ProClarity Analytics Platform Business Intelligence (BI)

Transcription

1 Alan H. Tiedrich Product Report 5 September 2003 ProClarity Analytics Platform Business Intelligence (BI) Summary ProClarity Analytics Platform is a component-based product family for building business intelligence (BI) applications using Microsoft s Analysis Services as the online analytical processing (OLAP) server. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Recommended Gartner Research Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Overview ProClarity Analytics Platform Table 2: System Requirements Table 4: ProClarity Analytics Server Publishing Properties Table 5: Price List ProClarity Analytics Platform 5.2 List Of Figures Figure 1: ProClarity Analytics Platform Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Corporate Headquarters ProClarity Corp. P.O. Box 8064 Boise, ID 83707, U.S.A. Tel: Fax: Internet: Overview Table 1: Overview ProClarity Analytics Platform Product Type A component-based BI platform for building and deploying BI applications using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services as the OLAP server. Version 5.2. Date Announced and October Delivered User Interface Web browser. Platform Support Server Microsoft Windows Client Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or greater, Windows 2000, Windows Me. Relational Database None as data source. Support Briefing Book Server uses SQL Server 2000 for storing views and Briefing Books. OLAP Server Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. Support Base Price (US$) See Pricing table. Number of Over 1,400 corporate customers. Users/Installations Over 40 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Table 2: System Requirements Server Hardware Minimum Pentium-class processor with 256MB RAM Recommended server-class multiprocessor computer with a minimum of 512MB RAM per processor Server Software Windows 2000 Server product family (with Internet Information Server [IIS] 5.0) SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services, Service Pack 2 SQL Server Enterprise Edition may be required for HTTP access to Analysis Services in situations involving firewalls¹. Client Hardware Pentium-class processor 80MB RAM minimum, 128MB recommended Video driver configured for a minimum of 16-bit color Minimum pixel screen resolution 5 September

3 Table 2: System Requirements Client Software Windows 98SE, NT 4 with Service Pack 6 or greater, 2000, ME, XP Professional Microsoft Internet Explorer Netscape 4.7 Third-Party The following third-party components are either installed automatically with a typical Components installation of ProClarity Analytics Server, or they are among the minimum software requirements: Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) a collection of technologies used by Web-based applications to integrate information from relational (Structured Query Language [SQL]) and nonrelational data sources, including: Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) DB Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) Microsoft PivotTable Services (PTS) a calculation engine that connects OLAP client applications to the Analysis Services server. IIS a tool for managing Web servers: IIS is integrated with Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and uses the same Windows NT user accounts. Also available from the operating system (Windows NT/2000) are tools such as: Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which hosts the ProClarity Administration Tool. Event Viewer, which is used by the event-logging feature in ProClarity Analytics Server. ¹This is a requirement of Analysis Services, not ProClarity Analytics Server. ProClarity s Standard client connects to the middle tier via HTTP regardless of the SQL Server Edition. This comes into play if the ProClarity Analytics Server is separated from the Analysis Server by a firewall, or if it is necessary to deploy ProClarity Professional outside a firewall. ²MDAC and PTS are required to connect to Analysis Services. These are installed with ProClarity Professional and also are installed on the ProClarity Analytics Server. Components Architecture ProClarity Analytics Server is a middle-tier server for storing, managing and delivering secure business views to users: Includes managing access for clients and collaboration among users. ProClarity Standard (formerly ProClarity Web Client) is an interactive, zerofootprint Web client that is used to analyze OLAP data through a browser. ProClarity Desktop Professional is a customizable analytic client designed for analysts and power users that can be deployed as a stand-alone multidimensional data analysis tool or as an analysis component of Analytics Server. ProClarity Web Professional (formerly ProClarity Rich Client) offers the functionality of the Desktop Professional from within a Web browser. ProClarity Selector is designed for analysts and power users to use in extracting custom data sets from OLAP cubes. ProClarity Business Reporter is an Excel-based analysis tool. ProClarity Analytics Server & Professional Client SDK is a customization kit for middle-tier and thin client. ProClarity Analytics Server architecture consists of three tiers: a presentation tier, a business logic tier and a data tier. 5 September

4 Business Logic Tier ProClarity Analytics Server (Analytics Server) Analytics Server Architecture ProClarity Analytics Server 5 Enhancements Residing on the business logic tier, supports much of the functionality of the ProClarity Analytics Platform. As the communication and processing hub, is the main component of the architecture and: Acts as the communications hub for all other components and coordinates and processes requests from all other components. Directs communication (like queries and query results) between the other components and processing information sent to and from the components. Communicates with the ProClarity Data Source Hub which controls the connection to Microsoft PivotTable Services and manages queries and results and ProClarity ActiveX controls, which generate the graphical views that are displayed by the Standard client. Houses the Briefing Book Server. Can be scaled with multiple instances running on multiple servers all pointing to one Microsoft SQL Server. Analytics Server is deployed on IIS as a collection of application service provider (ASP) pages, ActiveX controls and Component Object Model (COM) components, and supporting tools and files such as Microsoft PivotTable Services (PTS). Comprises components that can be distributed independently to users, allowing Administrators to tailor their deployment to the specific needs of groups within their organizations: ProClarity Desktop Professional Authoring Tool ProClarity Standard ProClarity Web Professional Analytics Engine Briefing Book Server Administration Tool VBScript functions embedded in the ASP pages Receives requests, instantiates objects and call methods, and sends responses. Data transfer between components of the Analytic Server is accomplished primarily through use of Extensible Markup Language (XML). Data is transferred back and forth from the Briefing Book Server and the Authoring Tool using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Scalability and performance (ProClarity Claim): 10x improvement over 4.0 through connection pooling and caching. Collaboration: query results and views can be saved to ProClarity Analytics Server or ed. The ability to create central and shared business logic, such as custom (calculated) measures or members, in either the base product or Selector. 5 September

