Basically, each chart in instantOLAP is bound to a single pivot table. Overlay charts work generally in the same way, but because an overlay chart is composed from two or more charts, we will also need more than one pivot table to feed the chart with data – each table feeds a single chart. So the first step is to create a block which contains multiple tables.

Providing the chart data

To create the first table, just use the “New pivot table” button from the right toolbar of the query editor. A new block, containing a single and empty table, will appear. Now drag a fact and a data series to the table, in out example this will be the “Amount” Fact and PRODUCT level from the Product dimension of the instantOLAP demo model.

Now you can add a second pivot table to the existing block by opening the context menu of the block (use the right mouse button on the title bar of the block). Use the menu item “Add pivot table” of the menu to add a second and emtpy table.

Because we want the new table to show data for the same samples, you should use the same iteration for the x-axis of the new new table as you did in the previous table. Only the fact in the y-axis will be a different one, in our example we will use the “Quantity” fact from the demo model.

This was the basic step for each chart generation: creating the source table(s) for your chart.

Setting the chart format

It’s time to turn the table into chart: Use the context menu of the block and choose one of the overlay chart types. In out example we’ll use the “Bar / Line” chart which turns the first table into a bar chart and the second into a line chart.

If you execute the query now, you may recognize that there are really two charts, but the second one (the line chart) only displays a flat line at the bottom of the image. This is because till now both charts share the same range and the values for the fact “Amount” much bigger than for the fact “Quantity” (or its line). Therefire it’s down to the bottom. and we’ll have to add a second range to the chart and to scale the line to this new range.

Creating a second range

First of all you’ll have to activate the second range. There is a property named “Range 2 On” which has to be set to “true”. If you execute the query now you will see a second range, but the rest of the chart will look like before, including the  flat line chart.

This is because you must assign each of the chart to the ranges. By default, both charts are assigned to the range number 1, which is the default range at the left side of the chart. To re-assign the second (the line) chart to the new range at the right side, use the property “(Overlay) Series Range” property and set it to “2″ (use “1″ for the first range and “2″ for the second). If you execute the query now you’ll recognize the line beeing scaled over the full image.

Now, you have created an overlay chart with two source tables and two ranges.

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20.01.2010: Release 2.6.1 Update 1

Server

• The automatic synchronization of dependent and indirect-dependent dimensions now ignores the cron patterns of the other dimensions and always synchronizes them.
• KeyLoaders now always set the name of their target level, even if they don’t load any key from the datasource. This only works for loaders nested under the root key of the dimension structure.
• Bugfix: A possible deadlock of model data files was eliminated. This deadlock could have cause non-removable locks on models.
• Bugfix: TimeKeyLoaders with combined weeks and years in their pattern didn’t correct the year properly for end 2009 / beginning 2010.
• Bugfix: Stores using Where-Only mappings threw exceptions while building.

Web-Frontend

• The model tree of the Analyzer now offers some standard expressions like the Query Editor.
• The server now disallows the Browser to cache the startup HTML file of the Portal.
• Bugfix: Rendering-problems with overlay charts have been fixed.
• Bugfix: Reports with complex selectors did sometimes not appear before using the “Execute” button.
• Bugfix: The Expression Editor can now be closed with empty expression without displaying an error message.
• Bugfix: The dropdown fields of classic Hierarchy selectors are now expanded to the full selector size in IE now.
• Bugfix: Interval selectors did not display two equal default values correctly

Workbench

• The Workbench offers a new property “Adjust Year To Weeks” for TimeKeyLoaders which allows to disable the automatic year correction for patterns combining both weeks and years.
• Bugfix: A possible deadlock while displaying properties for a currently loading model was removed.
• Bugfix: The webstart version of the Workbench killed existing named sessions even if the user denied to kill them.

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Because of copyright reasons, only a few drivers are included in the instantOLAP standard distribution (an open source driver for Sybase and Microsoft SQL-Server and a second driver for HSQLDB databases). For all other database servers, you can find the driver in the internet. This is a list of the common database servers and some internet addresses where to find the driver.

How to install a new driver under Tomcat

If you use Apache Tomcat as your Application Server (which is the default Application Server installed together with instantOLAP), installing a new driver is very simple:

1. Download the driver from the vendors driver page
2. If neccesary, extract the driver or execute the driver installer to extract the driver files onto your hard disk.
3. Locate the driver files (they always end with .jar) and copy them into the library folder of your Tomcat server. Depending on the Tomcat version, the library folder is <tomcat>/common/lib (for Tomcat 5.5) or <tomcat>/lib (for Tomcat 6)
4. Restart Tomcat

How to use drivers in instantOLAP

After you installed the driver in your Application Server you can use from instantOLAP. Generally there are two different ways to access a driver or database: You can connect the server directly out of instantOLAP or you can use a predefined datasource, which has to be prepared inside the Application Server. For testing, developing or small installations, we recommend the first alternative.

