Monday 28 December 2009

GeoReport on-line demo now avaible for SpagoBI 2.4!

Try GeoReport on-line demo for SpagoBI 2.4!

  1. Log in as business user (biuser/biuser)
  2. Choose "Graphical Analysis"->"USA Regions by GeoReport"

Friday 18 December 2009

GeoReport has been released as internal engine 4 SpagoBI!

As announced in a previous post, SpagoBIGeoReportEngine has been released for SpagoBI 2.4 as an internal engine!
Directly from SpagoBI platform, the final user can now configure a complete OGC compliant WebGIS interface whence generate thematic maps (Choropleths or Proportionals), produce custom reports and analyze business data.
The new engine was developed by Engineering in collaboration with Inova and it is based on the SpagoBIGeoReportEngine external engine.



Thanks to Andrea Gioia and Grazia Cazzin!

Friday 27 November 2009

GeoReport internal engine 4 SpagoBI very soon!

Engineering is working, in collaboration with INOVA, on the new internal engine for GeoReport in order to include WebGIS capabilities inside SpagoBI platform, following OpenGeoBI paradigms.


GeoReport internal engine will be released in the next SpagoBI version (2.4) around Christmas 2009!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

OGC and GeoBI Initiative


The OGC has identified Geospatial Business Intelligence (GeoBI) as a major focus area for OGC standards related activities and is preparing a White Paper about the main issues: Sptail-ETL, Spatial-OLAP and Spatial-Report (GeoDashboard).

The White Paper will describe the value, methods and technology for applying geospatial interoperability standards to business intelligence technology and applications (such as SpagoBI, PentahoBI, etc..).
OGC aims to increase the interoperability of BI software products that can enable the collection, aggregation, analysis, distribution, and display of more relevant key performance indicators (KPI) using OGC standards and cartographic interfaces.

The OGC is now undertaking an analysis of how the capability of BI tools - such as Dashboards, reporting, On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Data Mining - can be increased through access to spatial information and processing based upon open standards from OGC and other possible new standards.


The White Paper will be the first step in developing an OGC emphasis in GeoBI!


Wednesday 4 November 2009

OpenGeoBI @ GFOSS DAY 2009


At Italian GFOSS DAY 2009, Bolzano 12 November 2009, INOVA presents:
  1. the state of the art of the OpenGeoBI project and Google Summer Of Code 2009 results on GeOLAP module

  2. OpenGeoBI customizzation for Public Administrations and Enterprise solutions (GeoPA, GeoBusiness)





Monday 2 November 2009

DHIS 2: a very good sample for Geo-BI issue

The DHIS 2 is a tool for collection, validation, analysis, and presentation of aggregate statistical data, tailored (but not limited) to integrated health information management activities.


DHIS 2 has also GIS capabilities such as:
  1. Integrated GIS client (Mapfish Client) with thematic mapping. Lets you define custom legend sets and save favorite map views.

  2. User interface for registering maps. The map source can be Shapefiles as well as GeoJSON files (by using GeoServer RestFul API).

  3. Provides automatic mapping between cartographic features in the map and in the database.

  4. Functionality for including ordered overlays such as roads, rivers, and public facilities.


Wednesday 21 October 2009

FOSS4G 2009

FOSS4G 2009 has started yesterday 20 OCTOBER 2009 in Sidney, Australia.
Here the program and here the ufficial Twitter channel.


I'd like to underline the following workshops\presentations:
  1. Geospatial BI with FOSS: an introduction to GeoMondrian and Spatialytics
    (Thierry Badard andEtienne Dubé)
  2. Practical introduction to MapFish, the web 2.0 mapping application framework
    (Claude Philipona, Cédric Moullet, Eric Lemoine)
  3. GeoKettle: a powerful open source spatial ETL tool
    (Thierry Badard)
In particular, the workshop on Mapfish framework was presented yesterday (OpenGeoBI GeoReport module uses Mapfish Client and we are working for its inclusion also for GeOLAP module, too).

Tuesday 20 October 2009

OpenGeoBI on GEOconnexion International

In the last number of GEOconnexion International an article focused on OpenGeoBI main issues and its possible customizations for both private and public entities was published!