5 CachingDataand Images Analytics Engine Briefing Book Server Briefing Book Architecture Presentation Tier ProClarity Standard Client ProClarity Standard Architecture ProClarity Analytics Server supplements the caching capabilities of Analysis Services with an integrated feature that caches the result set data and chart images of a particular briefing book page so that subsequent requests of the same page can bypass the OLAP query and chart generation: Makes periodic checks to make sure that the cached result set and image data is current with OLAP cube data. These checks ensure that cached data is regenerated within one hour after the underlying OLAP data has been updated. ProClarity offers a cache-clearing option, which works on a user-specified periodic basis. A facility that processes user queries, creates the views for display on the user desktop and caches results. Manages briefing book data. Resides on the business logic tier. Provides access to briefing book data stored on the data tier. Applies security, stores user settings and manages view history. Because the Briefing Book Server resides on the middle tier, users access briefing books from the same central location, regardless of the client tool they are using. The Briefing Book Server comprises a SQL Server database, which stores metadata and briefing book data. The Portable Batch System (PBS) application programming interface (API) is used to manage data stored on the SQL Server database: This includes activities such as retrieving briefing books and user preferences, adding libraries and briefing books and creating security roles. The Briefing Book Server uses XML as the format for storing, describing and transmitting data. An interactive, zero-footprint Web application displayed through a browser. Users can access briefing books and take advantage of ProClarity analysis features without downloading any software to their computers. ProClarity Standard consists of a parent HTML page generated on the Analytic Server that contains JavaScript functions for generating the display elements: These are used to manage communication between ProClarity Standard and the Analytic Server. ProClarity Standard is organized as frames, each frame is cached and updated independently of other frames: By caching as much information on the client machine as possible and only querying the Server for new information, performance is increased and server traffic is reduced. ProClarity Standard is displayed through a browser as a main window the ProClarity shell and several independent frames, displays the toolbar and status bar, and serves as a container for the page control: In addition to the visible frames, ProClarity Standard also includes a hidden frame that facilitates communication with the Analytic Server, stores data and directs changes to the display. 5 September

6 View Types ProClarity Professional ProClarity Desktop Professional ProClarity Web Professional Graphical displays of data developed in ProClarity are called views. Views can contain a chart, a Decomposition Tree or a Perspective view. (All of these views can be combined with a grid.): A Decomposition Tree (interactive view) is an organization chart that emphasizes the contributions of individual parts to the whole. A Perspective (noninteractive) view illustrates comparisons and relative contributions among a large number of data points. Data resulting from a query can be sorted or filtered. Views can be formatted and printed, exported to Excel or ed. An umbrella term that is used to refer to ProClarity Desktop Professional and ProClarity Web Professional. Runs on the user s computer as an independent application. Includes the Authoring Tool, which allows authorized users to publish briefing books to ProClarity Server: Users with Reader privileges can use the Authoring Tool to retrieve briefing books from ProClarity Server. Users can publish to ProClarity Server and can use publishing properties to control which analytic capabilities (for example, drill down) will be available to viewers of the published content. Can be used stand-alone or with ProClarity Server. Has the look and feel of ProClarity Desktop Professional, but runs in a Web browser: Provides all of the features except for the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) development environment. Offers same data analysis tools as Desktop Professional. 5 September

7 Functions Ad Hoc Query Wizard Time Value Options Timeline ProClarity Desktop Professional s available features, which can be on the toolbar (customizable), include: Wizard Opens the Ad Hoc Query Wizard. Book Displays a list of current briefing book pages. Decomp Opens the Decomposition Tree Wizard. Dimensions Displays the Dimensions tool. Drill Down The button and down arrow display lists for drilling down on the displayed data. Drill Up The button and down arrow display lists for drilling up on the displayed data. Execute Performs a query when Auto-Execute is turned off: Auto-execute is the ability to execute a new query by mousing over the chart or grid. Favorites Displays a list of favorite views. Filter Displays the Filtering box. Notes Toggles a section of the screen in which to type notes. Forward Goes to the next view (enabled if the user has moved backward). Back Returns to the previous view. Reset Restores the current view to the default setting. Sort Displays the Sorting box for arranging the data in a specified order. Timeline Displays the timeline, which is used as a shortcut to navigate the Time dimension. View Changes the type of views displayed as selected from a menu of view choices: Toggling the View button combines a business chart with a grid, shows the chart only or a grid only. Selecting the View button drop-down menu allows the user to select which type of business chart to display. ProClarity Server Allows users to publish, manage and retrieve ProClarity Server briefing books selected from a menu. Make selections to specify the measures and dimension members users want to include. The Time dimension screen in the Ad Hoc Query Wizard offers time value options as follows: Period Value The actual value stored in the cube for the selected dimension members. Year-to-Date Value Calculated measure that is the sum of all periods since the start of the year. Rolling Period Value Calculated measure that is the sum of values for the previous number of designated periods. If there are multiple Time dimensions in the current cube, users will be given a choice of which one to display in the timeline. When the timeline is visible, it can be used to isolate a time period or to expand and collapse a time period. 5 September

