BPM Vanilla NewFeatures 4.2 En

Vanilla : the True Honest Open Source Business Process Information Management Platform

Vanilla 4.2

New Features

Author : Patrick Beaucamp

Document : BPM_Vanilla_42_New_Features.odt

Pages Number : 54

Contact : [email protected]

Date : January 2013

Web Site : www.bpm-conseil.com

Blog : www.freeanalysis.fr

BPM Conseil - Sàrl au capital de 70 000 euros - RCS LYON 479 400 1299, rue Pierre Blanc - 69001 Lyon – France

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ContentIntroduction..........................................................................................................................................3New Features list..................................................................................................................................4

Infrastructure....................................................................................................................................4Portal................................................................................................................................................8

Language and CSS support.........................................................................................................8New Features for Interface..........................................................................................................9

Vanilla Viewer................................................................................................................................13Document Management.................................................................................................................17Master Data Management..............................................................................................................19NoSql Support ...............................................................................................................................22

Native Etl connections..........................................................................................................22New Oda drivers for reporting.............................................................................................23

Solr/Lucene 4.0 integration............................................................................................................24Advantage of Solr/Lucene with Vanilla ...................................................................................25

Vanilla Apps Update......................................................................................................................26FreeDashboard v4..........................................................................................................................28Web Designer update.....................................................................................................................30

FreeAnalysis..............................................................................................................................30Simulation............................................................................................................................30Drill Through........................................................................................................................30Save of filters & search........................................................................................................31

FreeWebReport.........................................................................................................................32Wms support & Kpi/Dashboard/Maps integration........................................................................33

Norparena, FreeMetrics, FreeDashboard & BiGateway packages...........................................34FreeAnalysis & Maps integration.............................................................................................36

Improved Server Side & Cloud feature.........................................................................................37Vanilla Hypervision...................................................................................................................37New Cloud Features..................................................................................................................39Server configuration..................................................................................................................39

Numerous Update of Dev & Admin package ...............................................................................40Development Packages.............................................................................................................40

FreeMetadata........................................................................................................................40BiGateWay...........................................................................................................................42BiWorkflow..........................................................................................................................44

Admin Packages........................................................................................................................45Enterprise Services...............................................................................................................45ProcessManager, ..................................................................................................................46Norparena.............................................................................................................................47

Packages Integration improvment ................................................................................................48New Mobile Apps for Android......................................................................................................52

Vanilla Apps Readers................................................................................................................52Vanilla Apps Report Designer...................................................................................................53

Update of documentation & video.................................................................................................54


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Introduction

This document introduces the main new features of Vanilla 4.2 version : The True Honest Open Source Business Process Information Management Platform.

With version 4.2, we have brought Business Intelligence and Document Management to the next level of performance providing support for nosql database, a new MDM package integrated with our ETL (for files management and for rules), many new features in our Portal and VanillaViewer : our universal documents viewer that supports various file formats, continuous integration of ne document management features (file versioning, workflow to aprove publication), a new version of FreeDashboard that complies with 2012 standard in terms of development studio and rendering (html5), continous support for latest pieces of software such as MemCached, Solr/Lucene 4, Birt 4.2.1 or Tomcat 7, numerous new features in all our development packages and Web interfaces, support for 14 languages, update of Vanilla Mobile (Android 4 & Ios 5)

Since the origin of Vanilla, most important feature for the Vanilla Platform is that all is «Metadata secured» driven … no more multiples datasources definition & manual security coding ! Metadata documents can be used as datasources in every designer and runtime modules which take advantage of Metadata features such as Business Packages and Business Security,

With version 4.2, as a follow-up of what we already provided with version 3 and version 4 and in addition to standard Pdf documents, we provide a set of updated videos in order to help beginners to understand how they can use Vanilla. All the videos are available online or can be downloaded for later usage.

