fabiodovidio

New web site for the GeoBI Initiative!

2011-07-27T09:27:00.003+02:00

A new web site for the GeoBI Initiative is out!

GeoKettle: new version to download!

2011-07-20T09:33:00.006+02:00

A new version of GeoKettle (2.0) has been released!

GeoKettle now benefits from Geospatial capabilities also for advanced processing thanks to Sextante plugin as well as other mature, robust and well know Open Source libraries like JTS, GeoTools, deegree, OGR.

Try it now!

GeoBI case studies

2011-04-27T00:36:00.003+02:00

Two post-graduate degree thesis in Computer Science Engineering, supported by GeoBI initiative and the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Padua (Italy), have been focused on Location Intelligence in Open Source environment:

Competitive Intelligence nella Pubblica Amministrazione: il caso dell'e-Government - Giovanni Minelle (in Italian)
Location Intelligence: sviluppo del cruscotto di gestione dell'e-Government Intelligence di Regione Veneto con software open source - Alessio De Rossi (in Italian)

OGC WFS accepted as ISO Standard

2011-04-22T09:56:00.002+02:00

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has approved the OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) Interface standard as an International Standard.

Other main ISO standards approved for GeoSpatial applications\services\data are:

ISO19125-1:2004 (Geographic information - Simple Feature Access - Part 1: Common Architecture);
ISO 19125-2:2004 (Geographic information - Simple feature access - Part 2: SQL Option);
ISO 19128 Web Map Service (WMS);
ISO 19136 (Geographic information - Geography Markup Language (GML).

new license for Mapfish framework

2011-04-05T09:13:00.003+02:00

The new version 2.1 of Mapfish framework*, also used in SpagoBIGeoReportEngine, has been released. The re-licensing from GPL to BSD is an important feature in order to include the library in a lot of both commercial and open source applications!

Here, all the changes.
Here, new documentation.

* Camptocamp is a GeoBI initiative member

New webinar on GeoBI

2010-12-15T11:25:00.002+01:00

On 15^th December 2010 at 4:30 p.m. (CEST) a webinar on GeoBI will be done (GeoBI Initiative: The Open Source Location Intelligence ecosystem).

The presentation will focus on the challenges we are facing in order to create a vibrant ecosystem around this topic and to deliver a fully open source Location Intelligence software stack!

You can find old webinars here, such as "GIS and BI with Open Source".

GeoBI in action

2010-11-26T00:12:00.005+01:00

On line the presentation made during the fossa conference on GeoBI initiative....nice demo on GeoReport and GeoMondrian.

fOSSa 2010 - GeoBI initiative, Open Source Location Intelligence

View more presentations from SpagoWorld.

Ingres joins GeoBI initiative!

2010-11-10T00:09:00.005+01:00

GeoBI community and members are growing up quickly!

As member of GeoBI initiative I am proud to announce that Ingres Corporation, the leading provider of open source database management software, has joined us! The announcement during the FOSSa Conference.

Ingres recently announced availability of a community version of Ingres 10.1.0 using the GPL v2 license and compliant with the Open Geospatial Consortium Simple Feature Specification for SQL.

Don't hesitate to contact us for more information if you want to join the initiative too!

Individual membership in GeoBI initiative

2010-10-28T23:36:00.005+02:00

I am proud to announce my new entry in GeoBI initiative as individual member!

Why do I want to become an individual member?

I was Inova GeoBI initiative leader and now I want to go on alone as single member representing myself and provide my expertise, diligence and experiences in order to help the Community and the whole initiative to grow up.

How do I plan to contribute to the initiative?

I'd like to continue as single professional all my activities regarding the GeoBI until now done as leader and Techincal Committee member. In particular, I will contribute in software development, articles and presentations preparing, conferences partecipation, results dissemination trought websites, blogs and other channels.

My relationships with the initiative members

As leader of the GeoBI initiative until now I have of course contatcs with the initiative members, in particular with Inova, Engineering, Camptocamp and Spatialytics.

More details about me and what I have already done in this context, here.

Thanks to all the current members!