8 Dimensions Tool Charts and Grids Drilling Navigation Menu Other Analysis Tools Comprised of Dimension Trees and a Layout Pane: The Dimension Trees allow users to navigate a dimension hierarchy in a tree structure to make their member selections. The Layout Pane determines where the dimension is presented: rows, columns or background. Operation of the Dimensions Tool: A query is created. The query is sent to the cube to retrieve the requested data. The view is then refreshed to show the result of the query by using the Execute button or, if Auto-execute is enabled, by mousing over the chart or grid. Data could be explored using only the Dimensions tool to vary the data display. Several other tools that simplify data exploration are provided, which allow users to: Rearrange (pivot) dimensions. Display lower or higher levels of data hierarchy (drill down, drill up, expand and collapse). Obtain a list of transactions that make up value (drill to detail). Focus on select dimension members (isolate and eliminate). Users can explore data using various view types, such as charts, grids, the Decomposition Tree and Perspective: Each type has features that allow the viewing of comparisons, trends and relative percentages among the data. Data views can be displayed in full-screen formats or on a split-screen containing a grid and one other format. Drilling down enables users to see the comparisons among lower-level members of a dimension s hierarchy. Drilling up enables users to see the comparisons among higher-level (aggregated) members of a dimension s hierarchy. Drill to detail allows the user to obtain a list of individual transactions, or records, that make up a value. In addition to drill up and drill down, there are four other data exploration tools: Expand allows drill down on one displayed member while leaving the remaining members at their current hierarchy levels. Collapse does just the opposite of expanding while leaving the remaining members at their current hierarchy level. Isolate allows focusing an analysis on only a few members. Eliminate is useful for removing a member that is skewing results or members that are irrelevant to the view. Pivoting Dimensions When users pivot a view, the Rows dimensions switch to being in Columns and the Columns dimensions switch to being in Rows. Analyze feature Allows the use of a Decomposition Tree to explore a selected value by right-clicking on the value in a Chart, Grid or Perspective. The value selected to analyze becomes the top node of a Decomposition Tree. Filtering Data Allows users to work with only subsets of the data. Sort function Allows the display of data sequentially in ascending or descending order. 5 September

9 Modeling (writeback) Special Grid Features Special Chart Features Decomposition Tree Data values can be changed to create a model for tasks such as forecasting and budgeting. When using modeling (also called writeback ) to change a value, data contributing to that value changes also according to the allocation specified. The following features can be used to customize the way grids arrange and display data: Subtotaling When cube data is displayed in a grid, the user can display and hide subtotals: Subtotals can be calculated for data in Columns, Rows or both. Users can also filter and sort by subtotals. Exception Highlighting Grids can be formatted so that values within specified ranges are highlighted. Changing grid properties On the Grid Configurations Options box, a user can change the grid colors and fonts, set Drill-to-Detail limits and select whether to use cell-formatting properties: Value formats and percentages for display can also be specified. Cell-formatting properties are properties (such as background color and font style) that may have been set in the database to flag certain conditions. Specifying value and percent of total options The options on the Values to Display tab of the Grid Configuration Options box allows the specification of how values should display and whether and how percentages of totals should display. Features that can be used to customize the way charts arrange and display data include: The chart toolbar Use to conveniently select chart types and change the data display. Three-dimensional charts On the chart toolbar, click the 2-D/3-D Toggle button: When the chart is three-dimensional, the Move, Rotate and Zoom buttons are active. Customizing chart axes Change the scale and position of chart axes and rotate axes labels. Changing how series are displayed Changing chart type and/or display properties. Changing chart properties Customize the appearance of charts by changing the colors, text formats and value formats in the Chart Properties box. The Decomposition Tree allows the user to visually decompose information along any dimension and expose the contributing factors: A Decomposition Tree breaks a measure apart (decomposes it) into its subcomponents, then displays the subcomponents in a hierarchical tree and a Pareto chart. Decomposition Trees can order data from largest to smallest or from smallest to largest. Decomposed data is provided both in raw numbers and in percentages of total. In addition, Pareto charts show what components fall above or below a particular percentage, enabling the quick identification of components that contain the greatest percentage of the total. The Decomposition Tree Wizard guides users through the steps necessary to create a Decomposition Tree. 5 September

