Package for presenting OLAP data

Question

Hi,

I'm managing a very large data warehouse (>1 TB) based on MS SQL 2005. I would like to create a solution for the users to present data from the cubes on-line (web interface). Right now they are using Office Web Components, but it's not so good. I don't have any controls over the reports that they create. I googled, and there are some solution like Dundas or Analyzer.

Maybe someone has some experience with this (or other) packs and can share opinions? I have some basic requirements:

• high performance and no unnecessary queries to the OLAP server
• being able to store reports (for example: users creates filters, selects dates ranges and he must be able to store it)
• ability to export to Excel
• some charting engine built in would be nice.

Some ideas?

Answer 1

Devexpress has a really nice "PivotGrid" - a OLAP data mining component that can be used in ASP.NET apps:

http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/ASP/Pivot_Grid/

and its counterpart for Winforms applications:

http://www.devexpress.com/Products/NET/Controls/WinForms/Pivot_Grid/

RadarCube also is an ASP.NET component to present OLAP data:

http://www.radar-soft.com/products/aspnet.aspx

And here's a complete list of potential OLAP presentation tools - not that I really know any of them - but you can have a look!

http://www.download32.com/net-olap-software.html

Marc

Answer 2

Take a look at JPivot that is used by Pentaho Mondrian.

JPivot is an open source Java tag library for connecting to cubes exposed through Mondrian (Java OLAP server) or through XML/A (which I believe is used by Microsoft Analysis Services).

The JPivot control is pretty comprehensive although it could do with a little bit of a facelift. I believe that a new project Pentaho Analysis Tool (PAT) is in development as a replacement for JPivot this uses GWT to render a nicer looking UI (http://wiki.pentaho.com/display/COM/Pentaho+Analysis+Tool).

I use Pentaho Mondrian along with JPivot to present my multidimensional data on my intranet. I am using a ROLAP schema running on SQL Server 2000. It works ok and also supports generating charts with JFreechart.

Mondrian Java OLAP Server - http://mondrian.pentaho.org/

JPivot http://jpivot.sourceforge.net/ - Screenshots http://jpivot.sourceforge.net/temp-N101F1.html

It may also be worth looking at Eclipse BIRT I beleive that this possibly supports a sort of crosstab control but i've never tried it.

Answer 3

Do you use Sharepoint? You might find that you're already covered for a PerformancePoint/ProClarity server/components, due to recent licensing restructuring announced by Microsoft.