As a continuity with what we started in version 3, we provide additional Vanilla Apps. These apps take advantage of the Vanilla platform and bring additional value / features to an existing Vanilla Platform. Amongst the new set of Vanilla Apps, we can find VanillaMobile (for Ipad/IPhone and Android Tablet & Smartphones)

Vanilla Apps is also the place where you can find about 20 ready to deploy packages against the databases of the relative applications (Mantis, Redmine, Moodle, Cocktail, Vtiger, SugarCrm ...). All those packages are now availabe for download & installation using Vanilla Place interface, available in Enteprise Service. Every package contains Metadata documents, reports, dashboards and cubes in order to provide the best overview of your data.

For those willing to manage a farms of Vanilla server, we also provide a new package, Hypervision, which stand as a monitoring and servers management interface (slave / master server) to setup a farm of Vanilla server in the cloud.


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New Features list

Infrastructure

Vanilla 4.2 provides major update of some embeded components, outside engine and support for additional platforms.

• Java7 : Vanilla 4.2 has been compiled using Eclipse 4.2, with a Java 7 JDK. All the packages can now be run on computer running a Java 7 Runtime

• Deployment Platform : Vanilla 4.2 is shipped with Tomcat 7, and we have also versions for Jboss server (version 4 to version 7) and Weblogic server (version 12)


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• Running Birt 4.2.1 Engine : Vanilla 4.2 is shipped with the latest Birt Runtime Engine to provide support for the latest Birt features, such as Excel native support or new charts support. You can use A Birt 4.2.1 Designer available from the Eclipse WebSite and deploy the Vanilla Plugin inside your Birt Report Designer, to enjoy Birt 4.2.1 along with Vanilla oda datasource such as FreeMetadata.

• Solr/Lucene 4.0 Support : Starting with Vanilla 3, in 2010, we have shipped Vanilla with an embeded Lucene engine to provide indexation features. With the emergence of Solr/Lucene as the default platform for indexation and search process, we have moved our code to make Vanilla Solr/Lucene compliant. This can lead to an architecture where customer will install a Solr/Lucene server to provide indexation to various platforms, including Vanilla for Bi subjects.

• Html5 support : FreeDashboard get a major update to design Dashboards that are 100% Html5 (sorry about Flash) and Vanilla portal can run html5 pages (including audio/video)


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• New Jdbc drivers : As a simple example on this subject, JDTS 1.3 is now delievered, which allow developers to access to any Microsoft Sql database (until SqlServer2008) without using the Microsoft proprietary jdbc drive. Using Jdts, as opposed to Microsoft driver, you can develop dashboard with prompts (Microsoft jdbc driver is not able to return prompt values). Other drivers updates for major database are also provided, like for MySql, Oracle, PostGreSql …

• Jenkins scripts : Starting with Vanilla 4.2, we provide nightly build of the complete platform (Server & WebApps, packages). This makes the software production easier to manage and allow our develpment team to save valuable time for every internal or public release

• UnitedOlap update : our Olap engine got a major update, with support for forecast and what-if functions, improved aggregate mechanism, better usage of lastest caching functions (using Memcached) …


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• Memcached update : Vanilla 4.2 make intensive usage of the latest Memcached version, leading to faster and improved cache strategy & mechanisms

• Android 4 and Ios 5 support : Vanilla mobile will have a major update, with a full Report Designer & Document Reader compliant with Android 4 and with Ios5


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Portal

Vanilla Portal get a refreshment along with new user features. We keep the v4 foundation – a fresh Web2.0 interface - to add more and more features, while making the Portal even more easy to use, and more simple interface … which is an everyday challenge !

Language and CSS support

CSS Support : We extend the support of CSS to provide Theme Management, making it easy for any end-user to change his Vanilla theme.

