own semi-functional solution for cross project reporting, but 1) It's obnoxiously expensive 2) It uses a custom Actuate implementation that uses VB/VBScript for the designer.

If anyone has any suggestions on a solution for this problem I would be grateful. I was hoping Jasper could get me close to the tartget.

Thanks!
Pounce


By: Chuck Deal - cdeal
RE: Could Jasper "roll up" data from 50+ db's?
2004-04-16 11:24
Could you implement your own JRDataSource?

Perhaps when you instantiated the custom DataSource it could "Know" how to retrieve the various pieces of data. You could use the techniques of the other custom datasources (dori.jasper.engine.data.*) Then, you could encapsulate the act of retrieving the data and Jasper wouldn't be any the wiser that it wasn't a regular resultSet.