10 Perspective Tool Personal Use/Monitoring The Perspective tool provides a way to analyze and compare the relationship between two sets of measures for a particular dimension: Allows users to gain perspective over points of data and see the relationships those data points have with each other. If users are performing quadrant analysis, plotting high volumes of data or wish to map multiple measures simultaneously across a dimension, Perspectives views can provide insight into the information they seek. Data point attributes can be assigned to the data points so that trends/exceptions can be visually observed: For example, the data points of a Product distribution may be assigned a specific color or shape depending on which product line they belong to. Favorites and briefing books can be saved for future access: In addition, a view can be saved that displays in Outlook so that users can monitor changes that occur in the data. A Favorite is a view that a user saves on his or her personal computer for future reference: Can be saved as a home page. The Favorites list provides access to all saved favorites and provides buttons for adding and organizing favorites. Briefing books are compilations of views (pages) that can be organized into folders: Can be saved to a PC for a user s own use. Can share briefing books with others. Can be ed, exported (to Outlook, PowerPoint or as a Web Part to be used in a digital dashboard) and published to the ProClarity Analytics Server. Data in a view may be exported to Excel (this is built into the Professional and Standard Clients and does not require the Business Reporter). 5 September

11 Selecting Publishing Properties Online Publishing Publishing and Managing Briefing Books on ProClarity Server When a briefing book is created, the publishing properties can be set to control the analysis features that are available when a briefing book is viewed within an application other than ProClarity Desktop Professional Client (for example, in the Web Professional Client or in a PowerPoint presentation): Publishing properties examples: Hide the Dimension Tool, Allow/Restrict Drill Down, Allow/Restrict ad hoc queries. Publishing Properties can be used to allow full navigation on a view or as basic as making a static view of the data. A briefing book viewed in ProClarity Desktop Professional Client includes full analysis capabilities, regardless of any publishing options that have been set. Separate properties can be set for each page and folder, plus overall properties for the book. While creating a briefing book, users can specify actions to be taken if the cube data changes for example, if a dimension member is renamed, moved or deleted which causes the briefing book to contain missing items. The Export to Outlook feature makes the current briefing book usable from within Microsoft Outlook: As cube data changes, the Outlook views reflect the changes. Users must have Outlook 2000 or newer to use this feature. A single view or the current briefing book can be printed. Users can a briefing book to share views with others: The views can provide analysis capabilities to readers who have ProClarity components installed. Views can be exported for use in Excel reports or PowerPoint presentations. Online publishing is a method of sharing views that enables the user to distribute briefing books to readers that have Web access to published books and enabled analysis features without downloading software: When publishing, users can decide whether the books will provide analysis capabilities to readers or be static read-only views. Users can also apply roles that have been defined by an Administrator to control user access to the books. Once published to the ProClarity Analytics Server, the briefing book is stored in SQL Server. The following online publishing methods are available: ProClarity Analytics Server Provides a centralized location for storing and updating briefing books. Export to Web Part. Each time the user opens a page from the book or uses an analysis feature (such as drill down or the Dimensions tool), a query is sent to the OLAP Server database. The following functions are available: Showing the ProClarity Server publishing menu Publishing to ProClarity Server Retrieving a published briefing book Editing a published briefing book Managing published books Managing roles Publishing views to My Views 5 September

12 Export to Web Part Advanced Features Methods for Enhancing Performance in ProClarity Desktop Professional Authoring Tool Publishing License A feature that allows a Briefing Book to be displayed in a Microsoft digital dashboard (version 2.01 or newer). The Briefing Book is then available to anyone who accesses the Web site containing the digital dashboard. If the exported book includes interactivity, the reader must have either a ProClarity Desktop Professional, a Web Professional or a custom ProClarity application installed. The following functions are: Exporting a Briefing Book to a file, to a specific digital dashboard or both. Sharing a Web Part by ing the folder containing the files generated by the export or publishing the Web Part to a specific digital dashboard. Deleting a Web Part. Wizards for creating local cubes and calculated measures. Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) Editor that allows the creation of named sets and calculated members. Command-line arguments. Integrated VBA work environment. Apply a meaningful name to a group of members by created a Named Set. Create a custom (calculated) measure or member that combines multiple members of a dimension with arithmetic operators and MDX functions to create a new member that can be referenced by name within an MDX statement: A calculated measure appears only within the Measures. A calculated member can appear on any dimension. Modeling tool to develop forecasts, make projections and prepare budgets. Create a local cube file. Customize the ProClarity Desktop Professional startup view: Desktop Professional supports command-line arguments, which allow users to determine how the application opens and to specify which add-ins are loaded. Command-line arguments also allow the user to determine which view (Grid, Chart, Perspective or Decomposition Tree) is initially selected to present the data. Develop VBA code from within ProClarity Desktop Professional, using an integrated VBA Editor to automate tasks, customize the interface and extend the functionality. Write a macro to consolidate a series of tasks using the integrated Visual Basic Editor. Create an add-in to modify, customize or extend the functionality of the ProClarity Desktop Professional application, supplementing established functionality. Develop plug-ins to extend functionality, which are ActiveX controls that provide new features. An add-in to ProClarity Professional that allows Briefing Book authors to connect to and manage documents stored on the Briefing Book Server. Using this tool, authors can publish, organize and delete briefing books and apply security settings and permissions. As an add-in to, is fully integrated with the application s user interface. 5 September