Internationalisation : along with our partners and community, we provide the Portal in 14 languages (you just select your language at login)


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New Features for Interface

Welcome PageWe have added a “Welcome page” that allow Admin to display message or info about portal activity. In this page, feel free to display your recent documents you've just added in your platform, or any event you can find valuable

Personal WorkspaceIn the Personal workspace User can change their avatar, their personal information like their email address andf their theme


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My Documents

There is now a “MyDocuments” Folder : a new Folder, available for each user, where user can save any kind of documents that will not be accessible by others users. This is the same behaviour you have on your computer with « my documents » folder under your own connection name.

Dynamic Tabulations

Functional Tabulations such as Search Interface, Portal Content or Task Management can can be close or open using the right icon toolbar. This give user the flexibility to organise the interface the way he wants to work with it.


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New : Access Request ManagementThis new interface provides Access Grant management to documents, to allow requests from other users to your document or manage your requests to access documents owned by other users, along with a Review section for uploaded document to accept or refused publication from users with Uploaded role.

New : Document ManagementThis new interface provides Document Management features, like browsing document, adding new documents or new version of document, sending access request for document or browisng with a search inside the document repository.

Document are either uploaded from portal or generated by the Vanilla platform (like reports)


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Improved VanillaViewer

As part of Vanilla Portal, Vanilla Viewer is shipped with numerous new features. This is described in the next section, as Vanilla Viewer can be embeded in any compliant portal


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Vanilla Viewer

Starting with version 3 of Vanilla, we have provided our own viewer – Vanilla Viewer – to manage document rendering, no matter the report engine is (because users don’t have to suffer from different interfaces when developers are using IReport or Birt to design their reports !!!).

For those new to Vanilla Viewer, just a reminder of some great features :• User can chose to run the report in background• Report content can be exported as a csv local file• Prompts can be saved under a specific label• Burst feature allow user to run a report using different group strategy

Vanilla viewer get continuous support and update, and the version we provide with Vanilla 4.2 has interesting improvments :

Running a report You can select multiples output formats in the same run, and switch to another output (Html to Pdf for example) from Vanilla Viewer


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From the interface, you can swicth between the different report formats

Saving a new report

Saving process has been review : now, you decide to save your report once it has been run and display in the interface, and you can decide to save it as a new document, or as a new version of an pre-existing version (because Vanilla Document Management feature support versioning of documents !)


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Saving a new instance of document

When user want to save a report, he can now decide to save the report as a new document, or save it as a new version of a previously saved version. Please refer to the Document Management section to get overview of the versioning with Vanilla.

Row LimitWhen running a report, user can now instruct the engine to limit the number of rows for the report dataset. This is usefull when you want to get an overview of the report in case the report has millions of lines


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Prompt interface

Prompt interface is more smooth : the left panel allow users to change the prompt values and run the report again (no prompt interface). This left panel can be hidden using the top left arrow available inside the panel


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Document Management

Those who stay connected with our develpment team know already about document management features inside Vanilla. It all started with version 3 when we embeded Lucene to provide search feature on saved reports. This was already a great « out of the box » feature, and it gave use valuable experience on document management, indexation process and search interface behaviour.

Now, Vanilla 4.2 leverage the existing document management features available with version 4.0 and version 4.09 and brings new features to better manage documents :

• Document versioning : available from portal (for uploaded documents (Pdf, Office document, …)) or from Vanilla Viewer (with Any document created with Vanilla Viewer like Reports) : Every document can have different versions, you just have to chose between creating a new version of the document or created a new version. This feature is combined with the Search Engine, and only the latest version of the document will be available through the Search Interface. For uploaded document, this feature is a CheckIn/CheckOut function.

In Search interface, you have indication about the document version number


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• Review before publication : Some users can have only upload grant, without beeing able to publish the document (ie : make it available from the portal). Then, a review process can be started that will allow admin person to validate the uploaded document (Task section of the portal). This is a basic workflow process available “out of the box”, with interfaces in Web Portal

• Peremption Date : Any document has now a peremption date, which make the document not available any more from the portal after the said date.

