Learning Pentaho CTools

Miguel Gaspar

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781785283420
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Data Visualisation
• Index: Computer Science

Acquire finesse with CTools features and build rich and custom analytics solutions using Pentaho

About This Book

• Learn everything you need to know to make the most of CTools
• Create interactive and remarkable dashboards using the CTools
• Understand how to use and create data visualizations that can make the difference
• The author of our book works for Pentaho as a Senior Consultant
• Acts as a follow-up to Packt's previously published products on Pentaho such as Pentaho Business Analytics Cookbook, Pentaho Analytics for MongoDB, Pentaho Data Integration Cookbook - Second Edition, and Pentaho Reporting [Video]
• Our book is based on the latest version of Pentaho, that is, 6.0

Who This Book Is For

If you are a CTools developer and would like to expand your knowledge and create attractive dashboards and frameworks, this book is the go-to-guide for you. A basic knowledge of JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is highly recommended.

What You Will Learn

• Install Community Tools on Pentaho; and understand the necessary concepts and considerations when creating an exciting dashboard design
• Get data from many different Pentaho datasources and deliver it in different formats (CSV, XLS, XML, or JSON)
• Use the Community Data Access (CDA) as the data abstraction layer and understand the concepts in the Community Dashboard Framework (CDF)
• Create a Community Dashboard Editor (CDE) dashboard and make the most of the main components
• Create and make use of widgets and use duplicate components to have data-driven sections on the dashboard
• Customize and create interaction between all components, including charts, using the Community Charts Components
• Create and embed dashboards in a better and new way
• Create plugins and make use of parameters inside Pentaho without writing code

In Detail

Pentaho and CTools are two of the fastest and most rapidly growing tools for practical solutions not found in any other tool available on the market. Using Pentaho allows you to build a complete analytics solution, and CTools brings an advanced flexibility to customizing them in a remarkable way. CTools provides its users with the ability to utilize Web technologies and data visualization concepts, and make the most of best practices to create a huge visual impact.

The book starts with the basics of the framework and how to get data to your dashboards. We'll take you all the way through to create your custom and advanced dashboards that will create an effective visual impact and provide the best user experience. You will be given deep insights into the lifecycle of dashboards and the working of various components. Further, you will create a custom dashboard using the Community Dashboards Editor and use datasources to load data on the components. You will also create custom content using Query, the Freeform Addins Popup, and text components. Next, you will make use of widgets to create similar sections and duplicate components to reproduce other components on a dashboard. You will then learn to build a plugin without writing Java code, use Sparkl as a CPK plugin manager, and understand the application of deployment and version control to dashboard development. Finally, you will learn tips and tricks that can be very useful while embedding dashboards into other applications.

This guide is an invaluable tutorial if you are planning to use custom and advanced dashboards among the solutions that you are building with Pentaho.

Style and approach

This book is a pragmatic, easy-to-follow guide that provides theoretical concepts, ideas, and tricks to better understand the necessary theoretical concepts. It also provides you with a set of highly intriguing samples of dashboards with customized code within them that can be utilized for future projects.

