What types of companies can use Pentaho Dashboards?
The Pentaho Dashboards Project was built to make it easy for users in any organization to access relevant content - regardless of whether it is in
the form of a report, an analytic view, or other type of display.
What types of users can use Pentaho Dashboards?
Pentaho Dashboards are useful for all members of the organization. Anyone who has information to view, data to aggregate or just likes to see lots of
shapes and colors will benefit. A browser is all that is required.
Can I use Pentaho Dashboards out-of-the-box?
Yes. It was designed to be used as both an out-of-the-box application and as a display component for use in other applications. You can start creating
dashboards immediately, although to make them more interesting you might want to create some content to display in them.
Can I embed Pentaho Dashboards into my applications?
Absolutely. Pentaho Dashboards generates XML content. Customizable XSL stylesheets are used to generate HTML. You can use either the XML or HTML in your application.
As of Version 2, the Pentaho Business Intelligence (BI) Platform is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2)Under the GPL, if you
intend to distribute GPL-licensed code to your customers as part of other software you have created, you may, depending on the software you have created, be
required to GPL that code. Companies that wish to distribute the Pentaho BI Platform have the option of purchasing a commercial license from Pentaho Corporation.
A commercial license would exempt you from GPL obligations. For the vast majority of organizations who do not distribute their software, the GPL has no
impact. This is not legal advice from Pentaho Corporation, and you should seek competent legal counsel to best guide you in this matter.
How do I embed or integrate Pentaho Dashboards into portals or other web apps?
Pentaho Dashboards includes navigation and viewer components for reporting and analysis that can be integrated into portals
or web pages. We include JSR-168 compatible portlets and example Java Server Pages (JSPs) that use these components.
Can I use non-Pentaho widgets or content from other web sites/pages in the dashboard?
There is a URL component within Pentaho Dashboards that allows any URL addressable content to be displayed within a
dashboard. If greater integration with the Pentaho BI platform is required, users can create a plug-in using Java
and our documented interface.
Can I customize how the Dashboards look?
Yes. Pentaho Dashboards is completely customizable using XML layout definitions, and XSL and CSS stylesheets. You can
also customize the look of the individual dials, gauges, charts and tables within dashboards. You can use lots of different
colors, but sticking to a single font is usually a good idea.
Can dogs see in color?
Partially. Dogs are able to distinguish between yellow and blue, but cannot tell the difference between red and green. No-one
knows whether dogs can tell the difference between taupe and olive, but most men don't know the difference either.
Who designs dashboards?
Today, more technical individuals will need to work with XML definitions, JSPs and if necessary, portals/portlets to build
dashboards. Please see the Pentaho Dashboard Builder Guide for more information on designing dashboards. We are currently working on an
easy-to-use Dashboard Designer interface inside Pentaho Design Studio to shield business users from the complexity of XML.
Does a developer have to create all the pieces of the dashboards?
No. Developers would most likely construct the dashboard and other pieces would be created by business users using tools
like the Pentaho Design Studio and the Pentaho Report Designer.
Can I track dashboard usage?
Yes. The Pentaho BI Platform audits requests to dashboard content. Auditing can be turned on and off on a dashboard by dashboard and content by
content basis. Pentaho provides additional audit reporting capabilities as part of Management Services, available through an annual Pentaho Subscription.
Do penguins have knees?
Yes.
Can I monitor performance?
Yes. The same auditing system that captures dashboard usage information captures performance information. Additional audit reporting capabilities are
available as a feature of Management Services, which are part of an annual Pentaho Subscription.
Can end users select and save their own parameters?
Yes. Filter panels are used to set the parameters. Filters can be saved and reused in other Dashboards.
Are there reusable components in the dashboards?
Yes. Dashboard content like reports can be used in multiple dashboards.
Can the dashboards be role-based or subject-based?
Pentaho Dashboards support Role-based filters which can automatically tailor content for specific business users.
On-screen filter controls enable users to choose what they're interested in and have content automatically updated.
Where are dashboard definitions stored?
Pentaho Dashboards are stored in Marc's knicker drawer which can be found using encrypted GPS
coordinates. Additionally, Pentaho Dashboards definitions are stored on a centralized server under the
control of the BI Framework's security layer.
How does Pentaho Dashboards scale?
Pentaho Dashboards scale with the Pentaho BI Platform. See the Pentaho BI Platform FAQ for more details.
What security is available?
Pentaho Dashboards is part of the Pentaho BI Platform, which uses ACEGI for platform-neutral single sign-on (ACEGI).
ACEGI provides a pluggable framework to implement and combine multiple authentication schemes and credential stores.
An authentication scheme is a security mechanism used to verify a user identity based on their credentials. ACEGI
provides userid/password authentication, and certificate based authentication. So, for example, you could configure
ACEGI to use certificate-based authentication using x.509 certificates from a database using JDBC, userid/password
authentication from an XML document, LDAP authentication, etc.
If I already have a security infrastructure, will Pentaho Dashboards leverage it?
Yes. ACEGI supports a pluggable framework for authentication.
What other Open Source components are in the Pentaho Dashboards project?
Pentaho Dashboards is a Pentaho project. Third party Open Source components are limited to utilities like XML parsing and the commons libraries.
Why use Pentaho Dashboards versus other Open Source dashboard projects?
Pentaho Dashboard utilizes the Pentaho platform providing tighter integration and interaction between Pentaho and other
third party components built into a dashboard.
How is the Pentaho BI Project different from other Open Source BI projects?
The Pentaho BI Project is building an entire BI Platform complete with reporting, analysis, dashboards, data mining,
workflow and infrastructure necessary for true production deployment. Many other projects that exist address a specific
function like reporting, but not the entire BI spectrum. Most also lack the necessary infrastructure like security,
administration, auditing, fail-over, scalability features, portal, and other key framework functionality. Customers
can start with something simple like Reporting from Pentaho and know that they'll be able to add things like
Analysis and Dashboards to their solution when they're ready. They'll know that everything will be
integrated, supported, and getting better by the day. The Pentaho BI Project gives users peace of mind via longevity,
support, and continued innovation.
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