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Friday 29 April 2016

Pentaho Ctools(CDE,CDF,CDA & CGG) technical interview questions

Hi,

I have written basic to intermediate level Ctools interview questions.  

Sample Questions : 
1) How do you write MDX queries in CDE ? How do you feed a chart component with MDX ?
2) What are parameters and listeners ? What is the parameter syntax ? 
3) What are widgets ? give an example
4)  What is cross tab mode & Series in rows for a CCC chart component ?
5)  What are extension points ? Give at least 5 examples.


Download 40+ interview questions here: Click Me

 Cheers..!!!

Thursday 28 April 2016

Charts CGG Component example in Pentaho CDE

Hi,

This tutorial helps you in understanding Charts CGG Component.

More About CGG : 
http://www.webdetails.pt/ctools/cgg/
http://pedroalves-bi.blogspot.in/2012/09/cgg-putting-ccc-charts-in-pentaho.html
http://diethardsteiner.github.io/prd/2015/02/10/Pentaho-CCC.html

 Webdetails says about CGG
Open up an existing CDE Dashboard in Edit Mode and press the keyboard shortcut "Shift + G". This will prompt a popup, where you can choose which charts in the Dashboard you want to render as CGG charts.
When you save the Dashboard, CGG will generate a JavaScript file for each chart chosen in the popup, and will save it in your Pentaho Solution directory. Those JavaScript files are, basically, CCC chart definitions.

Example : Explanation  with  2 dashboards
1 is for regular dashboard and another is for CGG images dashboard.
Software Environment :
1) Pentaho BA 6.1 CE Server
2) Ctools

Dashboard-1 : 

Lets assume you have below shown dashboard
Open the dashboard in Edit mode and press Shift+G, it will open a pop window.

Observe the generated JS files in the location where the dashboard is saved, for example.

Dashboard-2 :

Design the layout and take two CGG components from CCC Charts as shown below  and give
Cgg path for the Js files generated in dashboard-1

Cgg path for Pie chart in Dashboard-1 : public/test/1_chartPie.js
Cgg path for Dot chart in Dashboard-2 : public/test/2_chartDot.js

NOTE : Cgg Path = Path of generated JS files 

(it can be done in single dashboard also)

(Click the image)

2nd Dashboard Preview : (Click on the image)

NOTE : 
#) In 2nd dash board it is not required define any query components.  
#) 2nd dash board will render the SVG images generated in 1st dashboard and get the image looks like dashboard view. 

Download :
Dashboard-1  & Dashboard-2 :
Click Me 
Deployment:  
Upload the two zip files to Public folder and run PostgreSQL foodmart database in your environment (or change the connections and queries as per your environment).

References : 
http://forums.pentaho.com/showthread.php?146887-Define-Size-of-dot

Learn how to create and use Templates in Pentaho CDE

Hi,
This tutorial teach you how to create & use templates in Pentaho CDE.

Why templates ? 
Templates are pre-defined structure of basic reports/a dashboard.
Whenever you have similar structure for some 4 or 5 dashboards in a project and if you use template you can faster the development time.

Pentaho CDE templates can include Layout, components and Data sources. In simple terms if you save a dashboard as template it will available in "My Templates" section.

Click on this image:


Lets see how to convert a dashboard as a template and use it in a new dashboard creation.

Steps to create a dashboard and convert it as Template
1) File -> New -> CDE dashboard
2) Now, lets layout the dashboard (that we will save as template) as shown in below image
3) Lets define data source connections in "Data source sections" as shown in below image
4) Save the dashboard in some folder in repository and see the preview of the dashboard and the sample is some thing similar to the one shown below.

(Please click on Image for best view)
5) Making dashboard as template 
a) Click on "Save as Template" as shown in below image
b) It will open a popup window. Fill the name, title and check the components and data sources.

c) Now, this saved template "Template_sadakar_sample_2" will be available in "My Templates" section.

6) Applying Template ( Checking whether the template is available or not )
#) click on "Apply" template button.
#) From the opened popup, click on "My Templates" button as shown below

#) Now chose the template created and click on "OK" button.
#) Click on "OK" button..

#) Save the dashboard that is being applied with above template.


This way one can work with templates in CDE editor. I hope it helps some one.!

Sadakar

Passing Blank from Select component - Dispaly All values when you pass Blank(say null) and display specific content when you pass specific value in Pentaho CDE

Hi Folks,

Its always a fun to me to explore a functionality in CDE.!
In this post you will see how to pass Blank ( Assume a NULL) value to  a CCC Bar chart component that should display all bars in graph.

Few questions ? 
1) Did you ever observe Blank/NULL (Say empty value) in a String type select component ?
2) Did you ever pass Blank value to display the whole content ? ( to a chart or to a table component).
   ( NOT "All" value in drop down)

NOTE : Click on images for the content on it

Here is a USE CASE : 
* Display employee "Position Titles" on X axis and "Salaries" on Y-Axis according to "Education Level".
i.e., filter the employee data with "Education Level".
When you pass "BLANK" value you should get the whole content and when you pass "Specific education level" get the data for that specific level.  (Here the employee content is : "Position Titles" on X-axis and "Salaries"  on Y-axis )

Software Environment for this example : 
1) Pentaho BA Server 6.1 CE
2) Pentaho CTools (16.x)
3) Jaspersoft foodmart database - PostgreSQL

1) Dashboard Design 
Design the dashboard as shown in the final output image.  (Not explaining how to work with rows and columns and create html objects - Assuming that you are aware in designing basic layouts). 