To connect a database directly out of instantOLAP, simply use the “Add datasource” button when you are inside the “Datasources” section of a configuration. This will open a datasource wizard, which asks you for the name, driver, connection URL and credentials of the target database. Refer our online documentation for more details.

JDBC drivers for database servers

Microsoft SQL-Server

There are at least two good drivers for the Microsofts SQL-Server: The original Microsoft JDBC driver and the open source driver jDTS for Microsoft SQL and Sybase databases, which is included in the instantOLAP standard distribution.

Microsoft SQL-Server (original driver)

The original Microsoft JDBC driver can be found and downloaded from the Microsoft page.

• Download: Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 2.0
• Driver file(s): sqljdbc.jar
• Driver class: com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:sqlserver://<server>[:<port>];databasename=<database>

Escpecially in older versions of the originial driver, it is important to know how to form the connection URL. You must include the database name in your URL, otherwise you will be able to see the tables but not to access their content.

Microsoft SQL-Server (jDTS open source driver)

jDTS is an open source alternative for Microsoft SQL and Sybase databases and already included in the instantOLAP standard distribution.

• Download: http://jtds.sourceforge.net
• Driver files(s):  jdts-<version>.jar
• Driver class: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://<server>[:<port>][/<database>]

MySQL

When using MySQL databases, make sure to use the most current available driver version, because older drivers may cause problems with newer versions of the database.

• Download page: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/#connector-j
• Driver file(s): mysql-connector-java-<version>-bin.jar
• Driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:mysql://<server>/<database>

Oracle

For Oracle databases it is imporant to use the correct version of the driver which matches the version of your database server. The drivers for all version can be downloaded from the Oracle page, but you will need to create an account before (if you don’t have already).

• Download: Oracle JDBC/UCP Download Page
• Driver file(s): ojdbc15.jar or ojdbc16.jar
• Driver class: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<server>:1521:<database>

Sybase

Like in the case of Microsoft SQL Server, you can use the original Sybase driver or the open source driver jDTS to connect a Sybase driver.

Sybase (original Sybase driver jConnect)

• Download: jConnect – Software Developer Kit
• Driver file(s): jconn3.jar
• Driver class: com.sybase.jdbc2.jdbc.SybDriver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:sybase:Tds:<server>[:<port>]/<database>

Sybase (jDTS open source driver)

jDTS is an open source alternative for Microsoft SQL and Sybase databases and already included in the instantOLAP standard distribution.

• Download: http://jtds.sourceforge.net
• Driver file(s): jtds-<version>.jar
• Driver class: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:jtds:sybase://<server>[:<port>][/<database>]

IBM DB/2

For all current versions of DB/2 you can use the Universal Database Driver (UDB) from DB/2. However, when you wan’t to connect a DB/2 database running on a mainframe system, you’ll have to purchase an additional license from IBM.

• Download: IBM – Application Development with DB/2 (Follow the links and download the DB/2 client)
• Driver file(s): db2jcc.jar
• Driver class: com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:db2://<server>[:<port>]/<database>

Informix

Since IBM bought the Informix database, you can find the Informix drivers on the IBM homepage now, too:

• Download: IBM Software Downloads
• Driver file(s): ifxjdbc.jar
• Driver class: com.informix.jdbc.IfxDriver
• Connection-URL: jdbc:informix-sqli://<host>:<port>/<database>:informixserver=<dbservername>

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You can download the new version from our downloads page. You will also find a new version of our manual, reference and online documentation on our documentation page. Read this article to learn some details about the new version 2.6.1 and to read its release notes.

New features

Improved renderers

The new version contains new and faster renderers for the HTML, Excel and PDF output. In difference to the output of the PDF renderer, which generates output equal to its previous version, the HTML renderer now generates a much more compressed result. Especially for the Internet Explorer, this reduces the load and display time for HTML reports significant.

Additionally, the new HTML renderer offers some new formatting options:

• Scrollable tables with fixed headers: Before in the only available in the analyzer, tables in normal reports can now also contain fixed headers and scrollbars. The new HTML renderer will automatically display every table as scrollable table which is placed inside a block with fixed width and height properties set.
• Free positioning of blocks: For each block you may assign a fixed X/Y position and place them everywhere on the screen you want to.
• The automatic expansion of blocsk to make them all equal with can be manually switched of now.
• Charts are now automatically expanded to the size of their owning blocks and therefore zoomed when blocks are expanded because of other and larger blocks in the report.

