Using Saiku-ui without saiku-server/mondrian? - saiku

Is it possible to use the saiku-ui component with a different jolap provider than mondrian, or with a different server backend than the saiku-server component?
I have been looking but I have not found an architecture description of how these pieces fit together and what interfaces they use to communicate. Can anyone point me towards an understanding of what the saiku-ui wants to speak with and what the saiku-server is providing?
The reason for my interest is that I have a set of data spread across hundreds of csv files that I would like to query with a pivot and charting tool. It looks like the standard way to use this with saiku would be to have an ETL process to load in to an RDBMS. However, this would not be a simple process because the files and content and the way the files relate to each other vary, so the ETL would have to do a lot of inspection of the data sources to figure it out.
Given this it seems to me that I would have three options in how to use saiku:
1) write a complex ETL to load in to a rdbms, and then use a standard jdbc driver to provide the data to modrian. A side function of the ETL would be to analyze the inputs and write the mondrian schema file describing the cubes.
2) write a jdbc driver to access the data natively. This driver would parse sql and provide access to the underlying tables. Essentially this would be a custom r/o dbms written on top of the csv files. The jdbc connection would be used by mondrian to access the data. A side function of this custom dbms would be to produce the mondrian schema file.
3) write a tool that provides a jolap interface to the native data (accepts discovery and mdx queries). This would bypass mondrian entirely and interface with the ui.
I may be a bit naive here but I consider each of the three options to be feasible. Option #1 is my least preferred because of the likelihood of the data in the rdbms becoming out of sync with the cvs files. Option #3 is most preferred because the data are simple, so not much aggregating required and I suspect that mdx will be easier to parse than sql.
So, if i could produce my own jolap data source would it be possible to hook the saiku-ui tools up to it? Where would I look to find out the interface configuration details?

Many years ago, #ronaldbouman created xmondrian - the set of tools with the olap server, and web ui tools for xmla browsing and visualusation. But that project was not updating, and has no source code.
I just updated olap server and libraries to the latest versions.
You may get it here and build:.
https://github.com/Muritiku/xmondrian-build.
You may use web package as the example. The mondrian server works with the saiku-ui.

IMHO,
I would not be as confident as your are, because it took Julian Hyde more than a decade to build Mondrian (MDX->SQL) and Calcite (SQL), fulfilling your last two proposals.
You might simply consider using Calcite, or even better Dremio. Dremio has a JDBC interface, and can query directories of CSV files in SQL. I tested Saiku over Dremio successfully (with a schema based on two separate RDBMS). Just be careful to setup tables' schema accordingly in the Mondrian v4 schema.
Best regards,
Fabrice Etanchaud
Dremio

Related

Developer sandboxes for Oracle database

We are developing a large data migration from Oracle DB (12c) to another system with SSIS. The developers are using a production copy database but the problem is that, due to the complexity of the data transformation, we have to do things in stages by preprocessing data into intermediate helper tables which are then used further downstream. The problem is that all developers are using the same database and screw each other up by running things simultaneously. Does Oracle DB offer anything in terms of developer sandboxing? We could build a mechanism to handle this (e.g. have dev ID in the helper tables, then query views that map to the dev), but I'd much rather use built-in functionality. Could I use Oracle Multitenant for this?
We ended up producing a master subset database of select schemas/tables through some fairly elaborate PL/SQL, then made several copies of this master schema so each dev has his/her own sandbox (as Alex suggested). We could have used Oracle Data Masking and Subsetting but it's too expensive. Another option for creating the subset database wouldn have been to use Jailer. I should note that we didn't have a need to mask any sensitive data.
Note. I would think this a fairly common problem so if new tools and solutions arise, please post them here as answers.

Pointers to use Apache Drill to access a Progress DB

Progress/OpenEdge is not a SQL database and although it does have support for SQL (through the ODBC interface) that is not the natural way to access OpenEdge data. Progress applications are built using "ABL" (formerly known as "Progress 4gl") and some SQLish things like referential integrity constraints are implemented through procedural logic in 4gl code. Which makes things difficult if you are not really interested in learning ABL.
Has anybody successfully managed to use Apache Drill (https://drill.apache.org) to access Progress data? Are there any pointers particular to the combination of Progress and Apache Drill to share?
Short answer: No, this is impossible.
Longer answer: my admittedly cursory read of what Apache/Drill does lead to the mistaken conclusion that you can just access Progress (or anything else) via ODBC and then use Drill on top of it.
Apache/Drill is exposing itself via ODBC but currently the only datasources it can use are:
HBase
Hive
MapR-DB
Avro
Parquet
File system:
CSV (Comma-Separated-Values)
TSV (Tab-Separated-Values)
PSV (Pipe-Separated-Values)
Therefore at the time being Progress cannot be accessed by Apache/Drill.

