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Pentaho Metadata FAQ
What is Pentaho Metadata?
Pentaho Metadata is a feature of the Pentaho BI Platform designed to make it easier for users to access information in business terms.
How does it work?
With Pentaho's open source metadata capabilities, administrators can define a layer of abstraction that presents database information to business
users in familiar business terms. Administrators identify relationships between tables in the database, create business-language definitions for
complex or cryptic database tables and columns, set security parameters to limit data access to appropriate users, specify default formatting for
data fields, and provide additional translations for business terms for multi-lingual deployments. Business users can then use Pentaho's new ad hoc
query capabilities to choose the specific elements they would like to include in a given report, such as order quantities and total spending by
customer grouped by region. The SQL required to retrieve the data is generated automatically.
How is this feature licensed?
Pentaho Metadata is available as part of the Pentaho BI platform. The most recent Generally Available (GA) release of the Pentaho BI Platform 1.7 was released
under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). The first release of source code for Pentaho BI Platform version 2 has been released under GPLv2. Future
development and GA versions of the Pentaho BI Platform version 2 and later will also be released under GPLv2.
How do I obtain technical support for it?
A forum for Pentaho Metadata is available at forums.pentaho.org and should be used for reporting bugs or
requesting new features. Professional support with guaranteed response times from Pentaho is available as part of an annual subscription for Pentaho
Reporting or the Pentaho BI Suite.
What versions of the Pentaho BI Platform or Pentaho Reporting (JFreeReport) are required?
The metadata capabilities require Pentaho BI Platform 1.6.0 GA or later and Pentaho Reporting (JFreeReport) 0.8.7.10 or later.
Who is the target audience for this capability?
This feature is designed for administrators who want to allow end-user self-service for reporting, while centrally controlling security and data access. Target users would be DBA or other technical users who understand the relational schema and can create “business views” of the data for less technical end users who will ultimately access those business views through a reporting tool.
Is this feature available in open source?
Yes. The Pentaho community is invited to test the feature, and to report potential bugs, request features, or make contributions at www.pentaho.com.
Does Pentaho Metadata work with third-party reporting engines?
No.
Is it possible to incorporate live metadata from 3rd-party tools?
No. The primary target for the current release is Pentaho’s reporting and analysis tools.
Can Pentaho Metadata import or exchange metadata with other tools?
Not directly. Pentaho created the new metadata layer using the Common Warehouse Metamodel standard. This same standard is used by many other popular
design tools, ETL tools, databases, and repositories. As of the writing of this FAQ, this interoperability has not been tested, and we know that some
mapping of Pentaho’s CWM-based XML documents will be required for interoperability. We would welcome the input and experience of any Pentaho Community
members who want to create those mappings and test interoperability with other tools.
What role can/does the community play in the evolution of Pentaho metadata services?
Community input drove the initial investment and release of Pentaho metadata services. Users and potential users had indicated that in many cases it was
too complex for non-experts to create reports “from scratch” without a solid knowledge of relational database concepts and Structure Query Language (SQL).
Pentaho is requesting additional community input and contributions to drive the evolution of Pentaho metadata services. Click here for general
information about the many ways to contribute to Pentaho’s open source projects.
Visit www.pentaho.com to join the community and learn more about how Pentaho and open source can change the
way your company uses information. E-Mail: communityconnection@pentaho.com
Sales Inquiries: sales@pentaho.com
Alliances: alliances@pentaho.com
Phone: +1 407-812-OPEN (6736)
Fax: +1 321-226-0219
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