The Excel renderer also contains some new features. E.g. automatically generates foreground and background colors for negative numbers or exceptions are now included in the Excel export and all original datatypes of the cells are preservered when exporting a document.

Print preview

The report viewer now contains a new “Print preview” button which shows the report in a printable PDF version directly inside the browser. This allows to print a report without exporting it into the PDF format before. To use this feature, your browser must have installed the Adobe PDF plugin.

Hideable explorers

A new button in the upper right corner of the portal allows to hide the explorer bar at the left side of the portal and to gain more space for the reports or other viewers.

Improved expression editor

The expression editor, which is used e.g. to edit formulas or header iterations in the Analyzer, has widely changed and offers a number of new dialogs for searching, sorting, navigating etc. in dimensions without using the keyboard and manually typing expression.

There is a detailled description of the expression editor in our also new manual for the version 2.6.1.

A new storage model for stores

When creating a store you can now choose between two storage models for their data: The known “Condensed” format and the new “Indexed” format, which is much fast in building high-dimensional stores but slower in reading data out of stores. With a good combination of condensed and indexed stores, you can now create offline version of really high dimensional cubes by creating the most used combination of dimension as condensed stores and additionaly storing the “complete” view of the cube in a indexed store.

To learn more about the new storage type, read the new store property description in our new reference for version 2.6.1.

Release Notes

22.10.2009: Release 2.6.1

Server

• A new function ISLEAF was added
• Less logging, e.g. for unknown tables while editing configurations
• Now match filters for cubes can contain expressions of any complexity
• Imported dimensions now use less memory and CPU than before
• The limits for number keyloader have been lowered, both limits can be negative now and the start-limit has no longer to be less than the end-limit
• Unknown keys are now mapped to the root key when loading a cube into an offline store (but they still generate warnings). This brings the behavior closer to online cubes, because the root key of dimension always reflect the total of the database content, independent of all keys being mapped to the dimension.
• A new storage model for stores, the “Indexed” storage, allows to create stores for high-dimensional cubes. Though the indexed storage is slower than the previous “condensed” model, its build time does not grows exponential with the number of included dimensions.
• Line breaks in escaped SQL statements (@”…..”) are now allows and will no longer irritate the Database server.
• Unmappable keys are mapped to the root key of a dimension when loading a cube into a store. This equals the root value of the dimension to the online version of the cube.

• Bugfix: A possible deadlock while using a corrupt dimension was fixed
• Bugfix: Mappings with “mode = select” did not appear in the result sometimes
• Bugfix: Multiple mappings for the same fact now also work with DLOOKUP
• Bugfix: The GROUP BY clause was constructed wrong if a statement contained
  equal expressions and used the “Group by indices” option.

Web-Frontend

• New and faster renderers for HTML, Excel and PDF output
• A strong compression for the HTML output was added, now cells with similar styles are clustered into CSS classes
• A new “Print preview” was added to the report viewer now. The preview displays reports as PDF files inside the portal and allows to print reports without exporting them before.
• User can now hide the explorers at the left side of the portal
• Now ThinUsers can also delete their private files and snapshots
• Now negative numbers are also colored red when exported to Excel
• New placeholders for filenames in automations have been added (%USER% etc)
• Empty rows and columns are now removed from the result set and no longer displayed as rows or columns with the height or width 0
• Input fields and links became much more performant, reports with thousands of input fields are now possible
• Assertions are now also displayed in Excel and PDF exports
• The selected tab in the tabbed orientation is now highlighted
• Dialogs are movable now
• Window titles are limited to 30 characters now
• Improved drag and drop behavior which now also works if the user drags an item very fast or if the browser reacts slowly
• The table editor in the Pivot viewer does no longer disappear when changing the format to “chart”.
• The “save as” dialog now also shows where the user has no write access if one of the subfolders is accessible.
• The Excel export now preserves the data types and exports all texts as text, even if it is convertible to a number.
• There is no need to create access rules for the bookmarks or snapshots folder any more.