13 ProClarity Selector Functionality An optional component for the Professional interface. Designed for analysts and power users to use in: Extracting custom data sets from OLAP cubes. Building and sharing business logic. Builds scripts for capturing and sharing best practices without programming. Publishes analysis to the ProClarity Analytics Server as a specific dataset or as a series of reusable views: Sets may also be published (shared). Central storage of scripts and resulting logic on ProClarity Analytics Server Selector sets may be saved for a specific cube or dimension or for multiple cubes and dimensions. Works interactively with ProClarity Professional: Dimensions and members that users select in the Dimensions Tool automatically display in Selector. Sets created in Selector are available in ProClarity Professional. Also, sets that have been published to the ProClarity Analytics Server may be used in ProClarity Standard. Build a set by adding and saving a group of items: Can be done from the Professional Dimensions Tool or directly from Selector. Add sort and filter features to tailor each set to the specific requirement. Established sets can be edited Items can be added or removed and dimensions can be changed. Sort items based on: Data values. Database order. Level hierarchy (levels sorted according to their position in the hierarchy of the database). Alphabetical order. Create subsets of items by applying filters: Top/bottom Filters the specified top or bottom items. Value Filters items with the specified value, based on the selected measure. Name Filters items with the specified name. Attribute Filters items with the specified attribute (using Member Properties available in the Analysis Services OLAP cube). Measure Comparison Filters items based on the results of a measure comparison. Time Filters items from Time dimensions based on the specified time period. Viewing can be done as a: Set Displays the selected items with sorting and filtering applied. Script Displays the steps taken to create the script. Script Each step begins with one of the following identifiers: Add, Filter or Sort, which is followed by a detailed description of the step. 5 September

14 ProClarity Business Reporter for Excel Other Functionality An optional add-in to ProClarity Professional. An Excel-based analysis tool analytic reporting toolset designed for decisionmakers of any level. Multidimensional analysis combined with the formatting and features of Excel. Using a wizard, users import or export data from ProClarity Professional into Excel: Each imported or exported page becomes a report. Because each report maintains links with the OLAP data source, reports can be refreshed to update them with the latest source data. Links are tied to the report cells, so an OLAP query that has been exported from ProClarity may be broken up for formatting, or to fit into an established Excel template. After importing data into Excel, users can add custom Excel formulas to perform further analysis on their data and can take advantage of the Excel formatting tools. Provides the collaboration and security features of Analytics Server: Users can publish and retrieve workbooks to Analytics Server directly from within Excel. Refresh a report manually or automatically to get the most current data from the database. Edit a report within Excel, using ProClarity Professional analysis features: The Edit Report screen offers a subset of the ProClarity Professional features. Slicers in Excel reports A special tool that can be used to change some member selections in order to view different slices (or cross-sections) of data: Can be used when a report includes a combination of Slicers, for example, Product and Gender. Disconnect a report. Multiple reports can be linked by common Slicers so that when several reports are linked to a single Slicer containing dates and a date is selected in the Slicer, all reports are refreshed to reflect that date. Can remove the connection that an Excel report has to the database when a workbook that contains static data is more appropriate. For example, a user may want to send a workbook to another user who does not have Business Reporter for Excel installed, or to maintain an unchanging archive copy of a report. Publish an Excel workbook from within Excel To provide secure Web access to a workbook, it can be published to Analytics Server, regardless of whether it contains ProClarity data. Open a published workbook from within Excel. 5 September

15 Formats to Include With an Excel Report Data Tier Users can select any or all of the following to include along with the numerical data: Name The name of the report. Connection Information The Server name, the Catalog name and the Cube name. Filtering and sorting information The filtering or sorting parameters. Row and column headers. Numeric formats ProClarity grid formats, such as decimals and currency notations, of the view being imported. These formats do not change if the data is subsequently refreshed or edited. Grid format ProClarity grid formats, such as fonts, cell background colors and exception highlighting, of the view being imported. These formats do not change if the data is subsequently refreshed or edited. Data Sources and Connect to either an OLAP server (Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services) Access or a local cube: The local cube option is available if the user has the Microsoft OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) Provider. Users can open a local cube without being connected to the OLAP server and perform most ProClarity Desktop Professional functions with it: Only features available to Analysis Services cubes and supported by ODBO are available in Local Cubes. Application Development Examples The ProClarity Analytics Platform can be used to create custom three-tier BI applications. Various types of customization are possible. Some examples include: Customization of the Web client, which could be using user permission and security features or creating a custom user interface: Creating a custom user interface could involve setting a custom color scheme, changing the visibility of Web Client components, arranging Web Client components or creating custom selection controls. Managing the Briefing Book Server through Enterprise Manager, which could be managing the Briefing Book Server database or managing the Briefing Book Server database structure. Integrating ProClarity Server with a portal by creating Web-based building blocks, which populate a Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) shell: This allows for creating n-up displays. Using the Authoring Tool in custom environments to allow users to manage the documents stored on the Briefing Book Server, including tasks such as publishing briefing books, creating and organizing libraries, and applying security roles. Creating linked books, which allows developers to link non-native document types. Creating a custom Web Professional client download: ProClarity Web Professional a collection of ProClarity ActiveX controls and COM components encapsulates ProClarity Desktop. Professional s analytic functionality, but resides within a browser and can be downloaded directly from ProClarity Analytics Server. Can customize to integrate with most security platforms: single sign-on, LDAP and so on. 5 September