Monday 19 October 2009

Thursday 8 October 2009

Next events

Geospatial BI with FOSS at FOSS4G 2009
(Australia)

GeoSpatial BI with FOSS at GFOSS DAY 2009
(Italy)

  • INOVA presents the state of the art of the OpenGeoBI project at Italian GFOSS DAY 2009, Bolzano, 11-12 November 2009

  • INOVA presents OpenGeoBI customizzation for Public Administration (GeoPA) at Italian GFOSS DAY 2009, Bolzano, 11-12 November 2009


GeoSpatial BI with FOSS at Open Day 2009
(Paris)

Monday 24 August 2009

GSoC 2009: Pencils down!

Google Summer of Code has finished today and, thanks to Giovanni Onofri, GeoSOA and INOVA the GeOLAP module prototype has done!





According to GSoC timeline, final evaluation is due on the 24th August. Giovanni will leave from Canada tomorrow!

It was a very good experience for all of us! Thank you again to Giovanni, GeoSOA and INOVA!!

In the next days we'll give you more details about the development work.
Please, stay tuned!!

Thursday 23 July 2009

GeoReport has been released for SpagoBI 2.2!

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine 2.2” is based on the new SpagoBI 2.2 platform and able to execute SpagoBI Analytical Documents directly from the map click using an OGC compliant WebGIS client.

Download

You can download the new release here!

What's new respect the first release

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine 2.2 uses the SpagoBISDK 2.2 including the new javascript API for authentication and documents execution.
In a configurable way you can now link at run time the "business data" coming from the execution of a SpagoBI DataSet to the cartographic features coming from OGC WFS request.

Why?

This new release is the prerequisite to achieving SpagoBIGeoReportEngine as an internal engine within the whole SpagoBI platform. Also GeOLAP module integration is scheduled for the next releases. Stay tuned!





Remember that GeoReport is a configurable application so that you can customize it for your own activities! Try it!

Collaboration
Thank you very much to Engineering for the collaboration, in particular to Andrea Gioia (Research & Innovation Division - IT Solution Architect) and Grazia Cazzin (SpagoBI Project Leader).

Tuesday 23 June 2009

First release of GeoReport for SpagoBI Platform!

Thanks to the technology partnership agreement signed by Engineering and Inova, GeoReport for SpagoBI 2.1 was released!

This first version, “SpagoBIGeoReportEngine”, is based on SpagoBI 2.1 platform and able to execute SpagoBI Analytical Documents directly from the map click using an OGC compliant WebGIS client.

Integration with SpagoBI represents an evolution of GeoReport engine highlighting its flexibility and adaptation towards new Business Intelligence platforms. SpagoBIGeoReportEngine interprets a new way to satisfy business requirements through the usage of SpagoBI and jointly WebGIS tools.

For SpagoBI 2.1 you can execute SpagoBI documents directly from cartographic features selection and display the results on a georeferenced map. The collaboration between the two companies is structured according to a precise roadmap, so future versions of SpagoBIGeoReportEngine are expected in the next months!

GeoBI is following now two ways:

  1. one for PentahoBI suite

  2. one for SpagoBI platform

with the aim to keep and improve the same paradigms, standars and logic!

Please, try it!

Download here!

Monday 15 June 2009

GeoKettle on Sourceforge portal

The GeoKettle project now relies on the project hosting infrastructure offered by Sourceforge. You can access the project on the Sourceforge portal.
Among other things, you will now be able to access to the svn repository of the project and to an issue tracking system.
Note that a new version (3.2.0-20090609) of GeoKettle has just been released.




What is new since release 3.1.0-20081103?
  • The GeoKettle extensions were ported to the new Pentaho Data Integration (PDI) version 3.2.0-stable. As such, this release of GeoKettle includes all the improvements from the new PDI version.
  • Added a "GIS File Output" step. At present, this step supports the writing of Shapefiles
  • Added support for Spatial Reference Systems (SRS). SRS metadata was added to ValueMeta for Geometry fields. Steps allowing to set a SRS ("Set SRS") and transform coordinates (reproject) of geometries from one SRS to another ("SRS Transformation") have also been developed. The SRS support is based on GeoTools' implementation of coordinate reference systems (org.opengis.referencing package)
  • In line with SRS support, SRS metadata for PostGIS and Oracle Spatial DBMS is retrieved and written when reading/writing geometry columns. To conform to integrity constraints when writing to a geometry column, one must ensure that the SRS in GeoKettle matches the one defined for the geometry column in the DBMS.
  • Reading and writing SRS metadata (in the form of .PRJ files containing WKT definitions of SRS) is also supported when reading/writing Shapefiles in the GIS File Input/Output stepsUpdated GeoTools libraries to version 2.5.5 and JTS to version 1.10

GeOLAP: news from GSoC 2009!