• Bugfix: Headers nested under spanned headers are now no longer too wide or too heigh
• Bugfix: The snapshot and automation folders no longer need manual set access rights
• Bugfix: The font-color was not exported to Excel correctly
• Bugfix: Removing sorts in the Analyzer now works
• Bugfix: Like for other formats, the XML export is now only offered after the report was displayed
• Bugfix: Long URLs caused problems in IE and are now replaced by simple numbers
• Bugfix: EMail attachments always had “.pdf” extension when send directly out of the report viewer.
• Bugfix: Sorting a row or column in the pivot viewer (using the context menu of a header) now also works with scrolled tables.
• Bugfix: The content of search selectors and input fields can now be selected.

Workbench

• The Workbench no longer locks when waiting for a model load or reload
• The ERM view became faster and uses a cached version of the database-schema when displaying the links
• Invisible keys and facts now appear in the cube editor
• Invisible dimensions now appear in the dimension preview
• A new background property was added for queries
• The column widths in the property editor are no longer reset when a new element is selected
• The previewer now also works on all Windows 64 bit systems

• Bugfix: The password for automations can now be edited and changed

Console

• A new argument now allows to kill an existing session for a named user

Related posts

• Release 2.6.0 (0)
• Release 2.5.1 (0)
• What’s new in 2.6? (0)
• Release 2.5.2 (0)
• instantOLAP 2.5.0 (0)

The tool is very useful whenever instantOLAP loads its data from a data-warehouse and you want to rebuild certain models, dimensions or cubes after the ETL tool rebuild the warehouse or added new data to it.

This article describes, how to use the tool from batch-files or other Java applications (most ETL tools can call native Java commands) and which operations are available.

The console is delivered as a simple Java archive (jar file) and is located in the folder <instantOLAP>/tools/console. You can use the archive from this location or copy it to another computer – no other resource (except a local Java installation) is needed to execute the application.

Starting the console (interactive mode)

To start the console in the interactive mode, use the command:

java -jar iolapConsole.jar <server-url> <user> <password>

where <server-url> is the complete url to the backend-service of your instantOLAP-server and <user> and <password> are the credentials for your administrator account. E.g. the command for a local installation on port 8080 and with the administrator account would be:

java -jar iolapConsole.jar http://localhost:8080/iolapWS admin admin

If the jar file is not located in the current folder, you can also type its whole path (relative or absolute). After you logged successfully into the server, you will see the following welcome message:

instantOLAP console
(c) 2006-2009 Thomas Behrends Softwareentwicklung e.K.
Connecting server http://localhost:8080/iolapWS...
ok
>

Now you can use one of following commands to control the server:

Commands

BUILDDIMENSION <model> <dimension>

This command rebuilds a single dimension of a model (and all dimensions being dependend on this). The command expects the model name and dimension name as argument.

Example:

> BUILDDIMENSION demo/demo Product
Building dimension Product of model demo/demo...

BUILDDIMENSIONS <model>

This command rebuilds all dimensions of the specified model. The only argument the command expects is the name of the model.

Example:

> BUILDDIMENSIONS demo/demo
Building dimensions of model demo/demo...

BUILDSTORE <model> <store>

The command BUILDSTORE rebuilds a single store of the specified model, the store name has to be passed as second argument.

Example:

> BUILDSTORE demo/demo store1
Building store store1 of model demo/demo...

BUILDSTORES <model>

Rebuilds all stores of the specified model.

Example:

> BUILDSTORES demo/demo
Building stores of model demo/demo...

CLEARCACHE <cache>

Use the command CLEARCACHE to empty a single cache of the model. After the execution, the cache still exists but contains no entries.

Example:

> CLEARCACHE demo/demo cache1
Clearing cache cache1 of model demo/demo...

CLEARCACHES

This command clear all caches of the specified model.

Example:

> CLEARCACHES demo/demo
Clearing caches of model demo/demo...

CLEARSTORE <model> <store>

Clears a single store of the model and brings it into the “offline” state. Dependend on the configuration settings, the model will continue using the original adhoc version of the store, otherwise the system will immediatley start to rebuild the store again.

Example:

> CLEARSTORE demo/demo store1
Clearing store store1 of model demo/demo...

CLEARSTORES <model>

This command clears all stores of the model. Like in the CLEARSTORE command, the system will immediatley rebuild all stores dependend on the configuration settings.

Example:

> CLEARSTORES demo/demo
Clearing stores of model demo/demo...

LISTDIMENSIONS <model>

This command returns a list of all dimensions of the specified model.