• Document autorisation : User can request grant access to any document they can find through the Search Interface but are not allowed to access. Owner of the document will receive the request, and can accept or reject it. We had big debate how this feature : is a user allowed to find documents through search interface if he is not allowed to access those documents ?

• Indexation management : Using Enterprise Services and Norparena, any document can have its properties set to allow groups to access the document, edit the document (new version) or delete the document from portal. In parallel, an indexation workflow can be developped to manage cascading aproval on document request

• Document Management comes with Search Engine/Interface. As indicated in previous post, we have moved to Solr/Lucene and make our architecture compliant with a cluster of Solr/Lucene servers, opening the door to scalable infrastructure. With Vanilla, before creating a new document, you can first look in your set of existing documents if you find valuable informations. Bi Document repository is no more a black box invisible to users.

• Document Management features can be powered by our Workflow module, to create complex rules when it comes to document validation. We encourage admin to review their document management strategy, whether or not their existing platform still meet its objectives, in comparison with daily usage … just simplify your IT architecture if your users have simple requests.


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Master Data Management

When it was time for Vanilla 4.2 to provide a package to manage business Metadata & Rules at Enterprise level, shortly called a Mdm platform, we studied what is available on the market, and asked questions like “how is it used”, “what is missing to those package to be used”. In parallel, we had discussion about how past experience in datawarehouse projects and exchanged about what can of piece of spftware we have missed for some projects.

To complete our study, we added functions about “data supplier & data contract”, because there is always requests to manage external files from internal or external entities, with version for each files. Those orientations put on the table, we leverage the existing Vanilla modules to escape redundant functions :

• MDM Module to manage entiry, rules and contract/files as ressources with version control

• BiGateWay, our ETL, will provide all the transformations based on rules defined in the Mdm (conversion rules, validation rules)

• Vanilla Document Management will provide the services for files storage, file version control, file access rights

• To bundle Rules & Files, we added new input box in BiGateWay to manage files loaded from Mdm interface and stored in our repository : no more external files that are left on hard drive with any management, files that contains important rules for business analysis (let’s think about an Excel file that contain every month the rules to split the basic expense between department, or file bought outside that contain statistical data at nation level)


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Mdm Interface to define Rules and Entities

Mdm Interface to define Suppliers, Contracts and Documents


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Our MDM module is embebed inside Vanilla, and leverage existing components like ETL, Worklfow and document management, making it easy to build Bi & Document Management application that take care of external files

BiGateWay & Mdm


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NoSql Support

With Vanilla 4.2, we introduced official support for the 3 major nosql databases – Hadoop Hbase, Hadoop Cassandra and 10Gen MongoDb. This support is for our Etl package (BiGateway), for read & write operation (which allow development of data migration application between sql database and nosql database), and for our Reporting/Dashboard and Cubes modules.

Native Etl connections

Using BiGateWay, you can load data into the nosql database


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New Oda drivers for reporting

To achieve “reporting” activities (report, dashboard and olap cubes), we decided to write our own oda “nosql compliant” driver. Using this set of oda drivers (for MongoDb, Cassandra or Hbase), developers and users can build their report/dashboard/cube using nosql data, without even any knowledge of nosql database

Olap cubes with data from NoSql database


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Solr/Lucene 4.0 integration

Let's talk about Solr/Lucene usage inside the Vanilla platform in this « New Feature » document, because Solr/Lucene has a particular place inside Vanilla

Sometimes, when you chose some piece of software, you are lucky … or not. When we started our Web development, we took Struts/Shale (2006) … then we moved to Dojo (short experience in beginning 2007) … and in july 2007, we were lucky to turn to GWT. 5 years of GWT experience makes the difference, and result in version 4.2 is there : when I demo Vanilla v4.2, it’s always a pleasure to get customer recognition of our choice, in terms of interface and design.