Spatialytics-GeoReport integration project for GSoC 2009 started about 3 weeks ago and you can follow related news on this page!


The aim of the project is to develop GeOLAP module in GeoReport by using Sptialytics and Pentaho CDF with the aim to set and create GeoDashboards as easy as possible both for spatial OLAP cubes navigation and for charts, diagrams, indicators displaying directly from the map click, depending on user needs!

There are ongoing discussions to see if it is better to modify Spatialytics using Pentaho CDF logic or create a new project composed by GeoReport, GeoMondrian and Pentaho CDF.

Please, stay tuned!


Wednesday 27 May 2009

Integration process status: PentahoBI2, PentahoBI3 and SpagoBI

PentahoBI (2 and 3)

On GeoBI code site there are the following updates to download and try:
  1. GeoReport TOMCAT installation Guide
  2. New GeoReport MapOl module for PentahoBI 2
  3. GeoReport installation guide for PentahoBI 3 (thanks to Martinez Javier)
  4. New GeoReport MapOl module for PentahoBI 3
SpagoBI

Thanks to INOVA-SPAGOBI (Engineering) technological partnership, the integration process between GeoReport and SpagoBI has started as shown in the following picture:


The goal is to include GeoReport (and in the next future also GeOLAP) in SpagoBI as "External Engine"...stay tuned!

Thursday 21 May 2009

GeoReport customization for Public Administrations

GeoReport can be customize for Public Administrations as an information system for both alphanumeric and spatial analysis in order to monitor and locate land abnormalities and interact with other Public or not Public Entities through OGC protocols.
For land abnormalities we mean:
  • abusiveness
  • taxes (dealing with parcels, buildings, families and citizens data)
  • environmental (pollution, ecology and interaction with other Public entities such as Ministeries or other departments)
  • personal safety (using video surveillance systems)
  • public transport using GPS instruments
  • etc..
In the following pictures there is an example for a municipality in the south of Italy regarding parcels (abusiveness, urban destination zones, owners and area calculated respect declared ones). GeoReport Client requests land parcels in GeoJSON to WFS GeoServer while the map is composed of OGC LAYERS such as WMS.





The GeoData WhareHouse is composed of all the data just used by the Public Entity, both alphanumeric and cartographic, such as Registry, Taxes, Cadastre, Orthophotos, Spatial vectorial data, ecc.. and the WebGIS client can display map coming from external entities (public and not public) using OGC standards.
Thanks to OpenLayers and Mapfih with which GeoReport Client is done, the WebGIS is already prepared for advanced functionalities such as:
  • cartographic editing on-line using OGC WFS-T or RestFul technologies ones
  • cartographic processing on-line using OGC WPS or RestFul technologies ones

Tuesday 21 April 2009

GSoC 2009 idea for GeoReport accepted!!!

We are very proud to announce that GSoC 2009 accepted the idea proposed by INOVA and GeoSOA !!
Giovanni Onofri, computer engineering student from Italy, will go to Canada very soon to start the project toghether with GeoSOA Group!! His mentors will be Thierry Badard, Eitenne Dube from Canada (GeoSOA) and Fabio D'Ovidio from Italy (INOVA)!


The idea is to contribute to the development of GeoBI integrating GeOLAP module in GeoReport by using Sptialytics and Pentaho CDF with the aim to set and create GeoDashboards as easy as possible both for multidimentional cubes navigation and for charts, diagrams, indicators displaying directly from the map!