Learning Pentaho CTools

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Table of Contents

Learning Pentaho CTools

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with CTools

Introducing the CTools

Considerations before creating a dashboard

The first steps in creating a dashboard

Getting the right requirements

Creating a mock-up or dashboard design

Team and project management

Developing a dashboard

Installing CTools

Installing the CTools using Pentaho Marketplace

Installing the CTools using the CTools installer

Manually installing the CTools

Concepts and frameworks used

Summary

2. Acquiring Data with CDA

Introduction to CDA

Creating a new CDA data source

Available types of CDA data sources

SQL databases

Mondrian cubes

Pentaho metadata

Kettle transformations

Scripting data sources

XPath over XML

Compound queries

Common properties

Making use of parameters

Parameters on SQL queries

Parameters in MDX queries

Parameters on kettle queries

Private parameters

Editing and previewing

Manipulating the output of a data source

CDA cache

Managing the cache and the scheduler

Cache keys

Configuring local cache keys

Configuring system-wide cache keys

Web API reference

getCdaList

listQueries

listParameters

doQuery

clearCache

previewQuery

editFile

manageCache

Hands-on dashboards

Summary

3. Building the Dashboard Using CDF

Understanding the basics of a CDF dashboard

Lifecycle of dashboards and components

Creating a CDF dashboard

Hands-on dashboards

Using components inside the dashboards

Defining data sources for components

Creating and using parameters in data sources

The importance of listeners inside the components

Interaction between components

Using preExecution and postExecution

Understanding how to work with postFetch

Using preChange and postChange

Priority of component execution

Available components and properties

Adding resources – JavaScript and CSS

Using internal modules

Defining and including new modules

Including CSS files

Dashboards utilities

Formatting numbers

Numbers

Currency

Abbreviation

Percentages

Languages and locales

Multiple formats

Formatting and manipulating dates

Internationalization of numbers and dates

Dashboard storage

Dashboard context

Useful functions of the CDF API

Functions from the dashboards module:

Functions from the logger module:

Functions from the components module:

Summary

4. Leverage the Process with CDE

A brief introduction to CDE

Working with the editor

Operational toolbar

New

Save and Save as

Reload

Settings

The perspectives toolbar

The layout perspective

The Layout toolbar

Considerations when creating the layout of your dashboard

Using Bootstrap to create a responsive dashboard

Considerations when building responsive dashboards using CDE

The data sources perspective

The data sources toolbar

Creating new data sources

Data sources properties

The components perspective

The components toolbar

Dashboard parameters

Scripts

Visual components

Parameter, parameters, and listeners, again

Putting it all together

Creating your first CDE dashboard

Creating the layout

Define the data sources

Add the parameters and components

Overall improvements

Summary

5. Applying Filters to the Dashboard

The select component

The multi-select component

The filter component

Expected data layout

Specific properties

Making use of add-ins

Advanced options and configurations

Changing default messages

Showing values

Date range input component

The multi-button component

Summary

6. Tables, Templates, Exports, and Text Components

Table component

Table pagination

Internationalization and localization

Draw function

Column formats, types, width, and headers

Expanding content

Making use of add-ins

groupHeaders

clippedText

sparkline

dataBar

trendArrow

circle

cccBulletChart

formattedText

localizedText

hyperlink

Template component

Automatically generated model and root element

Template and engine

Model handler

Formatters

Add-ins

Events

Extendable options

Export button component

Export Popup button component

Text component

Summary

7. Advanced Concepts Using CDF and CDE

References to components, parameters, and layout elements

The query and freeform components

The query component

The freeform component

Creating add-ins

The template add-in

Extending CDF and CDE with new components

Extending CDF

Extending CDE

Extending or creating new dashboard types

Creating a new dashboard style/template

Extending styles for CDF dashboards

Extending styles for CDE dashboards

Bookmarkable parameters

Internationalization and localization

The dashboard component

Summary

8. Visualizations Using CCC

Some background on CCC

Making use of the CCC library in a CDF dashboard

Mandatory and desirable properties

Mapping data

Crosstab

The crosstabMode property

The seriesInRows property

The timeSeries and timeSeriesFormat properties

Making use of CCC in CDE

Changing properties in preExecution or postFetch

Handling the click event

Internationalization of CCC Charts

What are extension points and how do you use them?

Formatting a basis axis label based on the scale

Customizing tooltips

Pie chart showing the value in the center

Dimensions

Readers

Visual roles

Debugging the CCC charts

CGG – Community Graphics Generator

References

Summary

9. Pentaho App Builder

Understanding Pentaho App Builder

Installing Pentaho App Builder

Create a new plugin

Creating a new endpoint

Creating a job/transformation

Starting to learn about CPK

Specifying the step of where to get results from

Specifying parameters' values

Changing the output format type

Returning a single cell

Other considerations

Creating a dashboard

Folder structure

Making use of Kettle endpoints on a dashboard

How do I make the plugin available on the marketplace?

Summary

10. Embed, Deploy, and Debug

Embedding dashboards

Avoiding cross-domain requests

Embedding a CDF dashboard

Embedding a CDE dashboard

Dashboard, component, and parameter events

Debugging

Browser compatibility

Debugging with developer tools

Short tips

Delivering a solution

Version control and deploying projects

Documentation

Knowledge transfer

How to get help and help others

Summary

Index

Learning Pentaho CTools

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,...

Table of contents

• Learning Pentaho CTools