Same thing happen with Lucene :

• In late 2009, when we designed the architecture and components for version 3, we decided to embed an indexation engine. There was different software and Api available, and we chose Lucene.

• In september 2010, we released Vanilla version 3 with an embeded Lucene to index our reports and a Search interface “Chrome alike”. Lucene was a lucky choice, because – with the ermegence of Apache Solr/Lucene – we are able to make Vanilla compliant with an existing Solr/Lucene infrastructure.

• 2012 : finally a platform that makes usage of Solr/Lucene at worldwide level … we demo our first release in May 2012 in Boston. Vanilla 4.2 is now compliant with Solr/Lucene, making possible to deploy Vanilla close to a Solr farm of servers


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Advantage of Solr/Lucene with Vanilla

We can empowered an existing infrastructure : supposed your Document Management platform is Solr/Lucene compliant … we can share the same Solr/Lucene server !

Solr/Lucene is the de facto standard for indexation, it’s like a “take it … or leave it, leave the indexation area”. Enterprises have more and more documents, and there is a need for simple document management platforms, powered by Solr/Lucene, that complies with standard JSR.

Vanilla Document Management module – powered by Solr/Lucene – is a ready-to-deploy platform to manage Bi services and document management … just review the « document management » paragraph in this document for additional information.


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Vanilla Apps Update

Vanilla Apps are application that don’t belong to the Core Vanilla platform, but can be installed or plug in addition. Except Hypervision (a Vanilla monitoring package), most Vanilla Apps are package build on a market application, where we provide Metadata, Reports, Dashboard and Cubes.

History baseline of Vanilla Apps will give you an overview of its content :• December 2009 : First version of Vanilla Apps, with 6 initials packages• December 2010 : First version of Hypervision, our package to setup and monitor a

farm of Vanilla Servers• December 2011 : Our dev team delivered VanillaPlace, a Java & Web Application

available from Enterprise Services to access and deploy Vanilla Apps packages (just go to this post to get details on Vanilla Place)

• December 2012 : major update for Vanilla Apps, with 20 apps available and a global update in Vanilla 4.2 format

Vanilla Apps packages cover different business area, from e-commerce application to Pos application, through Crm, Held Desk, … This classification below can be discussed, as sometimes, Vanilla Apps package cover only a simple group of tables of a complete application (Vanilla Apps documentation can be found on our company WebSite)

• CRM VTiger, SugarCrm, OpenCrx• E-Commerce / Billing Neobill, PrestaShop, Magento• Development Management DotProject• Support and inventory Glpi, RedMine, Mantis, Sit• University /High school Cocktail,• Training Management Moodle• HRM OrangeHrm• Network Management Nagios• ERP OpenBravo, Dolibarr• Survey Management LimeSurvey• ECM Typo3• Site Stats GoogleAnalytics

If you have a Vanilla instance, getting access and deploying Vanilla Apps is fast and easy … don’t hesitate to download and deploy it, and contribute by reversing your own development, like Dashboard and reports.


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New Vanilla Apps available from VanillaPlace

• Vanilla4LemonPos• Vanilla4Magento• Vanilla4Prestashop• Vanilla4RedMine• Vanilla4LimeSurvey• Vanilla4Dolibarr• Vanilla4OpenCrx• Vanilla4Typo3• Vanilla4Moodle


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FreeDashboard v4

FreeDashboard has always been a key component in our list of packages, as we considere the Dashboard as the master piece of software when in comes to agregation of component to build a complex interactive document.

About FreeDashboard timeline, shortly said,• Version 1 (2008) was a simple jsp builder where developer had to publish their

dashboard to view the result (I remember the internal launch in october 2007 as the last presentation of our cutomer day in Lyon)

• Version 2 (2009) has something great in addition : you can preview your result before publication (using a Jetty embeded server)

• Version 3 (2010) added forms management and introduced Performance Dashboard (multi folder rendering).