GeoBI @FOSSa 2010

2010-10-20T23:43:00.005+02:00

GeoBI initiative will be presented at FOSSa Conference 2010 in Grenoble, France.

...where free open source software meets academia...

FOSSa (Free Open Source Academia Conference) aims to reaffirm the values of open source software: innovation & research in software development.

Engineering Group contributes to the organization of the conference and in particular on 10th November gives a speech entitled “The open source location intelligence ecosystem”.

Italian INSPIRE Interest Group

2010-10-04T12:08:00.002+02:00

A Forum area dedicated to Italy, called "INSPIRE - Italian Interest Group" has been created on JRC INSPIRE portal in order to encourage discussions on the INSPIRE DIRECTIVE in Italy.

This initiative has been launched by Massimo Zotti, my ex-colleague and Sales Manager of Planetek Italia, together with the president of AMFM Association, Mauro Salvemini.

Massimo invited me to join and I think it is a very good opportunity not only to partecipate but also to share ideas, experiences, points of view with the GeoBI Community. GeoBI initiative, in fact, focuses not only on open source software but also on the adoption of open standards in the area of Location Intelligence.

Stay tuned!

FOSS4G 2010 presentations: GeoKettle, GeoMondrian, SOLAPLayers in action!

2010-09-27T12:25:00.006+02:00

There are now on-line the presentations given by Dr. Thierry Badard @FOSS4G 2010 in Barcelona, as already described in a previous post:

Regarding Spatial ETL presentation, the version of GeoKettle used in the demo was the version 2.0, coming in October 2010, that benefits from the OGR Simple Feature Library ability to import/export from/to different vectorial file formats, including GML and KML, and RDBMS.

Regarding Spatial OLAP, the presentation is focused on GeoMondrian and SOLAPLayers version 2.0 (at the beginning of 2011), for which the key component will remain OpenLayers but wrapped using Javascript frameworks ExtJS & GeoExt.

GeoBI in Barcelona @ FOSS4G 2010

2010-09-08T09:56:00.005+02:00

FOSS4G 2010 has started on 6th September in Barcelona (Spain). FOSS4G is the most important international conference on Free & Open Source GeoSpatial Software. It is organized by OSGeo.

Two members of GeoBI initiative, Spatialytics and Camptocamp, are contributing with workshops, presentations and tutorials on GeoBI main issues:

There are a lot of interesting works and I'll invite you to follow the event!

In particular, in the era of Web 2.0, I'd like to underling these presentations\tutorials:

Manage geothermal data with GeoReport engine

2010-06-16T15:22:00.002+02:00

IGA is a non-profit, non-political and non-governmental organization that works with the Economic and Social Council of ONU and European Union partners for Campaign for Take Off (CTO) of renewable energy.

IGA has created and implemented a database containing updated information on geothermal systems installed in the world and used it as source data for GeoReport engine.

Here you can find more details.

GeoBI initiative has been launched!

2010-06-10T14:36:00.003+02:00

GeoBI initiative has been launched!

Follow GeoBI initiative on LinkedIn and Twitter!

GeoBI initiative aims to create an open community, composed of all the interested parties, whose primarily scope is to cooperate in order to break down these barriers and make the Location Intelligence adoption pervasive.

GeoBI initiative focuses on open source software and open standards as feasible tools to reach its goals respecting the initiative key principles. It doesn’t mean that only open source companies or actors can take part in the initiative. All companies and actors, involved in Location Intelligence and basing their products on open source software and/or open standards to some extents, are more than welcome.

GeoBI initiative is a joint effort of companies, organizations, projects’ communities and individuals set up to:

improve the coordination work in the Location Intelligence area
disseminate BI knowledge in the GIS world and vice-versa
promote the standard-based integration between BI and Geographical Systems
strengthen connections and support new business opportunities among members
create a research network on Location Intelligence topics
turn research results into innovative applications.

Here the web site.

Here the press release.

Here the manifesto.

Here the charter.

Here the members.

Here the involved projects.

Here the new GeoReport blog.

