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Actuate iPortal
Actuate iPortal is the next generation, standards-based portal environment for
hosting and accessing report content from Actuate. iPortal offers every member
of the organization—from Java developer, to analyst, to end user—an easy-touse interface in which to access Actuate content. Users can review Actuate BIRT
Report content, assemble ad hoc BusinessReports and generate pure Excel files
from e.Spreadsheet. iPortal content is offered with AJAX interactivity and available
through standard JSR-168 portlets. With iPortal, organizations and projects of any
size can leverage the power of Collaborative Reporting.
Product
Brochure
Product Brochure: Actuate iPortal
Overview
iPortal is the next generation, standards-based
portal environment for hosting and accessing report
content from Actuate. iPortal offers every member of
the organization—from Java developer to analyst to
end user—an easy-to-use interface in which to access
Actuate content. Users can review Actuate BIRT
Report content, assemble ad hoc BusinessReports
and generate pure Excel files from e.Spreadsheet.
iPortal content is offered with AJAX interactivity and
available through standard JSR-168 portlets. With
iPortal, organizations and projects of any size can
leverage the power of Collaborative Reporting.
Collaborative Reporting Architecture
iPortal is an integral member of the Collaborative
Reporting Architecture, which brings the principles
of Open Source to reporting applications, including
participation, iterative development and modularity.
iPortal is the technologic hub for Collaborative
Reporting. It hosts and provides portlets for:
• Actuate BIRT Reports, web reports based on the
open‑source BIRT technology
• Actuate BusinessReports for ad hoc web report
development
• Interactive viewing to allow end users to customize or
tailor a report to meet their own perspectives
• e.Spreadsheet to generate rich, interactive spreadsheets
These diverse options provide an array of choices
from which to create unique reporting applications
that appeal to any type of user.
Within the Collaborative Reporting Architecture,
BIRT-based designs and spreadsheets can be shared
among high-skill report developers, business users
and consumers who access iPortal. This encourages
participation and enables an iterative report
development process, which speeds development
and adoption of the reporting application.
Deployment Flexibility
iPortal is open and standards-based. It includes a
self-contained application and reporting server,
report and spreadsheet generation engines and J2EE
standard portlets for delivery of interactive content
from these engines through the portal. iPortal’s
engines, content and portlets support deployment
into any JSR-168–compliant portal server such as
IBM WebSphere Portal Server or BEA WebLogic Portal
Server. As a self-contained, modular package, iPortal
gives organizations deployment flexibility. It is an
ideal choice for Java applications and workgroup
environments when deployed independently, and it
provides full access to all Actuate iServer features and
options when configured for enterprise deployment.
iPortal uses AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and
XML), the state of the art for web interactivity, in
BusinessReport Studio, Interactive Viewer and the
iPortal interface to provide seamless interactivity with
report designs and content.
Java Application Deployment
iPortal can be embedded within or integrated to
Java applications. It is an excellent solution for Java
projects hoping to avoid hand-coding reports in Java,
JavaScript and HTML for the application. Instead,
developers use graphical design environments to
define the reports or spreadsheet blueprints that are
published in iPortal for inclusion and execution with
the application. No Java coding is required to create
these designs or run these reports, which accelerates
the reporting application’s time to market.
Workgroup Deployment
iPortal lets end users access report content, launch
BusinessReport Studio or generate spreadsheets.
From an end user’s perspective, using iPortal,
reviewing BIRT Reports in the Interactive Viewer or
assembling BusinessReports requires no training.
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Product Brochure: Actuate iPortal
iPortal Reporting Options
• Design sharing allows developers of templates to offer
them commercially to other organizations.
• Design sharing through the open source community
allows millions of independent developers to
contribute to reusable component libraries.
BusinessReports: Ad Hoc Web Report
Development
Actuate iPortal enables delivery of reports built in the Actuate
BIRT Designer, Actuate BusinessReport Studio and Actuate
e.Spreadsheet Designer. The Interactive Viewer adds view-time
report modification.
Actuate BIRT Reports
Actuate BIRT Reports is a flexible, 100 percent
pure Java reporting environment for building and
publishing reports against data sources ranging
from typical business SQL databases, to XML sources,
to in‑memory Java objects. Actuate BIRT is based
on the Open Source Eclipse Business Intelligence
Reporting and Tools (BIRT) project and benefits from
the rich capabilities of the Eclipse platform and a very
active community of users. Application developers
use the Actuate BIRT Designer Professional to craft
powerful web reports that run in iPortal against the
BIRT Reports option. BIRT Reports can be opened and
viewed in the Interactive Viewer, which allows end
users to personalize their reports.
Actuate BIRT Designs are used as templates for
BusinessReport Studio’s ad hoc report definition
and can be shared between developers and
environments. This ability to share a common design
format across skill-specific environments offers
significant advantages over other products or platforms:
• Technical and non-technical users can use the
common design to negotiate report requirements.
• Designs can evolve iteratively, through an agile
development process, shortening each report’s time
to market.
Actuate BusinessReports includes an easy-to-use,
web-based report designer called BusinessReport
Studio for business users and a powerful and scalable
server-side engine to generate its corresponding
reports. Based on standard JSP (JavaServer Pages)
and AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML)
technology, the BusinessReport Studio provides a
zero-footprint solution to author reports. The servercentric architecture of BusinessReports provides a
collaborative environment where business users
can share their report designs or formatted report
documents with other users in the organization.
BusinessReports makes information self-service to
everyday business users possible and effective.
eSpreadsheet: Business Data the Way Users
Want It—in Excel
Actuate e.Spreadsheet is a unique spreadsheet
generator that creates highly refined, dynamic Excel
spreadsheets from iPortal. Actuate e.Spreadsheet
Designer is an easy-to-use environment for creating
spreadsheet blueprints that can access any data
source and multiple sources at the same time.
These data-driven spreadsheet designs are used to
generate and distribute pure Excel files from iPortal
to end users. End users receive dynamic spreadsheet
workbooks with pre-constructed worksheets, live
formulas, charts and pivot tables already defined
and populated. Users spend less time building
spreadsheets and more time using them.
iPortal’s e.Spreadsheet engine can also be used to
read spreadsheets, perform application calculations
or perform other custom application functions.
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Product Brochure: Actuate iPortal
Interactive Viewer
Report content from BIRT Reports and
BusinessReport Studio is delivered through an
interactive report viewer that allows consumers to
modify, personalize and restructure data within the
web report. The Interactive Viewer is powered by
AJAX to provide utmost flexibility to end users. While
viewing a report, users can manipulate the report
data through application of additional filters, sorting
criteria or new calculations. They can change the axis
of analysis by modifying the grouping criteria or even
identify trends by applying conditional formatting.
Interactive Viewer allows report designs to last longer
because they offer many perspectives to each user.
The Actuate iPortal can be deployed as a standalone report generator or embedded within your
favorite J2EE Portal via JSR-168 portlets.
Summary
iPortal drives enterprise reporting costs down by
leveraging the versatility of the Java development
community while offering that community the ability
to craft applications that support a wide range of
reporting requirements. With iPortal, organizations
now have the technology necessary to deploy
and grow reporting applications through an open,
iterative design and production process that speeds
time to value for end users while reducing the burden
of development and maintenance for IT.
Actuate Corporation
2207 Bridgepointe Parkway
Suite 500
San Mateo, CA 94404
Tel: (888) 422-8828
Web: http://www.actuate.com
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