16 Software Development Kits (SDKs) Analytics Server SDK ProClarity Analytics Server SDK Web Professional Object Model Web Service Method Calls Communicating With the Analytic Server Analytic Server Object Model Includes all ProClarity Analytics Server components and controls required by developers to customize client-side and server-side components. Developers can install ProClarity Analytics Server to customize server-side components and the Web Professional to customize client-side components. Represents exposed functionality for displaying the Web Professional, supporting interactivity and communicating with the Web server. Much of the object model is based on the ProClarity Data Source Hub. Session, command and result data is generated by the Data Source Hub in response to a query. Data is exchanged between the Web Client, and the Analytic Server is formatted as XML. The Briefing Book Server is designed to be used as a Web Service that can be accessed by remote applications across the Web. Using a combination of SOAP schema, XML data formatting and Web Service method calls, a developer can build a client application that will retrieve and transfer PBS data using HTTP. When the Web Professional home page is initially opened, an HTTP request is sent from the browser to the Analytic Server, which reads the request and generates the HTML for the basic user interface. Subsequent queries are sent from the Web Professional to the Analytic Server following any action from the user that requires additional information from the Analytic Server. When a query is executed, the current state of the object model is packaged as an XML data stream and sent to the Analytic Server. When the Analytic Server receives the request, it parses the data into its object model, processes the query and sends the response back to the Web Professional. Each time a response is received from the Analytic Server, the browser interprets the script and updates the Web Professional. Exposes functionality that enables the exchange of requests and responses. Is organized into two main groups: The objects created and referenced through PEngine.asp, which creates and references objects that parse XML data received from the Web Client, create instances of the Data Source Hub to run queries and load the XML to return to the Web Client. The objects created and referenced through Ppage, which creates and references objects that render the graphical views of the data, such as a chart or Decomposition Tree. 5 September

17 Briefing Book Server Object Model Authoring Tool Object Model Briefing Book Server XML Documents Desktop Professional SDK Represents exposed functionality for managing information stored on the SQL Server database. Is organized in three general groups: The briefing books architecture encapsulates the objects and collections that comprise a briefing book, including a library, which is a collection of briefing books; a book, which is a single briefing book; and a book element, which is either a page or a folder contained in a briefing book. The user architecture encapsulates Briefing Book Server users and their preferences and settings, including an optional language designation. The security architecture encapsulates members, roles and role associations. The Briefing Book Server s main object provides central access to the three general groups of objects and, in addition, provides convenient access to common actions. Represents exposed functionality for using the Authoring Tool to communicate with the Analytic Server and to manage the Briefing Book Server. Is organized in three general groups (see Briefing Book Server Object Model). The Authoring Tool s main object provides methods to display dialogue boxes and to log on or log off the Analytic Server. Contain all of the information that represents how a view is formatted, including visualization types (chart, grid or both), display properties, publishing properties and the MDX query. After receiving a method call requesting data, the data from the specified object in the Briefing Book Server is converted to an XML string and returned to the requesting object. The XML documents related to the Briefing Book Server include: Libraries document Histories document MDStore document Book document Page document Books document Elements document Publishing Properties document Roles document Members document Role Associations document Languages document Users document Server Maps document 5 September

18 ProClarity Desktop Professional SDK Components Data Source Hub (DSH) ActiveX Plug-Ins ProClarity Desktop Professional Selection Controls The ProClarity Desktop Professional application is a collection of COM and ActiveX objects operating within the ProClarity Desktop Professional shell, including components and controls, support files and Active Book files. ProClarity component classifications: Data Source Hub Selection Controls ActiveX Plug-Ins Other ActiveX Controls and COM Components A group of COM objects that: Establish and manage the connection to PivotTable Services. Expose cube metadata. Formulate and issue queries. Retrieve result sets. Visual components that conform to the ProClarity Desktop Professional plug-in interface. Include objects that display data in the graphical format: Chart Control Decomposition Tree Control Explorer Control Grid Control Perspective Control In addition, other ActiveX plug-ins can be designed to work within the ProClarity Desktop Professional environment. Include objects used to define the data selection for display by the ActiveX Plugins: Dimensions Tree Control Dimension Tool Control Measure Control Timeline Control Display the cube s metadata in a point-and-click interface, enabling the user to select the desired cube pieces for display. 5 September