Thinking to a more structured initiative

2010-05-27T16:11:00.002+02:00

During these years, INOVA has been focused deeply on GeoSpatial Businss Intelligence giving you, through this blog, an overview about the main principles, products, open standards, research results and tools. GeoBI.org has been a place in which we have shared everything about the Open Source Location Intelligence.

We believe it's the time to rationalize all the efforts we've done until now and turn GeoBI Open Source Project in a more organized entity!

We want to cooperate more closely with our partners in order to make pervasive the adoption of GeoBI, provide industrial results, add value to the existing projects and create new business opportunities.

We are now thinking about a more structured initiative just starting from the experience of these years. The initiative will be lauched in the next weeks.

Stay tuned! :-)

GeoReport at Solutions Linux

2010-03-25T14:24:00.007+01:00

Andrea Gioia of Engineering SPA gave a presentation on Location Intelligence at Solutions Linux, speaking in particular about SpagoBI Geo engines, both for Graphic-SVG and Cartographic-GIS approach developed together with INOVA by using GeoReport.

Location Intelligence: when Business Intelligence meets Cartography
Andrea Gioia also wrote a very interested post on SpagoWorld blog on the same issue.

Have a nice reading!

INOVA & Spatialytics.ORG partnership

2010-03-23T11:19:00.004+01:00

Inova, already GeoSOA partner during 2009, has partnered with Spatialytics.ORG in order to support the development of all open source projects relateed to GeoBI.

Spatialytics.ORG is a website for the Community using and working with the Open Source Geo-BI projects GeoKettle, GeoMondrian and SOLAPLayers. The origin of those projects is Laval University in Quebec City (Canada), from the research and work done by the GeoSOA Research Team, led by Dr. Thierry Badard.

Spatialytics Solutions Inc. (Spatialytics.COM) is instead the company dedicated to push forwards those Geo-BI projects (GeoKettle, GeoMondrian and SOLAPLayers) and to offer professional training, support, development and implantation.

At present INOVA is working to establish a scientific committee together with its partners in order to support and contribute to all GeoBI open source projects, such as:

GeoKettle
Talend SDI
GeoMondrian
SOLAPLayers
SOLAPLayers integrated into PentahoBI\CDF and SpagoBI
GeoReport (for both PentahoBI & SpagoBI platform)
SpagoBIGeoReportEngine

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine on Slideshare

2010-02-12T08:40:00.002+01:00

INOVA-ENGINEERING presentation at FOSS4G-IT in Lugano is on slideshare!

As mentioned in a previous post, the presentation intends to show the new cartographic capabilities of SpagoBI platform by using GeoReport, the new cartographic and Open Source OGC compliant engine developed by INOVA for BI platforms.

SpagoBiGeoReportEngine

View more presentations from SpagoWorld.

L'unità di tutte le scienze è trovata nella geografia

2010-02-02T11:33:00.004+01:00

" L’unità di tutte le scienze è trovata nella geografia. Il significato della geografia è che essa presenta la terra come la sede duratura delle occupazioni dell’uomo." (John Dewey).

"Alle elementari avevo un maestro che insegnava geografia e che tirava giù una carta geografica del mondo davanti alla lavagna. Avevo un compagno di classe al sesto anno che un giorno ha alzato la mano e ha indicato la costa orientale del Sudamerica; poi ha indicato la costa occidentale dell’Africa e ha chiesto: «Sono state mai unite?». E il maestro ha risposto: «Certo che no, è una cosa ridicola!». Lo studente cominciò a fare uso di droghe e sparì. L’insegnante è diventato consigliere scientifico dell’attuale amministrazione (ndr Bush)." (dal film documentario statunitense del 2006 “Una scomoda verità”, diretto da Davis Guggenheim).

"Nella mia geografia ancora sta scritto che tra Catanzaro e il mare si trovano i Giardini delle Esperidi." (George Robert Gissing, da Sulle rive dello Jonio).

"L’arma del giornalista è la penna o la macchina da scrivere. L’arma del giornalista sotto vetro smerigliato è la bacchetta o la carta geografica." (Sergio Saviane).