The aim is to improve CDF MapFishComponent written by INOVA and use\improve the CDF Pivot Component in order to set:
  • a pivot for (alphanumeric) cube nabigation
  • a map for cartographic data display and spatially navigation of multidimensional cubes through DRILL DOWN and ROLL UP operations
  • BI processes (xactions) to display diagrams, charts and indicators on the map by clickking cartographic features
  • the interaction between pivot and cartographic map by setting both listeners and parameters in order to switch from pivot to map and viceversa
The integration work will develop by defining small integration steps to be acheived in order to consistently merging capabilities provided by the the different tools.

In particular the following applications will be used:
  • GeoMondrian
  • Spatialitycs
  • GeoReport
  • GeoServer
  • OpenLayers
  • Mapfish
  • Pentaho CDF
  • PentahoBI platform
and the following technologies will be used:
  • JavaScript + ExtJS
  • JAVA
  • JSP (Java Server Pages)
  • GeoJSON
  • OGC WFS protocol
  • OGC WMS protocol
  • MDX
  • SQL
  • XML

Thursday 2 April 2009

Google Summer of Code 2009: Ideas 4 GeoReport !

Google's Summer of Code program allows for students to receive a stipend for developing open source software under the supervision of one or two mentors.


GeoSoa Research Group proposed some projects related to Geo Business Intelligence thematics here.
In this context INOVA and GeoSoa propose the integration of Spatialytics and GeoReport in PentahoBI platform using CDF as described in the fifth idea


GSoC: Integration of Spatialytics and GeoReport into Pentaho CDF
  • This idea stems from an active collaboration on Geospatial Business Intelligence between the GeoSOA research group and Inova, an italian company. The GeoBI blog details the open source software stack Inova plans to develop. It is mainly based on GeoKettle (spatial ETL tool), GeoMondrian (Spatial OLAP Server). GeoReport is a web cartographic component that enables the display of charts, diagrams and indicators on cartographic features click by running BI processes. It has been recently integrated to Pentaho CDF, the new dashboard framework provided by Pentaho. Together with these developments, the GeoSOA research group has implemented Spatialytics, a web cartographic component that enables the navigation in Spatial OLAP data cubes and the display of thematic maps. Spatialytics allows then users to drill down and roll up in the different levels of details/aggregations present in the geospatial data cubes served by a GeoMondrian Spatial OLAP server instance. Both Spatialytics and GeoReport rely on OpenLayers. Spatialytics aims at being integrated in different analytical dashboard tool in order to provide them with geo-analytical capabilities. With the perspective of setting up a geo-analytical dashboard framework, some works have been initiated in the GeoSOA research group in order to couple JasperServer and Spatialytics. First results are very promising, even if a lot of work remain to be done. In order to support this integration effort, the idea proposed here both by the GeoSOA research group and Inova deals with the integration of Spatialytics and GeoReport into Pentaho CDF in order to step up the developments already initiated and provide the users with a first integrated solutions for the design of light, interactive and drillable geo-analytical dashboards over the web. The student in charge of the project will thus have: 1) to take some time in order to be more familiar with GeoBI concepts and the different tools, 2) start the integration work by defining small integration steps to be acheived in order to consistently merging capabilities provided by the the different tools, 3) if time remains, extend the thematic capabilities of the integrated tool. The student will be supervised both by the GeoSOA research group and Inova.

Download GeoReport-PentahoCDF integration!

GeoReport-PentahoCDF integration was released!


Please, checkout and try it!!
Any comments are welcome, thank you!

Tuesday 31 March 2009

GeoReport-CDF integration screenshots

Here some screenshots regarding GeoReport CDF integration.
In Figure1 you can see the GeoDashboard.
It is characterized by:
  • a "Map Tab" where users can interact with the map, display geometries cominig from Geoserver and alphanumeric data, diagrams, charts, dials cominig from Pentaho xactions execution!
  • an " Info Tab" where users can read alphanumeric ditails associated to the geometries
    (e.g. from point click users can display dial and pie charts, and from pie chart users can display ditailed information in a table view as shown in Figure2)
  • On the left you can display other tabs for analysis functionalities (choropleths or propotionals), legend, toolbar, detailed charts, layer tree

Figure1
on POINT click users can display dial and pie charts



Figure2
on pie click users can display details on "Info Tab"