19 Other ActiveX Controls and COM Components ProClarity Desktop Professional executable. ProClarity Control encapsulates much of the ProClarity Desktop Professional functionality in a single ActiveX control: Allows developers to create applications that use multiple Desktop Professional controls with minimal coding. KcommonInterfaces library a shared library for functionality that is accessed by both ProClarity Desktop Professional and the ProClarity Control. Page Control Acts as a container for ActiveX plug-ins: Can behave as a two-up display by simultaneously displaying the Grid Control and one other ActiveX plug-in (Chart Control, Decomposition Tree Control or Perspective Control). Briefing Book component Allows users to create and modify briefing books. Briefing Book Viewer Control Displays a hierarchical view of the folders and pages stored in a briefing book and provides a way to access the dialogue boxes for adding and organizing pages. Create Active Books component Allows the creation and publication of an Active Book. Active Books Wizard component Provides a user interface wizard for creating and publishing an Active Book. Create Cube component Allows the creation of a local cube from the cube to which a user is connected. Create Tuple Control Allows the selection and grouping of items from multiple dimensions. Drill-Thru Control Displays the detailed, transaction-level values that combine to total a member-level sum. EnterMDX Control. Slicer Control Displays up to three slicer dimensions as drop-down menus: Users can formulate multidimensional queries using the items from dimensions placed on the Page, Section and Chapter axes. Connect Control Encapsulates the process of connecting to a data source and selecting a cube or.cub file. Export to Excel add-in Provides a user interface wizard for exporting the current view to Microsoft Excel. Export to Outlook add-in Provides a user interface wizard for exporting a briefing book to Microsoft Outlook. Export to PowerPoint add-in Provides a user interface wizard for exporting a briefing book to Microsoft PowerPoint. Export to Web Part add-in Provides a user interface wizard for exporting a briefing book as a Web Part. 5 September

20 Common Development Scenarios Using the Desktop Professional SDK Administration ProClarity Administration Tool (Administration Tool) Use Microsoft VBA (integrated into ProClarity) to customize applications or to automate tasks within that application. The COM-based architecture of ProClarity Desktop Professional allows users to extend other applications with ProClarity controls, using any application development environment that provides support for COM objects. Develop ProClarity Add-Ins to modify or extend the functionality of ProClarity Desktop Professional. Develop ProClarity Desktop Professional Plug-Ins ActiveX controls to work within the ProClarity Desktop Professional environment: The Desktop Professional plug-in interface is a tool for integrating these ActiveX controls. Use the ActiveBook Component to communicate directly with the OLAP server, allowing users of ProClarity Desktop Professional to analyze their current data. An MMC snap-in based on the Authoring Tool that is used to administer the ProClarity Analytic Server and the Briefing Book Server, and implement security. Only members of the Administrator role can access the Administration Tool. 5 September

21 Administration Tool Allows the Server Administrator to: Functions Centrally manage: Administrators do not need to install software on individual users computers in order to distribute ProClarity. Register and administer servers: Using the interface of the MMC, users can register and administer single or multiple instances of the ProClarity Analytic Server, either from the server itself or from a remote computer. Set default user properties: Can be applied like a template to either new users as they access the Briefing Book Server or to multiple active users whose security settings need to be updated. Set and edit user properties: Change a user s name. Enable component download grants users permission to download the Web Professional components and the Authoring Tool. Enable Web Professional access. Enable ing of views the URL of a ProClarity view that is stored on the Briefing Book Server to other ProClarity users. Allow user to modify grid row and dimension. Perform item counts. Designate a Frame URL. Can be done for multiple users at once. Grid Row Count sets the maximum number of additional rows that will display in the grid view when the Web Client user clicks Get more rows. Dimension Item Count sets the maximum number of additional members that will display in the Dimensions tool pane when the Web Client user clicks Get more items to expand a dimension. Allow User to Modify Counts allows users to set grid row counts and dimension item counts in the Web Client. Designate a Frame URL allows the user to customize the Web Client user s view of the ProClarity Analytics Server by directing the Web Client user to a customized frame URL that serves as the entry point for the Web Client user, essentially embedding ProClarity into a Web page that also contains such items as company logo and links to other sites on an intranet. Manage roles, which includes: Using established Windows NT users and groups to create ProClarity Server roles. Granting Reader and Author access to the items on the Briefing Book Server. Enabling publishing properties. Register multiple instances of ProClarity Server. Modify Server properties. Enable or disable the Event Logger. Specify caching options. Configure security on the Server: Create roles that are used to grant or deny access to items on the Server. Specify whether users have permission to ProClarity views or download the Web Professional and the Authoring Tool. Edit the Briefing Book Server connection Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. SpecifyAll Publishing Rights Reserved. Properties (as described above in the Professional Client): 5 September Allows an administrator to allow or restrict certain application functionality based on user credentials.