"Lungo la costa dell’Africa del Sud-Ovest, delimitato da montagne di origine vulcanica da una parte e dall’Atlantico dall’altra, si stende uno dei più antichi e selvaggi deserti della terra. I geografi chiamano questa zona la Costa degli Scheletri, perché le sue spiagge sono disseminate dei relitti delle navi che vi hanno fatto naufragi." (Ronald Schiller da “Nel mondo dei diamanti”).

AIIG, Italian Association of Geography Teachers, is collecting signatures to try to avert the risk of the disappearance of geography education programs in high school.

I invite italian readers of my blog to give a look here and subscrive the petition on the AIIG web site!

Here the list of blogs that have joined the initiative:

Alternativa Geologica

ESRIdipendente

Faccio Cose Vedo Gente

GeoBI

freeGIS-Italia

Il Blog italiano di AutoCAD Map e Civil 3D

inDiritto.it

JGrass Tech Tips

map freely

massimozotti.it

OpenStreetMap Italia

Simone Cortesi

TANTO

Thinking in GIS

Sistemi Informativi Territoriali in Sicilia

Thank you

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine @FOSS4G-IT 2010

2010-01-21T10:34:00.002+01:00

INOVA and ENGINEERING present SpagoBIGeoReportEngine at FOSS4G-IT in Lugano, on 11 th Feb 2010. Here the program.
The presentation intends to show the new cartographic capabilities of SpagoBI platform and consequently the new cartographic OGC compliant engine developed by INOVA and ENGINEERING.

By now SpagoBI users can be also configure WebGIS OGC interface by setting:

Map Projection
WMS resources
GeoJSON data
3D visualization (Google Earth plugin)
Toolbar and Map Controls
Geostatistical Analysis (Choropleths or Propotionals)
Reports (charts, tables, pivot, ecc..)

to display cartographic features on the map and analyze on the territory business data coming from a Data WareHouse (DWH) or simply from a database. Cartographic features can be retreive both from a WFS resource (GeoServer) or directly from the file system (GeoJSON).

GeoReport on-line demo now avaible for SpagoBI 2.4!

2009-12-28T15:05:00.004+01:00

Try GeoReport on-line demo for SpagoBI 2.4!

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

GeoReport has been released as internal engine 4 SpagoBI!

2009-12-18T17:23:00.007+01:00

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!

GeoReport internal engine 4 SpagoBI very soon!

2009-11-27T15:00:00.007+01:00

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!

OGC and GeoBI Initiative

2009-11-24T09:33:00.006+01:00

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!

OpenGeoBI @ GFOSS DAY 2009

2009-11-04T10:33:00.019+01:00

At Italian GFOSS DAY 2009, Bolzano 12 November 2009, INOVA presents:

the state of the art of the OpenGeoBI project and Google Summer Of Code 2009 results on GeOLAP module
OpenGeoBI customizzation for Public Administrations and Enterprise solutions (GeoPA, GeoBusiness)

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

2009-11-02T10:21:00.004+01:00

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:

Integrated GIS client (Mapfish Client) with thematic mapping. Lets you define custom legend sets and save favorite map views.
User interface for registering maps. The map source can be Shapefiles as well as GeoJSON files (by using GeoServer RestFul API).
Provides automatic mapping between cartographic features in the map and in the database.
Functionality for including ordered overlays such as roads, rivers, and public facilities.

FOSS4G 2009

2009-10-21T09:56:00.003+02:00

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:

Geospatial BI with FOSS: an introduction to GeoMondrian and Spatialytics
(Thierry Badard andEtienne Dubé)
Practical introduction to MapFish, the web 2.0 mapping application framework
(Claude Philipona, Cédric Moullet, Eric Lemoine)
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).

OpenGeoBI on GEOconnexion International

2009-10-20T17:55:00.003+02:00

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!

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine: new release for SpagoBI 2.3

2009-10-19T18:48:00.008+02:00

A new SpagoBIGeoReportEngine has been released for SpagoBI 2.3.

Try it!