Remeber that now you can set your GeoDashboard directly from JavaScript using CDF MapFishComponent like this:

map
=
{
name: "map",
type: "mapFish",
nameAttribute: "nome",
indicators: [["numero_watson","NUMERO"],["valore_watson","VALORE"]],
geojsonUrl: "server:port",
analysis: "chorop",
geocode: "gid",
actionid: "id_capoluog",
layer: "capoluoghi",
layer_name: "WATSONs",
mapname: "WATSON MAP",
solution: "cdf-samples",
path: "20-samples/GeoBI",
actionJson: 'myxaction.xaction',
action: "dial.xaction",
action2: "pie.xaction",
parameter: [["value","numero_watson"]],
parameters: [["customer", "value"],["max", 50], ["low", 5],["high", 35]],
action2Value: [["regione","gl_regione"]],
action2Values: [],
feautreInfo: [["REGIONE","gl_regione"], ["CAPOLUOGO","nome"]],
messageElementId: "messages",
htmlObject: "map",
executeAtStart: true,
initPosLon: 6.090,
initPosLat: 40.373,
initZoom: 5
}

Monday 23 March 2009

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration is done!

A new JavaScript component, "MapFishComponent", was developed in order to quickly create a custom cartographic dashboard using MapFish and geostat widgets!
The architecture is the same shown here with the difference that now it is not necessary to set your parameters in a xml file: now you can easly set them client side using a "mapFish" type, as following:

map =
{
name: "map",
type: "mapFish",
nameAttribute: "nome",
indicators: [["numero_watson","NUMERO"],["valore_watson","VALORE"]],
geojsonUrl: "server_name:port",
analysis: "prop",
geocode: "gid",
actionid: "id_capoluog",
layer: "capoluoghi",
mapname: "WATSON MAP",
solution: "cdf-samples",
path: "20-samples/GeoBI",
actionJson: 'mapOpen4.xaction',
action: "dial.xaction",
actionpie: "pie.xaction",
parameters: "numero_watson",
pieValue: "gl_regione",
title: "nome",
messageElementId: "messages",
htmlObject: "map",
executeAtStart: true,
initPosLon: 6.090,
initPosLat: 40.373,
initZoom: 5,
expression: function(){},
preExecution:function(){},
postExecution:function(){}
}

Thanks to CDF integration you can than easily create new reports interacting each other!!
This is the "WATSON MAP" sample:

Watson Map sample

We are going to publish this new version for Georeport, so stay tuned!!!

Friday 13 March 2009

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration has started!

Pentaho CDF (Community Dashboard Framework) has the goal to make Pentaho Dashboard on PentahoBI platform as easy as possible using JavaScript instead of JSP.
It is a very powerful framework that help the final user in setting and creating his dashboards!

Pentaho CDF architecture

Penatho CDF could be very useful to create GeoDasboard as GeoReport done.
At the moment, CDF integrates OpenLayers to create a cartographic report but NOT in the sense of GeoReport because:
  1. GeoReport deals with GEOMETRIES (stored in GeoServer), so deals with real cartographic data!
  2. GeoReport JOINS alphanumeric data coming from xaction resultset to geometries coming from GeoServer (using OGC WFS) in a single GeoJSON
  3. GeoReport tranfers GEOMETRIES via GeoJSON using Mapfish GeoJSON JAVA lib
  4. CDF only uses markers on OpenLayers maps and GeoNames to rerieve X,Y when the user doesn't set manually X,Y coordinates
  5. CDF doesn't join xaction resultset to vector data (geometries) stored in a GIS datasource or provided by a GIS service (as WFS does)
For this reasons it will be very interesting to integrate GeoReport in Pentaho CDF in order to automate the whole process of GeoDashboard creation in GeoReport!!

The first integration we did was mapfish in CDF (instead of OpenLayers). It works on Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 + and there are some problems on other browser due to Ext.onReady Event when you want to include a large number of JS files in your code over ExtJS (this is our case. Remeber in fact that MapFish uses ExtJS library and Pentaho CDF uses a lot of libraries such as jQuery...so the complexity increase).
We are going on with tests, and if you want you can try this first integration following here.

Screenshots (Mapfish in Pentaho CDF)




Thursday 19 February 2009

GeoReport on GeoBI Google Code repository

GeoReport was uploaded on geobi repository with its installation notes!
There is also a sample database for PostgreSQL\PostGIS.
Remember GeoReport is still a prototype but give you a method to generate cartographic reports with Business Intelligence tools.
GeoReport uses:
  1. PentahoBI API
  2. Mapfish GeoJSON lib
  3. Mapfish Client and GeoStat widgets
  4. GeoServer

Try it!