Example:

> LISTDIMENSIONS demo/demo
Agency
Anim
Campaigns
Manufacturer
Product
Time

LISTMODELS

Returns a list of all models on your server, including the active and inactive ones. For each model, the current state is append as text. The following states are possible:

• ONLINE: The model is started and ready
• BUILD: The model is currently starting
• CLOSED: The model is currently not started
• CLOSING: The model is currently shutting down
• SYNC: The model is started and currently synchronizing its dimensions and / or cubes
• ERROR: The model is not started because an error ocurred while starting it

Example:

> LISTMODELS
demo/demo (ONLINE)
eventlog/eventlog (ONLINE)

MODELSTATE <model>

This function returns the state of a specific model. The state is returned as number in this functions, the following states are possible:

• 0 = CLOSED
• 1 = BUILD
• 2 = ONLINE
• 3 = SYNC
• 4 = ERROR
• 5 = CLOSING

Example:

> MODELSTATE demo/demo
Request model-state for demo/demo...
State = 2

QUIT

This command stops the console.

STARTSYNC <model> <timeout>

This function starts the synchronize process for a model, in which it is checking its cubes and dimensions if they are outaged. You must pass the timeout for the synchronize process in ms as second argument. This function is only useful if you want to synchronize the model immediatly, because the system synchronizes all its online models each minute.

Example:

> STARTSYNC demo/demo 1000
Starting model demo/demo synchronize...

STOP <model>

This command shuts down the specified model.

Example:

> STOP demo/demo
Stopping model demo/demo...
ok

START <model>

This command starts the specified model.

Example:

>START demo/demo
Starting model demo/demo asynchron...

Using the console in batch mode

The batch mode can be used to call the console from external batch files and to execute commands without user interaction. To execute a command, just add it and its arguments behind the standard arguments of the console, the syntax for the batch mode is:

java -jar iolapConsole.jar <server> <user> <pwd> <command> [<arg1> [<arg2> [...] ] ]

If you call the console in batch mode, it will immediatley execute the passed command and then exit. E.g. the following line

java -jar iolapConsole.jar http://localost:8080/iolapWS admin admin START demo/demo

would start the model “demo/demo” on a local server running on port 8080 and then return.

Not that all commands, also in the interactive mode, only fork the requested operation on the server and then return without waiting for the operation to be finished. However, if you send a number of commands for the same model to server, they will be queued and executed in sequential order.

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If you haven’t read about 2.6 before, have a look into our previous article Whats new in 2.6?. At a glance, the new version has some nice frontend improvements, it is faster and uses less memory, it is easier to use and it contains less restrictions. Read the release notes in this article for a complete list of all improvements and fixes.

And the new version contains a free administrator license for each new or existing customer. This also means, you will no longer need to request an evaluation license if you want to download and test instantOLAP. Just download the software, install it and start using the it without any time limit.

Release notes

19.08.2009: Release 2.6.0

Server

• The rebuild of dimensions and stores (former offline cubes) is now synchronized and executed in the same transacation, now stores are immediatley rebuild if any of their dimensions change and are publish at the same time as their dimension. Therefore, stores can now longer become “outaged” as in previous versions.
• The size of ToDo-lists is no longer limited as before, the “Query too complex” can no longer appear. Also, the ToDo processing now is 100% faster and uses exponential less memory.
• Imported dimension use less memory now and are synchronized faster. Imported models are therefore automatically started whenever an importing model is started.
• Models can now be shut down while they are synchronizing their dimensions or stores
• Less overall memory consumption
• File caches are now automatically deleted an re-initialized whenever they are corrupted
• New MDX-Functions and operators: UniqueName and StrToElement
• Now, calculated MDX members with other return types than “Set” are also supported

• Bugfix: The JOIN operator returned an empty result if the first argument was a single value and the user had no access-rights for this value
• Bugfix: The stores can now also contain non-aggregated facts and aggregate  them manually
• Bugfix: Sometimes the ROWNUM function displayed “0″ in each row

Web-Frontend

• Two new selector types have been added to the frontend: Calendar ranges and SuggestBox (which offer possible options while the user types into the box)
• Selector groups have a new property “Popup” which allows to convert a group into a space saving popup selector
• Negative values are now also colored red in the Excel export
• Better performance for Input selectors
• The repository no longer collapses when beeing refreshed
• New properties have beed added for overlay charts and allow display multiple ranges within the same chart
• The metrics for tables (needed cell-width and heights) are now calculated more accurate
• A fixed snapshot folder can now be set up for the frontend. If used, the users automatically save their snapshots in this folder without beeing asked for a file path before (like in version 2.2)