22 Event Logging and Monitoring Managing Roles ProClarity Analytics Server s event-logging feature allows activity on the Briefing Book Server to be monitored, as well as diagnoses and resolves error messages. The Event Viewer logs the following types of events on a continual basis: Information. Success. Error. Warning. Audit Failure. Audit Success. Log usage, that is, attempts to access an item on the Briefing Book Server. By reviewing event log entries, the administrator can identify: Which users have accessed the Briefing Book Server and what items they retrieved. When users attempt to access items for which they do not have access rights. Which briefing book items are no longer accessed and should be archived. The ProClarity Analytics Server Administrator can create a security system that can be used by both Administrators and Authors to enforce security on the Server: The primary responsibility in developing this system is to create meaningful roles that Authors can use to selectively grant or deny access to the items contained on the Server. Roles define categories of users and groups of users that have the same access permissions: Access permissions define users as Readers or Authors. By associating roles with items on the Server, Authors and Administrators determine whether the items are visible to the role and what publishing properties are enabled. Although Administrators and Authors share the ability to associate roles with Server items, only Administrators can create or delete roles, add or remove role members, rename roles and grant Author access. Access permissions define users as Readers or Authors. By associating roles with items on the Server, Authors and Administrators determine whether the items are visible to the role and what publishing properties are enabled. 5 September

23 ProClarity Analytics Server Security Model Incorporates elements of both Microsoft Windows NT/2000 security and the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services security model: Because Analytic Server security is based on the Microsoft Windows NT security model of managing users and groups and assigning roles and permissions, Server administrators can integrate these two systems using the Administration Tool. Allows administrators to readily integrate ProClarity Analytics Server into their established operations. Similar to the Windows NT/2000 environment, ProClarity Analytics Server uses roles and permissions to control access to a central server, in this case, the Briefing Book Server. Similar to the SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services model, roles and permissions are applied to items on the Server in order to grant or deny access at a specific level: Server. Library. Briefing Book. The ProClarity platform allows for integration with alternate security models, such as LDAP. Table 4: ProClarity Analytics Server Publishing Properties Publishing Categories Publishing Properties Applicable ProClarity Feature(s) In Standard Client¹ Advanced Navigation Dimensions Tool Visible MDX Editor English Query Dimensions Tool Visible Application Application Application No No Yes Drill to Detail Modeling Enabled Drill to Detail (or Drill Through) Modeling Application Chart view Decomposition Tree Grid view Chart view Grid view Yes No Navigate Background Cross Drill Pivot Chart view Grid view Chart view Grid view Yes Yes Change View Decomposition Tree Wizard Chart view Grid view Decomposition Tree Perspective view Decomposition Tree Yes No Perspective Wizard Ad Hoc Query Wizard Perspective View Application No No 5 September

24 Table 4: ProClarity Analytics Server Publishing Properties Publishing Categories Publishing Properties Applicable ProClarity Feature(s) In Standard Client¹ Navigate Foreground Timeline Visible Timeline available Dimensions Tool available Reset to Defaults Drill Down Drill Up Isolate Eliminate Application Application Application Chart view Grid view Decomposition Tree Chart view Grid view Chart view Grid view Chart view Grid view No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Expand Grid view Yes Collapse Grid view Yes Slicer Paste Yes No ¹All functions are present in the Professional clients. Analysis Classified by Gartner as a BI platform, the ProClarity Analytics Platform is organized into three logical tiers: a presentation tier, a business logic tier and a data tier. Its distributed component technology is based on the COM model and for the future will be based on Microsoft.NET. (ProClarity uses the term component to mean a collection of objects that is developed, tested and documented independently. A ProClarity component may or may not be a single binary, like an EXE or DLL. The form of the component depends on the technology used to create it. Many of the components are COM components and ActiveX controls. The Analytics Server and Standard client are the only two ProClarity components that consist of a collection of script files. The Authoring Tool, Briefing Book Server and Administration Tool are in the form of dynamic link libraries [DLLs].) The basic ProClarity Analytics Platform Analytics Engine, Standard client and Desktop Professional is functional out of the box for query and analysis and does not require customization. It is a starting point for building custom applications, or customers can use the ProClarity components to build custom application development platforms for their enterprises. ProClarity Analytics Platform is based on two SDKs Analytics Server SDK and Desktop Professional SDK, which support building applications from components and deploying these applications. The SDKs contain the ProClarity components and other tools that can be used to construct custom applications and custom clients. All ProClarity functionality is completely exposed via APIs. Visual Basic (VB) is the application development language, with the ProClarity Analytics Platform providing analysts with access to VBA. The architecture is designed to enable ProClarity BI applications 5 September

25 to interface with each other and with other COM-compliant applications. For example, using the COM model, the Analytics Platform can be invoked from Microsoft productivity applications, like PowerPoint, Word and Excel. Figure 1: ProClarity Analytics Platform Source: ProClarity Microsoft Analysis Services Data Tier The ProClarity Analytics Platform is optimized for the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services environment, using Analysis Services as its data source and analytic functionality. ProClarity applications require a multidimensional (Multidimensional OLAP [MOLAP]) or star schema (relational OLAP [ROLAP]) data structure to be built in Analysis Services, with appropriately structured aggregation and hierarchy. Thus, the data tier consists of at least a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database, which stores information for the Briefing Book Server, and OLAP structures, which provide the OLAP data against which queries are run. Other relational DBMSs can be used in conjunction with Analysis Services. Analysis Services functionality is supported by OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO), so ProClarity queries are compatible with ODBO. In theory, ProClarity Analytics Platform should be able to use other ODBO-compliant OLAP servers, but this is not supported. The Analytics Platform uses the Analysis Services metadata. ProClarity Analytics Server Middle Tier 5 September