I'm going to need a full-on enterprise reporting solution. For now, we're going to use Crystal with SQL Server (on D7 using the SQL Server integration that is currently being developed, which I will also be contributing to). Even if we want to use Crystal or other reporting tools initially, I would LOVE for a fully integrated Drupal solution. This would provide me with one more reason in my bid to get Drupal to be a standard in my company.

So, without a list of issues for me to tackle, I am not sure what I can do to help. Would you mind creating new issues in the queue for each major feature you are implementing or would like to implement and include a status report for each?

Also, is there a Drupal group for reporting and if so, are you a member? You could probably get more help in such a group. Enterprise reporting could be a banner feature for Drupal.

Comments

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented

Great! glad to hear your willingness to help. I'll try and get a list of features soon. In the meantime, we are under active development. I just uploaded a 6.x-dev version that is basically functional, but has no docs yet. take a look at the sample .frx and .sql files contained in the drupal repository and see what you think.

I'll try and get to updating the issue queue, and update the project page with more information on the status of the project. Stay tuned.

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented

BTW, do you have an eye on D7 while you're developing this? With it nearing release, and with MSSQL support targeting it, that is what I'd be developing toward. Would you mind concurrent development of both versions?

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented

I haven't invested a lot of time in D7 yet. I typically port all my modules when the beta comes out. I'm willing to give this a shot, but given the activity level of development, I'd like to stay with D6 as long as I can, (otherwise it increases the development effort). That being said, there isn't too much that should break with D7.

It's a bit non standard, but perhaps I could make a d7 branch that you would submit patches for between now and when the d7 beta comes out.

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented

Sure. I expect I should be able to start helping out within the next 3-5 weeks. Wheels turn slow and I haven't even finished reading the design spec for the app that would be using this. And I need to also start pitching in on the SQL Server effort as well. I would work on that and this concurrently. So don't feel you need to fill up the issue queue in a hurry. Take your time. I was just thinking it would help us both out if there were some kind of list to work on.

Cheers. I'll be around.

zeezhao’s picture

zeezhao commented

subscribing...

Apart from integration with drupal, please let me know the kind of differences between forena & other open source reporting like:

- jasperreports - http://jasperforge.org/projects/jasperreports

- mondrian - http://mondrian.pentaho.org/

etc.

Thanks

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented

The biggest differences are:

1. Forena leverages HTML and XML in ways that these report engines do not. In forena everything is XHTML natively, so that is your templating lanuage. This means rather than having users enter parameters, most often they are doing "click-through" drilling down to their data. Forena produces paper as a secondary thing rather than a primary concern. We are NOT interested in printing most of the time, but rather exploring the data.

2. Forena lets you consume hierarchical data from non-relational sources RSS feeds, etc. (anything that produced XML). It also has special considerations for databases that can generate XML natively (eg. Postgres, oracle MsSQL).

3. Forena is designed to make generating data sources and reports be really developer friendly. Data sources (called data blocks) are files that can be version controlled and stuffed. They are often parameterized SQL, so they don't take much to use. Time from a good select statement to a report is typically 5 minutes or less.

4. Forena doesn't require a java stack :). I haven't really found a PHP equivalent to these products out there yet. So you can install it on a hosting service, etc.

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented

Sweet. I noticed you started (finished?) adding issues to the queue. I think I'm on target for my original estimate of when I can begin assisting. This is a really cool project. I'm wondering if you have any supporting documentation - such as you might find on a white board - of an overall architecture plan that you could share. For example, is your design modular, and if so, what are the separate pieces and how will they speak to each other? I'll download and start exploring when I get a chance. Thanks for the update.

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented

I just posted a new roadmap issue:

#837974: Forena Roadmap

I committed a new chunk of code that has more features. My thoughts on documentation are that we'll use the tool to provide it's own documentation.

With a wysiwyg editor, I plan to make new reports that are the online help. I've started the first of these, but they don't auto install yet, so stay tuned for that (hopefully in the next snapshot). I'll create a developers report that can get included so that it doesn't show for all users that will cover how the the modular system works.

After that point we can all write documentation as reports that get delivered with dev releases.

rconstantine’s picture

rconstantine commented

that is a great idea. i'm finally going to install D7 tomorrow for eval. i'll be evaluating the mssql support and seeing what i might be able to help with on that front. so in about a week or two (since i do have other responsibilities) i think i'll be able to turn to this. i'll probably use d6 first, then try to roll a d7 version.

but the way things have been going lately, my timelines may stretch. the good thing is, i've been training my coworkers on drupal and they will be able to begin handling anything less than coding. so in the long run i may have more time for peojects like this one.

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented

Cool. Be sure and subscribe to the roadmap issue so that you get updates. We're rocking and rolling here. I'd love to see you check out the documentation. There are docs delivered with the snapshot that I rolled tonight.

Dave

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Closing stale issue..