Next events

2009-10-08T16:40:00.007+02:00

Geospatial BI with FOSS at FOSS4G 2009
(Australia)

FOSS4G, the annual conference attracting the best of Geospatial Open Source users and developers, will meet in Sydney, Australia 20-23 October 2009.
Thierry Badard and Etienne Dubè will introduce GeoMondrian, Spatialytics and all the projects linked to them (e.g. GeOLAP OpenGeoBI module) during the workshop "Geospatial BI with FOSS: an introduction to GeoMondrian and Spatialytics"

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)

INOVA and ENGINEERING presents OpenGeoBI and SpagoBI integration (SpagoBIGeoReportEngine ) at Open Day 2009, Paris ..... TO BE UPDATED !!

GSoC 2009: Pencils down!

2009-08-24T11:18:00.007+02:00

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!!

GeoReport has been released for SpagoBI 2.2!

2009-07-23T17:24:00.006+02:00

“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).

First release of GeoReport for SpagoBI Platform!

2009-06-23T16:12:00.007+02:00

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:

one for PentahoBI suite
one for SpagoBI platform

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

Please, try it!

Download here!

GeoKettle on Sourceforge portal

2009-06-15T10:10:00.003+02:00

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!

2009-06-15T09:40:00.003+02:00

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!

Integration process status: PentahoBI2, PentahoBI3 and SpagoBI

2009-05-27T10:06:00.013+02:00

PentahoBI (2 and 3)

On GeoBI code site there are the following updates to download and try:

GeoReport TOMCAT installation Guide
New GeoReport MapOl module for PentahoBI 2
GeoReport installation guide for PentahoBI 3 (thanks to Martinez Javier)
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!

GeoReport customization for Public Administrations

2009-05-21T09:22:00.008+02:00

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

GSoC 2009 idea for GeoReport accepted!!!

2009-04-21T09:20:00.009+02:00

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

Google Summer of Code 2009: Ideas 4 GeoReport !

2009-04-02T13:17:00.006+02:00

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!

2009-04-02T13:11:00.006+02:00

GeoReport-PentahoCDF integration was released!

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

GeoReport-CDF integration screenshots

2009-03-31T10:36:00.006+02:00

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
}

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration is done!

2009-03-23T15:32:00.007+01:00

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!!!

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration has started!

2009-03-13T10:08:00.007+01:00

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:

GeoReport deals with GEOMETRIES (stored in GeoServer), so deals with real cartographic data!
GeoReport JOINS alphanumeric data coming from xaction resultset to geometries coming from GeoServer (using OGC WFS) in a single GeoJSON
GeoReport tranfers GEOMETRIES via GeoJSON using Mapfish GeoJSON JAVA lib
CDF only uses markers on OpenLayers maps and GeoNames to rerieve X,Y when the user doesn't set manually X,Y coordinates
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)

Future events coming !!

2009-02-24T15:10:00.008+01:00

The X^th Meeting of the Italian GFOSS Community

(Cagliari, February 25-27, 2009)

INOVA presents (on 27th February)
Open source solutions for Geospatial BI
CAMPTOCAMP presents (on 27th February)
MapFish – WebGIS 2.0 development framework based on GeoExt and Open Layers

GeoReport on GeoBI Google Code repository

2009-02-19T09:29:00.002+01:00

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:

PentahoBI API
Mapfish GeoJSON lib
Mapfish Client and GeoStat widgets
GeoServer

Try it!

Project description

2009-01-22T17:40:00.006+01:00

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:

visualization on a cartographic map of mono and multidimensional analysis results
cartographic reports generation
spatial ETL processes

GeoBI consists of three modules:

GeOLAP: to display multidimensional analysis results on a cartographic map, via Web
GeoReport: to generate cartographic reports and display charts, diagrams and indicators on the map, via Web
GeoETL: to extract, trasform and load in a DWH (Data WareHouse) every kind of data, dealing with "geometry" as a native type

GeoReport module

2009-01-22T17:28:00.002+01:00

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:

display alphanumeric data coming from Business Intelligence processes (xaction in Pentaho) in a cartographic mode
use Geostatical functionalities on cartographic data such as "Choropleth Map" and "Proportional Symbols". The indicators for that kind of analysis caming from BI processes
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:

MapOL
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

GeoReport in action!!