• Bugfix: The Excel export threw an error if the left padding of a cell was defined as double value
• Bugfix: The current value of input fields was not exported to PDF or Excel files
• Bugfix: Sended files did always have the extension “.pdf”, independet of their type
• Bugfix: The save as dialog now only shows folder with admin access for the current user
• Bugfix: The login dialog now also forgets the last user name even if the “remember user” option is not selected.
• Bugfix: The access-rights for the bookmark folder “.boomarks” are now ignored, every user can store data here
• Bugfix: The bookmark editor was messed up for arguments with multiple values
• Bugfix: The input selector now matches all result-elements again its options
• Bugfix: The Browser shows no longer endless “loading” after an empty query was executed
• Bugfix: The frontend offered edit rights for a folder if only some of the contained files was editable but not the folder itself

Workbench

• A complete new structure for offline cubes was introduced: Now cubes can contain as many “stores” as you want, each with a different combination of dimensions and fact. The configuration of stores is much easier than before,  just add dimensions and facts using checkboxes to the store and determine  their aggregation type (if wanted) – thats it.
• Cubes can now optionally still exist even if an offline version (store) of  them is active. In this case, the online cube is listed *behind* its offline versions.
• A new “Notes” was added to the configuration editor and allows administrators  to add notes to their configuration files
• The process manager now shows the current progress of a progress
• A new “Edit” button was added to the model manager which allows to open the configuration editor for a specific model directley from the manager
• The model-info now displays the number of warnings and error for a store in the cube tab
• The auto mapping for dimensions is no longer stored in the dimension itself and still keeps valid even if a dimension structure has changed
• Virtual tables (aliases) and virtual columns (expression) now have their own  symbol in the database explorer to make them visible for the administrator
• A new refactoring was added which deletes all references (links etc) using an  table-alias after the alias was deleted

• Bugfix: If you start a model out of the model-info panel, the panel now waits until the model was loaded
• Bugfix: The preview inside the Workbench displayed “Unknown host” if the  server wasn’t able to resolve its own domain-name.
• Bugfix: The mousewheel now also works while the mouse stands over the mapping panels in the cube editor
• Bugfix: Drag&Drop did no longer work after a user was moved in the user  manager
• Bugfix: When a configuration was changed and saved, the new dimension version have published to the productive model. This still happens but cannot block  the Workbench any more when waiting for a model lock.
• Bugfix: The mouswheel function in the ERM editor now works vice versa (moving the wheel forward zooms into the chart)
• Bugfix: The properties of the currently selected element are still displayed after clicking onto a database or repository element

Related posts

• What’s new in 2.6? (0)
• Release 2.6.1 (0)
• Release 2.5.3: Connect Excel and other ODBO / XML/A clients with instantOLAP (0)
• Release 2.5.1 (0)
• Release 2.5.2 (0)

Therefore, this article describes, how to update instantOLAP when using the Apache Tomcat application server with some easy steps. The Tomcat server is included in the standard distribution of instantOLAP.

Basically, updating instantOLAP is simple, there are only 6 simple steps you have to perform. But you have to be careful and must execute these steps in the right order, otherwise you may harm your Tomcat installation:

Updating instantOLAP step by step

1. Download the updated files

Of course, before you start the update, you should download the new files of instantOLAP and put them somewhere (not in in the instantOLAP folder yet). On our download page, we always offer the files for manual installations at the bottom of the page, below the complete installation files.

These files end with the extension “.war” and are just zipped folders which are known and unpacked by the Tomcat server. Usually, you will need three files for a complete update of instantOLAP:

• iolap.war: This is the Web-Portal of instantOLAP
• iolapWS.war: This is the backend (OLAP-Engine) of instantOLAP
• iolapWorkbench.war: This is the Webstart version of the instantOLAP Workbench. If all of your users use the Windows installation of the Workbench, you won’t need this file.

2. Stop the Tomcat server!

This is the most important step at all, because removing the webapp folders as described in the next step will destroy parts of your tomcat configuration and it will no longer work.

3. Remove the webapp folders

By default, Tomcat unpacks all war files into its subfolder “webapps”. Each war file becomes one folder and the server will not use the updated war files as long as their unpacked versions exist here. Therefore you’ll have to remove the folders “iolap”, “iolapWS” and “iolapWorbench” from here.

5. Replace the war files

Now you can move or copy the war files into the instantOLAP folder. The location where you must copy the files is <instantOLAP>/tomcat/iolap_webapps.

We always suggest to make a backup of the previous files in this folder before you replace them with the newer version.

6. Start the server again

Now you can start the server again. After a couple of seconds, the Tomcat will start to unpack the war files into the webapps folder and instantOLAP will be available again.

Thats it.

Using Tomcat without the webapps folders

Beginning with version 2.6, the standard installation of instantOLAP will have a different Tomcat configuration and the server will no longer unpack the war files in the webapps folder.