2) Components section : 
Creating parameter : 
Parameter : param_education_level
Default value : ' '    (Single quotes & one space in between)

Creating Select Component : 
Name : select_dept_id
Parameter :  param_education_level
Listner : param_education_level
Data source : query_param_dept_id
HTML Object : col_param
Creating bar chart component : 

 3) Data sources section : 
Preparing SQL for parameter : 
SELECT education_level FROM
(
            (SELECT ' ' :: text  AS education_level FROM employee limit 1)
            UNION ALL
            (SELECT DISTINCT education_level::text AS education_level FROM employee )
) a ORDER BY a.education_level


 Preparing SQL for Bar Chart Component
SELECT
               position_title,
               SUM(salary) sal
FROM employee 

WHERE  
         (education_level :: text = ${param_education_level} OR ${param_education_level}=' ')
GROUP BY 

position_title

NOTE : Check CDA preview for the confirmation of data source connection and queries result sets.

Save the dashboard and preview it. 

TEST- 1: Passing Blank Value


TEST-2 : Passing "Partial High School" value from "Education Level" parameter


Few Points & Limitations on this example :
1) ORDER BY for integer inputs may not be sorted (Its depends on how you concatenate ' ' with integer value in SQL).
2) Some times for the first load of the dashboard it is displaying "No Data". (Oops.!).
3) When you map a parameter to a "Select Component" (Single Select) you wont get any special symbol or blank space in the drop down. ( One can find -- dashed lines in Jaspersoft Server for input controls to pass it as NULL value).
4) This example is not intended to replace "All" functionality in the drop down.

Download Example : 
Click Me

Thank you :-) Hope it helps someone.


Wednesday 27 April 2016

Tip : Activate Pentaho Ctools in Enterprise BA Server 6.x

Hi, 
This post will help you in configuring CDE in EE server.
Environment for this example is :
BA Server EE 6.0.1

1) To make CDE editor available in Pentaho EE server you need to edit code related to it in xml configuration files. files are :  plugin.xml and settings.xml

2) Both files are available at C:\Pentaho\server\biserver-ee\pentaho-solutions\system\pentaho-cdf-dd location.

3) Editing plugin.xml file 
Place-1 : uncomment below code 
             <operation>
                    <id>EDIT</id>
                    <perspective>wcdf.edit</perspective>
                </operation>


Place-2 : uncomment below code 
<overlays>
        <overlay id="launch" resourcebundle="content/pentaho-cdf-dd/lang/messages">
            <button id="launch_new_cde" label="${Launcher.CDE}" command="Home.openFile('${Launcher.CDE}', '${Launcher.CDE_TOOLTIP}', 'api/repos/wcdf/new');$('#btnCreateNew').popover('hide');"/>
        </overlay>
        <overlay id="startup.cde_dashboard"  resourcebundle="content/pentaho-cdf-dd/lang/messages" priority="1">
            <menubar id="newmenu">
                <menuitem id="new-cde_dashboard" label="${Launcher.CDE}" command="mantleXulHandler.openUrl('${Launcher.CDE}','${Launcher.CDE_TOOLTIP}','api/repos/wcdf/new')" />
            </menubar>
        </overlay>
    </overlays>

   
4) Editing settings.xml file 
Define the button for CDE  in Server
Un comment below code that you find at the end

<new-toolbar-button>1,New CDE Dashboard,CDE Dashboard,api/repos/wcdf/new</new-toolbar-button>



Pentaho Offcial Documentation : 
https://help.pentaho.com/Documentation/6.1/0R0/CTools/Activate_CDE

Download the same as PDF file : Click Me.

 

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Pentaho EE 6.0.1 complete pack installation images for Windows 64 bit OS

Its been almost 4 years, I had installed Pentaho EE 4.8 server for the first time and later never got a chance to  get EE copy at office or home.. Hmm..!!! CE occupied EE's place in bucket :-)

Installation Environment : 
Windows-7 Professional , 64 bit OS with 8 GB RAM. 


Pentaho EE 6.0.1.386 Server installation images.

Download Location: http://www.pentaho.com/download






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Services :



 Menu Bar : 



Installation folder structure : 











Thank you. :-)

Thursday 21 April 2016

Back to Basics on Dual Axes Line Chart example in Pentaho CDE

H,
Its been again longtime I wrote something useful that I explored in  Pentaho or Pentaho Ctools.

Thank you Tharun for making me look back into the basics again. Here is the use case we together explored with foodmart sample data.

Use Case : 
Get 2 lines for Y1- Axis : storecost, storesales
Get 2 lines for Y2- Axis : unitsales, profit

This example is explained step by step in the presentation attached to this post. (Please look at download section).

I hope it will be useful if you have the similar kind of functionality.

Sample screenshots of the presentation : 

Image -1 : Please click on image to get best view
Image-2 : Sample output : please click on image to get best view


Download :
1) Presentation
2) Example : Works on foodmart db.

NOTE : Presentation is password protected. Please send me a request to have a copy of it. 

Click me to download 

:-)