2009-01-22T17:25:00.008+01:00

Here some videos showing GeoReport module in action:

SWF

GeoReport

YOUTUBE

The user uploads geometries with only the IDs in Geoserver and configure Pentaho xactions to retreive alphanumeric information from DWH (Data WareHouse).
In this example the geometries are POINTS and represent Italian regional capitals.
The module MapOL runs an xaction to retrieve all the attributes to associate to these POINTS. In particular they are the information stored in the INOVA DWH (Data WareHouse) and in particular in WATSON databases. WATSON is the INOVA VoIP product. For each Italian region the xaction returns the numebr of sold WATSON and the revenues in that region.
User logs in PentahoBI system that provides also a cartographic dashboard:
http://server_name/pentaho/Dashboards?dashboard=GeoBI
The cartographic dashboard is developed using Mapfish Client + Geostat widgets and OpenLayers. The Dashboard module requests GeoJson to MapOL module and displays it in the WebGIS client.
User can choose from choropleths or proportional symbols analysis using one or more indicators coming from Business Intelligence. He can set indicators before lunching PentahoBI (that contains GeoReport). In this example the indicators are the WATSON number per region and the revenues per region
User can click on the features to not only display alphanumeric information, but also to display indicators about the number of sold WATSON in a region rispect a min and a max budgeted value and a pie that shows the number of sold WATSON in each province of that region.

Screenshots

2009-01-22T17:23:00.002+01:00

Here some GeoReport screenshots:

Proportional Symbols

Choropleths

"Multidimensional" WebGIS

2009-01-22T17:22:00.014+01:00

As described in the picture above, WebGIS applications are related to spatial information, while BI (Business Intelligence) and MIS (Management Information Systems) systems are usually disjoined from it..they deal with alphanumeric data!
In a context in which BI-MIS and GIS technologies are joined, we prefer to use the term: Multidimensional WebGIS.
A Multidimensional WebGIS is a WebGIS application integrated in a BI environment, and able to:

(from Openhealth-DHIS2 online demo)
At the present this module doesn't support DRILL operations, the picture above is only an example

receive data from OLAP server and display spatial dimension as a cartographic feature on the map
(the layers involved in only one OLAP analysis are more than one so for each OLAP analysis a Multidimentional WebGIS is able to swich from a map to another. Each map contains an OLAP "Measure")
display charts, diagrams and indicators on the map
do tipical BI operations as DRILL UP, DRILL DOWN directly from the map

GeOLAP: example of functional exploration

2009-01-22T17:20:00.004+01:00

Below you will find the description of a project implemented by Camptocamp during 2008. It is based on MapFish, the Web mapping application framework.

The objective of this project is to allow for the easy display and assessment of specific socio-demographic indicators on a map by the user. The results of this geospatial-based information can then be analyzed and used by public services as a geospatial-enabled decision support for a given geographical area.

Application functionalities

Cartography is the main approach and focus of this application. However, access to the numeric data of the indicators is possible.

Note: below, the sections in bold draw the parallel with the OLAP vocabulary.

The user specifies a zone of interest, then chooses an administrative perimeter among a list of categories (towns, cantons, urban districts, counties, regions/provinces). This choice enables the definition of a specific reference zone for computing the indicators.
The user selects a Slice (a subset of a multi-dimensional array corresponding to a single value for one or more members of the dimensions not in the subset), using the geospatial dimension of the cube:

The user chooses a spatial data aggregation level. This choice both defines the granular computing and the representation unit of the indicators.
The user performs a Drill up, navigating among levels of data ranging from the most summarized (up) to the most detailed (down):

The user chooses an indicator. The socio-demographic indicators are displayed as choropleths, and business indicators are displayed as proportional symbols. Groupings (size and color) are automatically calculated by a predetermined computing formula.

The business indicators are the presence indicators of public services in a specific reference zone. These services are sorted by major topics:

The user can click on a symbol to display a pie chart representing the indicators distribution by categories of services.

