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Introduction to Analyzer Reports
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What's an Analyzer Report?

An Analyzer report is a collection of fields and filters that is displayed in a specific report format. You can think of a report as a file (like an Excel file), except that when you open a report or make a change, the report connects to your database so it displays the latest data. Reports are stored in the Pentaho solution repository, so you can access reports from any computer.

When you create a new Analyzer report from the ground up, you select a cube first. This choice determines which fields will be available when you build your report. For example, if you choose orders as your analysis area, you most likely will see all fields related to orders.

Where Does the Data Come From?

Pentaho Analyzer leverages OLAP technology and multi-dimensional query expressions (MDX) to dynamically retrieve data from relational databases (RDBMS). Analyzer is most often used to query data in an organization’s data warehouse, which generally consolidates data from multiple source systems into a common place for information analysis and reporting.

Pentaho Data Integration is a popular ETL tool used for building and populating data warehouses. Pentaho Data Integration can load data from applications, databases, and spreadsheets within your company, as well as from external and public data sources. This is managed by your administrator. See The Big Picture.

You can easily view the description of a specific field. See Viewing the Definition of a Field.

A Look at the View Report Page

With Pentaho Analyzer, you build your report and view the results using the same web page, which has three main sections:

  • The available fields area (left) shows all fields you can choose to move into the report or layout panel or use to filter the report.
  • The layout panel shows how fields are arranged on the report and provides access to available properties based on the current display (table vs. chart)
  • The actual report itself (table report or chart) where the selected fields are shown.
  • The filter area holds all filters used.

Getting the Report You Want

  1. Check to see if you can find an existing report that answers your question or that you can use as a starting point.
  2. If you don't locate an existing report, create a new report.
  3. Add fields and/or filters to your report to narrow down the data (e.g. Year = 2004).
  4. Create calculations, such as ratios or percentages, if needed.
  5. Once you have the data you need, you might want to switch the format of the report to a line or bar chart.
  6. Save the report.
  7. Print a PDF version of the report for your meeting, if needed.

After this warm-up, you should be ready to play around with report options or start creating reports for use by others.
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