Thursday 22 January 2009

Project description



WebGIS (and GIS) applications show all their limits in a complex context in which the amount of information to be analyzed is large and heterogeneous. The data flow is unidirectional: from the map to the information, even when the alphanumeric data are provided by external databases or remote services.
It is not possible to perform multi-dimensional queries, or display charts and indicators on the map for events monitoring. Typically, the alphanumeric information is "wired" in the cartographic data and interaction with external systems is limited by the nature of GIS data.
Business intelligence (BI) refers to applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and analyze data and information in order to support strategic decisions. For this reason, the BI provides tools to analyze large amounts of information quickly, and identify efficiently the changes of what is to be monitored.

Typically these tools aren't able to display on a map the analysis results but this is essential in specific contexts and for a more immediate visual impact.
These limitations suggest to integrate GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and BI (Business Intelligence), combining the potentials of both technologies.

In this scenario the BI will provide the ability to view complex analysis results on the map, and the WebGIS (GIS) the possibility to use BI tools to aggregate data.


GeoBI (GeoSpatial Business Intelligence) is the INOVA Open Source Project to integrate these two "worlds" until now separated:
  • Business Intelligence (BI)
  • GIS (Geographical Information Systems)

About the idea

INOVA is the company leading this project and is studying and developing GeoBI as an Open Source suite composed by three major modules: GeoReport, GeOLAP and GeoETL.

The technologies on which INOVA is focused on are: JAVA for BI processes and OGC standards e.g. WMS, SLD, WFS, WFS-T, WPS, ecc.. for WebGIS components.
The products on which INOVA is focused on are: Pentaho, GeoKettle and GeoMondrian for BI-GIS integration and OpenLayers, Mapfish, GeoServer for WebGIS development.
You can found references in the "Products" and "Links" panels of this blog!

GeoBI allows:

  1. visualization on a cartographic map of mono and multidimensional analysis results

  2. cartographic reports generation

  3. spatial ETL processes

GeoBI consists of three modules:

  1. GeOLAP: to display multidimensional analysis results on a cartographic map, via Web

  2. GeoReport: to generate cartographic reports and display charts, diagrams and indicators on the map, via Web

  3. GeoETL: to extract, trasform and load in a DWH (Data WareHouse) every kind of data, dealing with "geometry" as a native type


GeoReport module

GeoReport Module

At the present only GeoReport Module has been developed as a prototype while solutions for GeOLAP development are in progess. INOVA has chosen GeoKettle as GeoETL module, that is based on Pentaho Kettle.

GeoReport integrates spatial information in BI processes so that thematic maps beacame a new way to display the results of complex analysis on alphanumeric data provided by external and remote sources.

The module provides Cartographic Reports managing a bidirectional data flow as in the picture below:

GeoReport is able to:

  1. display alphanumeric data coming from Business Intelligence processes (xaction in Pentaho) in a cartographic mode

  2. use Geostatical functionalities on cartographic data such as "Choropleth Map" and "Proportional Symbols". The indicators for that kind of analysis caming from BI processes

  3. display charts, diagrams and indicators directly from the map click

Users can set:

  • the map name

  • vectors features using GeoServer

  • the ID to match geometries to alphanumeric data

  • the attributes (coming from BI processes) to display on feature selection

  • the kind of GeoStatistcal analysis to do (choropleths or proportional)

  • the indicators for GeoStatistical analysis

  • xactions to retreive data from external sources

  • charts, diagrams, indicators to display on geometry selection


GeoReport Architecture

GeoReport consits of two modules:

  1. MapOL

  2. Dashboard

MapOL runs the xaction configurated by the user and join the resultsets with the geometries coming from Geoserver in a single GeoJson data.

Geometries must have only an ID in order to match them with the attributes.

Dashboard requests GeoJson to MapOL in order to display the fetures (geometries + attributes) on the map using OpenLayers and Mapfish Client (with Geostat widgets)

A map click event on features selection allows to display charts, diagrams and indicators directly on the map.

MapOL

Dashboard