• Version 4 is a complete rewrite, available since june 2012 in our labs, that offers a refresh interface with numerous new features such as javascript support, html5 full support, support for new jdbc drivers like jdts 1.3 … and always more widgedts and components

For the layout side, we remove the constraint of grids/cells to offer total flexibility for developer to point and click their component on the workplan, and we simplified the folder management previously called performance dashboard (a dashboard with multi folders).

Also, we provide a general filter area where your filters are applied to every folders and the possibility to drill from one folder to another one.


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In addition, in terms of user interactivity, only the drilled components are now refreshed on the Web page (before, all the page was refreshed after each selection). For users, it’s a simple but so convenient enhancement when it comes to using smooth interfaces.

For developers, FreeDashboard prodives support for FreeMetadata data source (and now FreeMetadata resources like filters), oda and jdbc datasource (so you can use our oda driver to build Dashboard against nosql database !) and leverage (agregate) numerous Vanilla components such as Report, Cube View, Maps or Kpi.

Some continuous features of FreeDashboard Designer • Dynamic StackedCells management• Facilitites the use FreeMetadata ressources, such as Fmdt filters • Styles management for any Dashboard component• Support for javasvript on each component• Drill through between folders of a Dashboard

Building Dashboard using FreeDashboard has never been so easy … just rethink your Dashboard strategy and how much you are paying your current licences …


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Web Designer update

Vanilla 4.2 provides Web interfaces with new functions that “makes the difference” when decision makers are using Web Interface to manipulate data. Let’s take 2 simple examples in this post, with FreeAnalysis and FreeWebReport

FreeAnalysis

Simulation

Web interface comes now with a Simulation/Forecast Feature, that allow user to develop “What If” Scenario or view cube data evolution based on time linear forecast.

Drill Through

Another crazy feature of FreeAnalysisWeb is the possibility to drill through to another document, like a Report or another cube, passing the current filter or member value as parameters. To drill between cubes, we are using dimension names association. To drill to reports, user just need to validate the parameter’s values. So simple !


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Save of filters & search

You can now save your filters outside of the report definition, for later reuse with other datagrid


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FreeWebReport

More features in FreeWebReport, like crosstab, improved Template support, Maps support (yes, to add Map in your Web Report and associate a dataset of value on the map !).

FreeWebReport get continuous support and new features, while interface stay clean and easy to use


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Wms support & Kpi/Dashboard/Maps integration

Coming to visualisation, we are going one step further with Vanilla 4.2, by providing visual studio to define and design all maps and kpi elements.

No code for maps definition and cells definition, no code for Wms support (when map is located on a Map server), no code for Dashboard designThis post is about Maps, Kpi visualisation and Dashboard rendering.

What developer can build is Dashboard that display Kpi measures on a map, no matter if this map is coming from either a Map Server (through Wms support) or from a local document (like an image or a flash representation).

The beauty of Vanilla is to provide development studio to define Kpi list and encode maps reference in Vanilla repository, which mean : no code in Dashboard … even for Maps & Kpi integration !


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Norparena, FreeMetrics, FreeDashboard & BiGateway packages

To reach this result, norparena provides all designer need to defin maps and maps cells, just watch the different type of maps documents we support : Flash maps, local maps and wms maps server


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For each map, designer has to defined each on map (ok, you can use BiGateWay, our ETL, to loap map definition into our map repository), then those Cell reference will to be link with Kpi using a reference (in our Kpi database, each entry has a geo reference)

Other Documentations

• Read FreeMetrics documentation (our Kpi database and suit of packages) to define Kpi and link those Kpi to maps,

• Read BiGateWay documentation to create transformation that manipulate Kml file, shape files, that insert measure for Kpi or define maps/cells in Vanilla repository.

