Community editions of any software or tool is a diluted version of the enterprise edition. This means that the CE version has some or many features removed which are available in the EE. As a result, the USPs of that tool, in most cases, are lost. However, Pentaho BA Server has a rich community which develops and provides users with plugins for free or at a minimal charge to plug the gap in the user experience.
This is a guide on how you can get the most of the same features of the enterprise edition using free to minimally charged plugins.
CTools:
One of the best plugin bunch available is CTools, which is a free set of plugins that enable the creation of Dashboards. CTools provides the users with an ability to design dashboards, create reports of different types from inside the dashboard designer, add reports created in Pentaho Report Designer(PRD), add multiple interactions, etc. CTools also allows integrating third party libraries for functionalities and styling which gives an almost unlimited playing field for the imagination and creating even the most complex visualization and functionalities.
CTools is composed of the following parts –
- CDF – Community Dashboard Framework
- CDE – Community Dashboard Editor
- CDA – Community Data Access
- CCC – Community Chart Components
- CGG – Community Graphics Generator
To read more about how these components of CTools please check the official documentation at –
https://help.pentaho.com/Documentation/6.1/0R0/CTools/CTools_Overview
SAIKU:
Another major functionality of Pentaho BA Server EE is the creation of Analysis Reports, and even that has a community plugin option. SAIKU plugin allows the user to create analysis reports in the Community Edition of Pentaho. However, it must be noted that Saiku also has a paid version which provides a few more functionalities. However, the free plugin also serves the general purpose pretty well.
The Saiku Plugin can be downloaded from the Pentaho marketplace –
https://www.pentaho.com/marketplace/
Pivot4J:
Another plugin to bridge the gap between Pentaho EE and CE Analysis reporting ability is Pivot4j. This plugin allows the user to create analysis reports on OLAP cubes. Now, Pivot4j and Saiku both have similar functionalities and choosing one over the other just a matter of personal opinion.
Pivot4J is available on Pentaho marketplace at –
https://www.pentaho.com/marketplace/
The above-mentioned plugins are only a few of the most popular Pentaho CE plugins to bring EE experience to CE.
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