ArcSDE Database Refactoring Tool options

We are using liquibase as evolutionary DB change management tool in our applications, it works great when we use it in "common" database schemas.
But we also work with GIS applications using esri arcSDE 9.3 platform over Oracle and in this case, all (or almost all) tables (both GIS and 'alphanumeric' tables) in the schema are managed (create table, grants, etc.) through arcSDE. So when we want to create new feature classe now we use arcCatalog, and this way, it's not possible to manage the feature classes’ changes directly through SQL using liquibase or other automate refactoring tool.
So if we cannot use liquibase to manage changes, at least we want to execute the management operations over our features through command line.
We’ve started looking for tools that avoid the use of arcCatalog, and then try to automate the changes using scripts, we are investigating these possibilities:
Try to capture the SQL that arcCatalog/arcSDE is executing each time we make a change in one Feature Class monitoring the oracle connection. It outcomes us a too complex set of SQL instructions that involves indexes, versioning tables, etc. so we give up this way.
Use the sdelayer and sdetable admin commands installed on arcSDE server.
Use the data management tool: a python based library to manage the feature classes, but it has to be executed from a machine with the desktop version installed.
These last two options will provide a way to manage features from command-line, but our target is to find/develop a tool to manage changes similar to the way liquibase do. But with these tools we will have to find a tool that let us map each SQL DDL operation to an arcSDE command, and currently no db refactoring tool provides this (currently we have check liquibase, dbdeploy, flyway).
Anybody had solved this problem of evolutionary change management with arcSDE? Any insight of another way to face this problem?
I'll take a stab at this, although I'm unfamiliar with one of the products you mention (liquibase specifically - I have used Oracle and I'm very familiar with ArcGIS (ArcMap & ArcCatalog).
Here's just some additional information that may help and my interpretation of your question.
My interpretation - "What's a simple way to manage or enable us to automate the management of our tables of GIS data in our Oracle database without having to use ArcCatalog all the time?"
So - I'll throw this concept back in the ring - I know SQL Server has spatial datatypes "geometry", etc. and that you can bypass SDE and let ArcGIS directly connect and interpret this data without even installing SDE. I also know Oracle has compatible spatial types. So I would possibly consider migrating my data from the managed FC's that ArcCatalog creates and push them into oracle-native geometry based tables. This way you can treat them like regular tables, cut ESRI out of the solution, and manage them with liquibase, etc. Hopefully that helps.
I would also consider upgrading to 10.1 or at least 10.0 (I promise I'm not an undercover salesman), although that will require your users to come with you on the client side (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//002q000000n8000000) because the newer python APIs are much easier and faster to use (arcpy vs. the GP model), if you do choose to use Python to manage your stuff. (Regardless, either API isn't very well developed and isn't intuitive to code in or fast.)
Good luck.

Is there a way for the Oracle Data Integrator to extract data from MongoDB

I'm trying to move snapshots of data from our MongoDB into our Oracle BI data store.
From the BI team I've been asked to make the data available for ODI, but I haven't been able to find an example of that being done.
Is it possible and what do I need to implement it?
If there is a more generic way of getting MongoDB data into Oracle then I'm happy to propose that as well.
Versions
MongoDB: 2.0.1
ODI: 11.1.1.5
Oracle: 11.2g
Edit:
This is something that will be queried once a day, maybe twice but at this stage the BI report granularity is daily
In ODI, under the Topology tab and Physical Architecture sub-tab, you can see all technologies that are supported out of the box. MongoDB is not one of them. There are also no Knowledge Modules available for importing/exporting from/to MongoDB.
ODI supports implementing your own technologies and your own Knowledge Modules.
This manual will get you started with developing your won Knowledge module, and in one of the other manuals i'm sure you can find an explanation on how to implement your own technologies. (Ctrl-F for "Data integrator")
If you're lucky, you might find someone else who has already implemented it. Your best places to look would be The Oracle Technology Network Forum, or a forum related to MongoDB.
Instead of creating a direct link, you could also take an easier workaround. Export the data from the MongoDB to a format that ODI supports, and MongoDB can extract to. CSV or XML maybe? Then load the data trough ODI into the oracle database. I think... that will be the best option, unless you have to do this frequently...
Look at the blog post below for an option;
https://blogs.oracle.com/dataintegration/entry/odi_mongodb_and_a_java
Cheers
David

Best way to generate report using multiple databases

I am new to the reporting world. Wanted to know which is the right solution to about for generating a single report by querying for data from multiple databases. We are planning to use some reporting solution like Jasper Reports or BIRT. Generally the databases are going to be postgresql.
Please do feel free to let me know about any other better solutions as well.
Thanks.
With BIRT you can use as many data sources as you like; independently or together as joint data sets. A Joint Data Set is basically a join you create at the report level. The cool think here is that you can in effect create the join accross data bases, even instances.
All the expected sources are supported, even some not so expceted ones. Any JDBC DB, Web Servce, Flat File, POJOs (via a Scripted Data Source), XML, Native DB Driver (i.e. Oracle, SQL Server, etc...). You can even use on BIRT Report as a data source for a secondary BIRT report. That gets a bit beyond the scope of the question, but opens up a huge amount of options in terms of deployment and felxibility.
In JasperReports if you are generating the report on the server, and streaming it back to the client as PDF or HTML, then you can use any datasources you want, being it:
Multiple databases
Objects, i.e. Java Beans
Text files/XML
Web services
... etc

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