• Read FreeDashboard or Birt/FreeWebReport documentation if you want to buil a map visualisation with Kpi dataset display in its cells …


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FreeAnalysis & Maps integration

Maps is softly integrated with Olap cubes, and we have introduced with Vanilla 4 a new dimension type : « geo dimension ». Using this qspeciffic dimension, there can be an automatic matching using cells name on a map, for example with dimension member in a dimension …


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Improved Server Side & Cloud feature

Vanilla Hypervision

Vanilla 4.2 is delivered with enhanced functions to manage farms of Vanilla servers or clustered configuration (private or public cloud), using Hypervision.

With Hypervision, you can setup and monitore any mass reporting activity, setup cluster of process, manage the server memory consumption, use a drag & drop interface to deploy document between servers, manage farm of secured servers (https is now fully supported).

Hypervision is “must to have” package if you have many Vanilla intances to manage.


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UnitedOlap, our Olap engine, has also important features in Hypervision :

Olap activities can be monitored and manage, such as the grid response time and another feature is the Olap Cache interface, where Admin can pregenerate caches for datagrid result and deploy the cached grid to another instance of server


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New Cloud Features

As new cloud features, Vanilla 4.2 is compliant with Memcached (so, you can registered Vanilla to a AWS Memcached server, for example) and also compliant with Solr/Lucene 4.0 (same situation, you can registere Vanilla to an Amazon instance of Solr/Lucene).

Also, any Vanilla instance can be monitored by Nagios, to monitore any Vanilla activity (network traffic, memory pic, hard disk consumption) … True Open Source Platform is the way to go, because we rely on other True Open Source components, making the global infrastructure compliant “out of the box” for any cloud deployment.

Server configuration

Starting with Vanilla4, Vanilla has a single configuration files. As this configuration file is getting more and more options, we found usefull to provide a simple interface to help Admin to setup a Vanilla server, from a single instance to a master/slave clustered configuration.

Vanilla Configurator is the new software that can be run from any Vanilla root installation to provide a visual interface for Vanilla properties file management.


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Numerous Update of Dev & Admin package

While designing version 4.2, we reviewed some interfaces to make it easier to start with. This is particularly visible with our Portal, that get many enhancement and is still more easy to use (we tried to removed as much as possible right-click button to offer fast access icons on workspace), but it’s also valid for designer and admin interfaces.

Development Packages

FreeMetadata

New Perspective Fasd & Dashboard Dictionaries

This perspective give information about which documents are build on the current metadata document.


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New Perspective Dimensions & Measures

This perspective give a global view on measures and dimensions as defined as columns properties inside Metadata documents (very usefull when it comes to build crosstab reports)


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BiGateWay

Bigateway get continous improvment to support new Vanilla platform services, like document management or NoSql new features

• Support the following Analytics Database : Infobright 4.x & Vertica 5.x

• Support for KML file Support for Shape file input


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• Support for NoSql Database


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BiWorkflow

BiWorkflow get continous improvment to support new Vanilla platform services, like document management or Olap new features

• BiWorkflow has now features to manage cache of grid• BiWorkflow has now features to manage indexation of document


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Admin Packages

Enterprise Services

Enterprise Services is the package to manage security, packages deployment, cross references, document properties …. just have a look at the simplified user session manager … very convenient to see who is connected, on which server, running which object … it’s real time information !


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ProcessManager,

BiProcessManager is the package to manage scheduling of task (report, etl, workflow). Just have a look at the simplified interface, where you can watch the task definition, the scheduled tasks, and the tasks that already executed (with status).


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Norparena

Norparena is the package to manage external objects like maps, forms and also documents. Norparena document manager has been simplified, with still same set of functions to manage report indexing, version of document, have a global view on documents, rebuild index …


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Packages Integration improvment

When it comes to Platform integration, there are differents approachs and results to achieve :

• How the different components of the platform are connected or communicate between each other

• How the Platform can be easilly integrated in an existing architecture :• Vanilla component can be used as a service by the other• Vanilla can integrate with standard resources, like Single Signon mechanism,

Web Portal Integration, Scheduling or Workflow integration …• How the Platform can leverage existing services (externam engines) to make usage

of it (as an exemple : Solr/Lucene integration with Vanilla)

Vanilla components are making a global platform alltogether, a coherent and full feature Bi platform. Since early version, our Metadata has been the central piece for all that deal with secured business dataset manipulation, and we never stopped to think about what component can be integrated with any other component. Integration is everywhere with Vanilla – from inside the development studio to the user interface but also with the different engines that manage the documents.