Then you will no longer need to delete this folders when updating the system and cannot harm the server if you forget to shut down the server before removing this folders. Even better: Tomcat automatically recognizes the new war files in the iolap_webapps folder and updates itself without the need to stop/start itself.

If you want to, you can change this setting in your Tomcat installation, too. Stop the server, then open the file <instantOLAP>/tomcat/conf/server.xml and search for the entry unpackWARs=”true”. Simply change it from “true” to “false”. Now you should remove the instantOLAP folders from the <instantOLAP>/tomcat/webapps folder and can restart the Tomcat server.

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If you are a new user, you can now download and use instantOLAP without the need to request an evaluation license. If you are an existing customer, you will have an additional and free license in your license pool after you updated to 2.6

The free license is an unlimited administrator license and never expires or contains any other restriction. With this license, you can build OLAP models and reports, evaluate instantOLAP for an unlimited period of time or set up your single user OLAP server without any costs.

instantOLAP 2.6 will be available at the end of september 2009, but you don’t have to wait and can download the preview version right now. Use this link to download and test the preview version.

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New selector types

Two new types of selectors were added to the frontend: Interval calendars and suggest boxes.

Interval calendars allow to select a time-range (from date / to date) using the calendar known from the original calendar selector. The interval selector shows two calendars, on to select the start and one to select the end date of the interval.

The suggest box offers the user valid input options while he types into its text box. This is well known from other web 2.0 applications.

Popup selectors

Selector groups can now be turned into popup selectors by setting their new property “Popup” to true. Popup selectors only appear as a small and space saving button. By clicking onto this button, the user can open or close the selector group and use its contained selectors.

Stores: Easier offline cubes

One of the main features of the new version is the much easier handling of stores. Unlike before, where cubes could be converted into offline cubes by setting some properties and setting the wanted dimension into the offline state, the cubes now can contain one or more store. Each of this stores defines a number of contained dimensions and facts, whereby different stores can contain different combinations of dimensions and / or facts and there is no need to copy cubes for different combinations in future.

The configurations of stores with the Workbench became easier and more intuitive: Simply add a new store to a cube by using its context menu and add dimensions and facts to the new store by clicking onto it. The Workbench will now automatically do all needed settings for your, e.g. by loading the lowest level of a dimension if you want to roll it up.

Better transaction model for Models and Cubes

The rebuilding of dimensions is now more connected to cubes than before. Everytime a dimension is rebuild, all stores being dependend on this dimension will be automatically also rebuild in the same transaction if the dimension has chaned. “In the same transaction” means, the user will not see changed dimensions and cubes before both are finally loaded and commited. The advantage of this new transaction model is, that cubes can no longer reach the “outaged” state if dimension changed and the cube was not scheduled to rebuild directly after.

Improved ToDo list management

The internal ToDo lists – which instantOLAP uses to determine where to load which result cell from – became much faster and less limited. The overall performance improvement is round about factor 2 when generating and resolving the list. And, because the new implementation nearly uses any memory, there is also no limit for the maximum size of ToDo lists from version 2.6. Therefore, the “query too complex” message, which appeared when building reports with too much cells, will no longer appear.

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• Release 2.6.0 (0)

The beta version of the connector will be available for free as a part of the following releases unless it reaches the production standard in version 2.6.

You can download the new release 2.5.3 from our download page. Beside the connector, it contains a small number of bug fixes and performance-improvements.

Connectivities

The instantOLAP XML/A connector supports XML/A 1.1, a web-service based query protocol which is supported by a large and increasing number of clients. The new XML/A server is part of the usual instantOLAP server and is reachable under “http://<server>:<port>/iolapWS/xmla“. It uses basic authorization (which must be supported by the client) and only operates with user accounts having the “iolapPowerUser” role or upper (from version 2.6 a new and different role will be mandatory).

Windows clients using ODBO as their connection standard can connect to the instantOLAP XML/A connector using an ODBO provider which talks “XML/A” to the server. There are currently two bridges available, the commercial O2X Provider from Simba Technologies and the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 provider from Microsoft.

The connector transforms the instantOLAP concepts into the XML/A world:

• instantOLAP models are visible as “catalogs” for XML/A, schemes are not supported.
• Each dimension contains a single hierarchy with the same name as the dimension. Future versions of instantOLAP will support multiple hierarchies.
• Keys are visible as “members” for XML/A
• Key-Attributes become properties in XML/A. The member properties MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME, MEMBER_CAPTION, CHILDREN_CARDINALITY, PARENT_UNIQUE_NAME, LEVEL_NUMBER and UNIQUE_LEVEL_NAME are supported and delivered for each key, even if they are not defined in the model.
• All queries via XML/A use a single cube, which must be specified in the query. Future versions will allow to query all cubes or groups of cubes.

