GXplorer Overview Latest update: 2009 GXplorer Overview Copyright Artech Consultores S.R.L. 1988-2009. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Artech Consultores S.R.L. The information contained herein is intended for personal use only. Trademarks Artech, GeneXus and GXplorer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Artech Consultores S.R.L. All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective owners. Page 1 GXplorer Overview Table of Contents GXPLORER ................................................................................................................ 3 KEY FEATURES ........................................................................................................... 3 Automatic Maintenance ............................................................................................ 3 Multi-platform ......................................................................................................... 3 Intelligent Data Warehouse Creation .......................................................................... 3 Quick Results .......................................................................................................... 3 KEY BENEFITS ........................................................................................................... 5 Integrated into Microsoft Excel .................................................................................. 5 Intuitive and User-friendly ........................................................................................ 5 Win and Web Access to Your Information ................................................................... 5 User-based Security................................................................................................. 5 Unlimited Information .............................................................................................. 5 Teamwork .............................................................................................................. 5 User guide to build queries ....................................................................................... 6 PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ............................................................................................. 7 GXplorer OLAP ........................................................................................................ 7 GXplorer Manager.................................................................................................... 7 GeneXus ................................................................................................................ 7 SUPPORTED TECHNOLOGIES ....................................................................................... 7 USING GXPLORER ...................................................................................................... 8 1. Preparing the Operational Databases (ODB) ............................................................ 8 2. Designing the Data Warehouse .............................................................................. 8 3. Loading the Data Warehouse ................................................................................. 8 4. Exploiting your Data! ........................................................................................... 8 INVITATION .............................................................................................................. 9 Page 2 GXplorer Overview GXplorer Transform your organization’s data into useful information for your business to make the right decisions at the right time. GXplorer is the Business Intelligence suite for GeneXus customers who need to support their decision-making process in an efficient and cost-effective way. GXplorer enables you to build and maintain dynamic Data Warehouses based on the business knowledge already captured in your GeneXus Knowledge Bases, thus avoiding expensive tools and elongated implementation times. GeneXus and GXplorer support the whole life-cycle of your data warehouse, from implementation to data analysis. GXplorer OLAP is a user-friendly OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) client that enables end users to define their own reports. Key Features Automatic Maintenance GeneXus lets you create the Data Warehouse and the loading process in a GeneXus Knowledge Base. GXplorer Manager automatically creates and maintains the metadata. When changes are made, they automatically spread through the Data Warehouse, the loading process, the metadata and the queries. Multi-platform GXplorer is integrated into the GeneXus tool suite, which guarantees the portability of all the solution’s components to any platform as well as the technological validity of your Business Intelligence solutions. Intelligent Data Warehouse Creation GeneXus lets you define a measurement model for your business in a GeneXus Knowledge Base. It does so by automatically building the Data Warehouse that supports that model and the data loading mechanisms of the Data Warehouse. The Data Warehouse can be built either on GeneXus-generated databases or on other databases. Quick Results In order to start working with the Data Warehouse, you don’t need to perform an analysis of the whole company and all the systems. A few business indicators are enough to get started Page 3 GXplorer Overview and quickly obtain results. Later on, more indicators and dimensions may be added so as to reach the final solution through successive, incremental approximations. Page 4 GXplorer Overview Key Benefits Integrated into Microsoft Excel GXplorer OLAP works as a component of Excel version 2000 or higher. Once the query has been formulated, GXplorer automatically and transparently turns it into a database query, and then loads the retrieved data in an Excel dynamic table. To draw charts, users have all the power provided by the Excel facilities available. Intuitive and User-friendly GXplorer OLAP was designed to enable executives to make the queries required to analyze and measure their business, directly, simply, intuitively, and in their own language, without the need to receive any additional training. It allows them to navigate freely and intelligently through all the information contained in the databases. Using GXplorer, users access the information they need from a spreadsheet, with all the Excel facilities that they already know (pivot tables, reports format, charts, formulas, etc.). Win and Web Access to Your Information GXplorer OLAP Web allows making from the Internet the same queries that are made from Excel, thus making it possible to query the business real information remotely. User-based Security GXplorer ensures reliable data access. When a user makes a query, the corresponding data is displayed according to his/her permits. This also happens when opening an already saved query. Unlimited Information It is possible to continue navigating though the obtained information, detailing it under other perspectives (function known as "drill down"), without any restrictions. Thus, GXplorer provides a simple, intelligent and efficient manner to withdraw and analyze our databases information directly from Excel spreadsheets or from the Internet. Teamwork Users can save queries to be later executed and studied, even outside the office, assigning who will share this query and with what level of security. Page 5 GXplorer Overview User guide to build queries Query building can be made from Excel or from the Internet, and it consists simply in choosing the business measures and their analysis perspectives (business dimensions), permanently guided by the product that intelligently suggests the user only those valid elements. Thus, GXplorer supports the users when they build their queries, guaranteeing their consistency. Page 6 GXplorer Overview Product Description GeneXus and GXplorer support the whole life-cycle of your Data Warehouse, from implementation to data analysis. GXplorer OLAP GXplorer OLAP is an advanced OLAP client that enables end users to specify any query to the Data Warehouse in plain business knowledge. GXplorer OLAP can be used locally as a Microsoft Excel add-in, or via Web, as an online OLAP client. GXplorer Manager GXplorer Manager is the metadata manager used to capture the knowledge contained in the Data Warehouse and turn it into the Data Warehouse metadata. GeneXus Use GeneXus’ outstanding knowledge management Figure 1: GXplorer Description capabilities to design and create the Data Warehouse schema, and to load the data from the Operational Data Base/s (ODB) into the Data Warehouse Supported Technologies Supported Platforms (data warehouse creation and entry) • Operating Systems : IBM OS/400, LINUX, UNIX, Windows NT/2000/2003 Servers, Windows NT/2000/XP/CE • Entry Languages : JAVA, C# (.NET), C/SQL, COBOL, RPG, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro • Supported DBMS (data warehouse): Microsoft Access, IBM DB2 UDB, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL You can see the updated list of supported technologies at: http://www.genexus.com/technologies Page 7 GXplorer Overview Using GXplorer GeneXus and GXplorer enable your organization to easily implement and maintain sophisticated Business Intelligence solutions. The superior knowledge management capabilities of GeneXus ensure data consistency and simplify change management, ensuring that your business intelligence is reliable and up-to- date. 1. Preparing the Operational Databases (ODB) Select the operational databases that will feed the data warehouse and