Here, the multi-dimensional data structure of OLAP results in a quite simple cube using:

A group of data cells representing the services existing in a specific geographical area
Hierarchical mapping dimension
Hierarchical thematic dimension

Implementation of the following functions on the map:

Drill and Slice
Actions similar to the xactions developed in GeoReport (to retrieve data from external sources)

This project was developed without the integration of BI-type tools (client's choice). Nonetheless, it is a good model which could help identify what would be needed to have it transfered to OLAP cube-based technologies.

On the user interface level, the implementation of a MapFish module with the OLAP server interface would allow for generic map configuration settings:

Automatic scanning of the cube and presentation of machine-readable components to the user; the mapping dimension should be automatically identified.
Current analysis configuration:
- map dimension (Slice + Drill)
- choice and configuration of a second dimension for analysis
- map projection configuration (mode, categories, ...)

The functional approach described above covers the main needs of an OLAP exploitation with the use of a dashboard. This does not require the implementation of a complete GeOLAP that would incorporate the collection of GIS paradigms and operations.

With an unplanned structure of the map dimension within the cube and the integration of geometric objects within all hierarchical levels, the OLAP capacity to recover and retrieve geometric objects will be needed.

OLAP server is able to tumble turn geometries.
A bypass mode is conceivable; the indicators and the IDs are returned by the OLAP server. The geometries are recovered directly in the database. On the IDs concordance base, they are then equated to the recovered OLAP data and provided to the map server.

The implementation of the above will be completed at the end of the first semester of 2009.

Nevertheless, this tool alone is not sufficient to conduct more profound analyses. A more comprehensive implementation of a GeOLAP becomes essential when the end-user needs ample scope on the mapping attributes/features. Besides, this approach can lead to very interesting prospects in mapping exploration of cubes by allowing arrangements, crossings, subdivisions, etc...

fabiodovidio

New web site for the GeoBI Initiative!

GeoKettle: new version to download!

GeoBI case studies

OGC WFS accepted as ISO Standard

new license for Mapfish framework

New webinar on GeoBI

GeoBI in action

Ingres joins GeoBI initiative!

Individual membership in GeoBI initiative

GeoBI @FOSSa 2010

Italian INSPIRE Interest Group

FOSS4G 2010 presentations: GeoKettle, GeoMondrian, SOLAPLayers in action!

GeoBI in Barcelona @ FOSS4G 2010

Manage geothermal data with GeoReport engine

GeoBI initiative has been launched!

Thinking to a more structured initiative

GeoReport at Solutions Linux

INOVA & Spatialytics.ORG partnership

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine on Slideshare

L'unità di tutte le scienze è trovata nella geografia

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine @FOSS4G-IT 2010

GeoReport on-line demo now avaible for SpagoBI 2.4!

GeoReport has been released as internal engine 4 SpagoBI!

GeoReport internal engine 4 SpagoBI very soon!

OGC and GeoBI Initiative

OpenGeoBI @ GFOSS DAY 2009

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

FOSS4G 2009

OpenGeoBI on GEOconnexion International

SpagoBIGeoReportEngine: new release for SpagoBI 2.3

Next events

GSoC 2009: Pencils down!

GeoReport has been released for SpagoBI 2.2!

First release of GeoReport for SpagoBI Platform!

GeoKettle on Sourceforge portal

GeOLAP: news from GSoC 2009!

Integration process status: PentahoBI2, PentahoBI3 and SpagoBI

GeoReport customization for Public Administrations

GSoC 2009 idea for GeoReport accepted!!!

Google Summer of Code 2009: Ideas 4 GeoReport !

Download GeoReport-PentahoCDF integration!

GeoReport-CDF integration screenshots

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration is done!

GeoReport - Pentaho CDF integration has started!

Future events coming !!

Open source solutions for Geospatial BI

MapFish – WebGIS 2.0 development framework based on GeoExt and Open Layers

GeoReport on GeoBI Google Code repository

Project description

GeoReport module

GeoReport in action!!

Screenshots

"Multidimensional" WebGIS

GeOLAP: example of functional exploration