MDX support

Both XML/A and ODBO use MDX as their query languge. MDX was invented by Microsoft and is comparable to SQL but specialized for multidimensional queries. The beta version of the instantOLAP XML/A connector supports the core syntax of MDX and a number of operators and functions.

Supported MDX syntax in the beta version:

• SELECT statement (with an unlimited number of axes and dimension properties)
• WHERE clause
• WITH MEMBER clause
• WITH SET clause
• Operators: (), {}
• Functions

Supported functions in the beta version:

• AddCalculatedMembers
• Aggregate
• Ascendants
• Children
• CrossJoin
• Descendants
• Distinct
• DrilldownLevelBottom
• DrilldownLevel
• DrilldownLevelTop
• DrilldownMember
• Except
• Hierarchize
• Intersect
• Join
• Union
• VisualTotals

Example: How to set up an example connection to instantOLAP with Excel 2007

Before you can connect instantOLAP from Excel, you must install an XML/A compatible ODBO driver on your local workstation. In this example, we use the O2X driver from Simba. After you successfully installed the driver, you can start Excel and create your first pivot table:

1. Click into an empty cell of your worksheet and use the “Pivot Table” button from the “Insert” tab to create a new table at this location.

2. Now, Excel wants you to define the datasource for your pivot table. Because instantOLAP is an external data deliverer, you must choose the “External datasource” option and use the button “Choose connection” to continue.

3. The following dialog shows all existing datasources stored in your current workbook and on your computer. Because this is the first time you connect an instantOLAP model, you must use the “Search for other elements…” button to create a new connection. After you successfully created an connection, it will be displayed here and you don’t have to redefine it.

4. This button opens the Explorer and shows the folder where all stored connections (ODC-files) are located. Now you can use the “New source…” button to create a new ODC file (and datasource):

5. The new dialog wants you choose the type of the new datasource. It contains a list for all standard types and an element “Others” for unknown types like instantOLAP. Choose this option and click the “Next >” button.

6.  Now you can choose the driver for the new connection. Here you must choose and XML/A compatible driver like the SimbaO2X Provider or the Analysis Services Driver 9 or 10. Then click onto “Next >” to open the next tabulator in the dialog.

7.  The next page wants you to input the URL of the server and the username and password for the connection.

The URL for an instantOLAP server is usually “http://<address>:<port>/iolapWS/xmla”. E.g. this example connects to an instantOLAP server running on the local machine and on port 8080. The username and password are the same as when you log into the instantOLAP Web Portal or into the Workbench, but you need at least to be a “Power user” to connect to the XML/A server.

We also suggest to save the password and to select an initial Catalog for your connection (a catalog is the same as models in instantOLAP). After you successfully entered and tested you connection, you can use the “OK” button to continue.

8. Now you can choose the cube of the model on which you want to execute your queries. Here, instantOLAP shows all cubes and an addition cube named “ALL” which acts as a hypercube containing all other cubes (this is also the cube all instantOLAP reports use). The use the “Next >” button to enter the next page.

9. Here you can edit the filename and display name of your new connection. Also, if you want to store the password in the connection, you must check the “Save password” option here, again.

Now finish all dialogs. If everything went right, a new and empty Pivot table should be visible and you can add facts or dimensions to it by clicking them in the field list at the right border of your Excel sheet.

Release Notes

08.06.2009: Release 2.5.3

Server

• A new XMLA server is available as backend for XMLA and ODBO clients (e.g. Microsoft Excel)
• Supported MDX Functions: AddCalculatedMembers, Aggregate, Ascendants, Children, CrossJoin, Descendants, Distinct, DrilldownLevel, DrilldownLevelBottom, DrilldownLevelTop, DrilldownMember, Except, Hierarchize, Intersect, Join, VisualTotals
• Better performance for File-Caches
• Bugfix: The Omit-Factor of dimension mappings is no longer used for list reports

Web-Frontend

• Patterns (%USER%, %TITLE% and %NAME%) for mail topics introduced
• Bugfix: Problems with included images in PDF-mails solved

Workbench

• Other levels with the same name in the same dimension are no longer automatically renamed when a level is renamed
• Visible and Description-Properties introduced for Keys, Attributes and Cubes
• Bugfix: A missing java archive for Linux was added

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