Some simple exemples of packages integration (some are already available since Vanilla 3.0 or Vanilla 4.0, and we make it even more easy to use)


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• (v4.2) Mdm/Etl integration for Developer : Any Mdm document is a datasource for Vanilla BiGateWay Etl. This makes the integration of external files much more easy to manage, and keep the database consistent. At user side, document registered in the Mdm (any new version of an existing document) can be upload from Vanilla Portal by authorized User … giving user the possibility to upload a file, and run the associated Etl from the portal … and we can even think they will run the report that display the uploaded data …


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• (V4.0) FaWeb/WebDashboard integration for User : when exploring a cube, its so easy with Vanilla FaWeb to save report snapshot of grids … then to turn all those olap grid into a single Dashboard with an associated filter page (when cube report have prompts). Just try it, you will find it so easy to manipulate, and so powerfull for later reuse or wide publication

Wizard to create Dashboard from FreeAnalysisWeb

Result in Vanilla Viewer


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• (V3.0) Reporting/ Document Management & Document Indexation : when it comes to run a report, and decide to save it to Vanilla Document management repository (either user action through portal or inside a Workflow), just enjoy the automatic indexation of reports to find report using content search on keywords


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New Mobile Apps for Android

Vanilla Apps Readers

With Vanilla 4, we released Apps for Ios and Android (tablet and Smaprtphone), which stand as an application to connect to Vanilla portail (Apps version, not Web version) and run a document (Report, Cube, Dashboard or Etl/Workflow).

It’s running pretty well, and do what it’s expected to do : provide access to report in convenient way. For cube, it was already more than a simple browser : you can manipulate the dimensions and the measures, and navigate in your cube … you can even run maps

With version 4.2, we extend the support for those 2 readers (Ios and Android)


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Vanilla Apps Report Designer

With the emergence of new Ios and Android version, we had more functions to move from a simple reader to a Report Designer, using the lastest technics and design conventions to facilitate acceptance from any users.

The first version is available for Android 4, and it’s design to be used with Tablet rather (I mean, on a smartphone, screen is little to small)

Vanilla Mobile Report Designer is close from FreeWebReport (Wysiwyg) in terms or design and workspace layout : we are using a simple palette of widgets, providing access to Metadata as datasource and data resources (like filters and prompts), and user can either save their report on local or export/import their report on Vanilla repository, to run it later from our Web portal


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Update of documentation & video

Coming in January 2013, along with version 4.2 of Vanilla, we provide a global update of our documentation and videos, especially for the new or updated packages and interfaces.

Documentation has always kept a special position with Vanilla, as we kept it available for free since the beginning, and also – which is asking a lot of energy – we are updating documentation with new vesion

All documents have been updated, especially !• BiGateWay and BiWorkflow where we added many new boxes• EnterpriseServices, as we moved some interfaces

A special focus has been done on 5 majors subjects (in english only)

• Vanilla New Feature presentation (this document !)

• Vanilla Portal : user manipulation and feature presentation

• Vanilla NoSql support presentation and usage (global documentation for the 3 nosql database and 2 specific documentations for Cassandra and MongoDb)

• Vanilla Mdm/BiGateway – presentation and integration for the supplier/document part (the entiry/rules part will come later)

• Vanilla FreeDashboard – refreshed package … so, new documentation


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BPM Vanilla NewFeatures 4.2 En

Documents

Transcript of BPM Vanilla NewFeatures 4.2 En