"Yellowfin Reporting" to Integrate BIRT into its Analysis and Reporting platform

"Yellowfin Reporting" today announces its version in development will integrate BIRT into its Analysis and Reporting platform.

July 30th 2006

In a recent media interview, CEO of Yellowfin, Glen Rabie advised, At Yellowfin our goal is to develop the very best in web based reporting and analytics. Our platform is specifically designed to enable the business user to access their data for ad hoc reporting and analysis. However, we do understand that not all reporting needs can be met through a report designer interface that is intended for a business oriented end user. As such Yellowfin will integrate BIRT, the open source project from Eclipse, into our platform. As with our integration of Jasper Reports, BIRT, will provide report developers with an alternative interface to develop complex production style reports – such as invoices, through a 3rd party interface but leverage the infrastructure of Yellowfin to publish, schedule and secure organisational information.

Yellowfin has been changing the landscape of web based Business Intelligence Solutions by reducing the cost and complexity of BI deployment to the enterprise. Yellowfin was specifically designed ground up to support operational BI by providing business users with rapid access to organisational data for ad hoc and periodic analysis and reporting.

BIRT is an Eclipse-based open source reporting system for web applications, especially those based on Java and J2EE. BIRT has two main components: a report designer based on Eclipse, and a runtime component that will be integrated into the Yellowfin application.

"We are positive these new features and added complementary capabilities will be well received by our current and potential customers and partners”, commented Glen Rabie. “We see the integration of production reporting as a key enabling factor for ensuring Yellowfin provides an end to end BI solution for our customers”

Body [quote="Canadian*"]"Yellowfin Reporting" today announces its version in development will integrate BIRT into its Analysis and Reporting platform. July 30th 2006 In a recent media interview, CEO of Yellowfin, Glen Rabie advised, At Yellowfin our goal is to develop the very best in web based reporting and analytics. Our platform is specifically designed to enable the business user to access their data for ad hoc reporting and analysis. However, we do understand that not all reporting needs can be met through a report designer interface that is intended for a business oriented end user. As such Yellowfin will integrate BIRT, the open source project from Eclipse, into our platform. As with our integration of Jasper Reports, BIRT, will provide report developers with an alternative interface to develop complex production style reports – such as invoices, through a 3rd party interface but leverage the infrastructure of Yellowfin to publish, schedule and secure organisational information. Yellowfin has been changing the landscape of web based Business Intelligence Solutions by reducing the cost and complexity of BI deployment to the enterprise. Yellowfin was specifically designed ground up to support operational BI by providing business users with rapid access to organisational data for ad hoc and periodic analysis and reporting. BIRT is an Eclipse-based open source reporting system for web applications, especially those based on Java and J2EE. BIRT has two main components: a report designer based on Eclipse, and a runtime component that will be integrated into the Yellowfin application. "We are positive these new features and added complementary capabilities will be well received by our current and potential customers and partners”, commented Glen Rabie. “We see the integration of production reporting as a key enabling factor for ensuring Yellowfin provides an end to end BI solution for our customers”[/quote]

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Sounds like an interesting BI tool for corporate use? We have constant struggles with our current well known reporting tool, we only allow a few users to design but often the IT department gets dragged into an 'unplanned reporting requirement'but we have stuck with it as its what we know.

I see reference to Jasper too, that would allow us to produce specialist production reports for our air-forwarding department but how does this intergrate with Yellowfin? How easy is it to integrate Yellowfin with existing BI solutions?

Body [quote="Mike G"]Sounds like an interesting BI tool for corporate use? We have constant struggles with our current well known reporting tool, we only allow a few users to design but often the IT department gets dragged into an 'unplanned reporting requirement'but we have stuck with it as its what we know. I see reference to Jasper too, that would allow us to produce specialist production reports for our air-forwarding department but how does this intergrate with Yellowfin? How easy is it to integrate Yellowfin with existing BI solutions?[/quote]

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Yellowfin is really an end user reporting tool – we have deployed most report writing functions out to the business – its dashboard and report writing interface is really quite impressive for a web application. Our experience so far has been really good – we have really reduced the amount of time spent on servicing the business for basic reports.

There used to be a demo link on their web site www.yellowfin.com.au – if you did want to investigate further it is well worth a look.

We also currently use Jasper in conjunction with Yellowfin for production style reports. Basically it is very simple – we use iReports to author the Jasper XML and then load the XML file into Yellowfin. Yellowfin then manages the scheduling and security of the report. We also call these reports through web services from our production applications – so using Yellowfin was a good way to embed BI into those systems without an awful lot of hassles.

Body [quote="Richard N"]Yellowfin is really an end user reporting tool – we have deployed most report writing functions out to the business – its dashboard and report writing interface is really quite impressive for a web application. Our experience so far has been really good – we have really reduced the amount of time spent on servicing the business for basic reports. There used to be a demo link on their web site www.yellowfin.com.au – if you did want to investigate further it is well worth a look. We also currently use Jasper in conjunction with Yellowfin for production style reports. Basically it is very simple – we use iReports to author the Jasper XML and then load the XML file into Yellowfin. Yellowfin then manages the scheduling and security of the report. We also call these reports through web services from our production applications – so using Yellowfin was a good way to embed BI into those systems without an awful lot of hassles.[/quote]

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Thanks Richard, Yes demo and evaluation is still there , togther with a lot of other useful info, the online demo http://www.yellowfinteam.com/tutorials/report_tour.htm is a really useful intorduction.

May I ask another favour? Interested in what your experiences are of the web service element and security in Yellowfin. I am sure it will be apparent after looking at the product but there's no substitute for experience! We have some quite sensitive areas in our business, like most I suppose.

Body [quote="Mike G"]Thanks Richard, Yes demo and evaluation is still there , togther with a lot of other useful info, the online demo http://www.yellowfinteam.com/tutorials/report_tour.htm is a really useful intorduction. May I ask another favour? Interested in what your experiences are of the web service element and security in Yellowfin. I am sure it will be apparent after looking at the product but there's no substitute for experience! We have some quite sensitive areas in our business, like most I suppose.[/quote]

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Web services and Security are two seperate elements in Yellowfin.

Security:
The security within yellowfin is comprehensive - you can define security on data (such as views) and folders. In addition there is a very cool access filter option which allows you to do value based filtering for each user.

You can also hook into a LDAP directory to source user authentication.

Web Services:
Very simple - you create the report using the yellowfin interface and make it available for web services. You can then call that report from any application and pass in parameters if required. You can also choose how you want the result set returned - as PDF, HTML, XML etc - it is very flexible.

Body [quote="Richard N"]Web services and Security are two seperate elements in Yellowfin. Security: The security within yellowfin is comprehensive - you can define security on data (such as views) and folders. In addition there is a very cool access filter option which allows you to do value based filtering for each user. You can also hook into a LDAP directory to source user authentication. Web Services: Very simple - you create the report using the yellowfin interface and make it available for web services. You can then call that report from any application and pass in parameters if required. You can also choose how you want the result set returned - as PDF, HTML, XML etc - it is very flexible.[/quote]

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